You might dream of creating a startup but wonder if you have what it takes to successfully helm it. You can take some inspiration from looking at the habits of the most successful entrepreneurs.

Setting Boundaries

One thing that may surprise you is that successful entrepreneurs tend to be good at boundaries. Far from working 24/7, most make time for other things in their lives. The truth of the matter is that what your work life looks like at the beginning of a startup is probably not the same as when you are more successful, and the early days will be demanding ones. On the other hand, more success always brings more pressure to work harder, so you may as well establish functional boundaries now, whatever that means to you.

Those boundaries may change over time, but remember to set aside time to sleep, exercise and spend time with your family.

Good Money Management

Smart money handling and frugality is a hallmark of many financially successful people, at least those who earned their own wealth. You should start by getting your own personal finances in order. This will also mean that if your startup needs an injection of cash, you’re in a better position to provide that. If you are dealing with high-interest debt, such as credit card debt, low interest personal loans from a private lender can help you pay them off and spend less money doing so.

When you write your business plan, you should also be thorough about exploring what your costs will be, what your funding sources are and what your options will be if you run into financial problems.

Learning

One thing you’ll start to notice when you begin to read about successful leaders is that they are always learning. Most of them are voracious readers and absorb a huge amount of information from other sources as well.

The more engaged and interested you are in the world the better you will be able to make savvy predictions based on currents in the culture, economics and politics.

Relationship Building

Knowing at least a little about a lot of things can also help in one of the most important elements of business success, building relationships. This is the core of networking. It is not shallow showmanship but making connections of lasting value with a variety of different people.

You can start making these contacts as early as college, but if college is far in your rear-view window, don’t despair. You can also step up networking online and offline any time by going to local events, national and international conferences and connecting with people online.

Goal Setting

Successful people set goals, plan how to reach them and follow that plan. As situations shift around them, they shift as well, but they don’t lose sight of their goals unless there is a genuinely good reason to do so, such as new information that indicates that they need to change their direction. In addition, the goals that they set are big ones.

Expand your definition of the word attainable, and reach for the stars.