I recently taught a two-day career transition workshop to a group of professionals who had lost their jobs through a company downsizing. As is often the case, one of the participants in the group had had her fill of the corporate world and was interested in starting her own business. In an effort to help her evaluate this as a viable career option, I shared with her some traits and characteristics that seem to define most successful entrepreneurs. Here are a few:

Family Background: If one or both of your parents were or are self-employed, you are more inclined toward this employment option. In addition, being an entrepreneur is highly correlated to being the oldest child, having immigrant parents or grandparents and being raised in a home where competition and excellence are common behaviors.

Education: Entrepreneurs respect people with education, but do not view education as the answer to success – but rather a tool to achieve success. They tend to rely more upon their own skills than education to open doors for them.

Interpersonal Skills: Words like “creative, driven, independent-minded, socially bold, opinionated, bright, articulate, courageous, workaholic” are often used to describe an entrepreneur.

Employment History and Work Traits: Although they have diverse employment backgrounds, entrepreneurs are often characterized as innovators who challenge the status quo. Because they are typically more outspoken and not highly collaborative, it is common for them to have been fired from a job more than once.

Motivations: Entrepreneurs are more interested in gaining and servicing customers than they are in building a large organization to fuel their egos. They are constantly looking for purpose and the bottom line in business and social encounters and are bored by shallow people and issues.

If you’re thinking of bailing out of your current profession to start your own business, take a look at these traits and see how you measure up. Or, if getting fired is getting old, perhaps the universe is trying to tell you something – it may be you were destined to be an entrepreneur all along!