Famous Entrepreneur Characteristics and Skills

Leo Goodwin Sr., founder of GEICO Insurance, worked 12 hours a day for little or no salary for several years to implement his business dream that eventually became a reality.

• Creative

• Persistent

• Inquisitive

Debbi Fields, founder of Mrs. Fields (cookies), was a “ball girl” for the Oakland A’s and began something new called a "milk-and-cookies" break for the umpires in order to market her cookies that she used the five dollars an hour she was paid to buy ingredients to make.

• Creative

• Persistent

• Inquisitive

McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc approached Walt Disney to ask if he could put a McDonalds in every Disney Park, but it never happened because Walt Disney wanted to increase the price of the food so that the Disney Parks could make more profit off of the sales and Ray Kroc refused.

• Creative

• Persistent

• Inquisitive

Leo Goodwin Sr., founder of GEICO Insurance, had a goal of making costs lower for insurance by dealing directly with the customer and did that by founding the Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO) in 1936.

• Risk-Taker

• Responsible

• Goal-Oriented

In 1910, J. C. Hall, the founder of Hallmark greeting cards, moved to Kansas City, Missouri, far from his home in Nebraska, with just two shoe boxes of postcards and by 1913 was operating a store with his brothers selling postcards and greeting cards.

• Risk-Taker

• Responsible

• Goal-Oriented

When J. C. Hall, the founder of Hallmark greeting cards, was seven, his father died so at age eight he began selling door-to-door with the company that eventually became Avon Products to help support his family.

• Risk-Taker

• Responsible

• Goal-Oriented

Debbie Fields, founder of Mrs. Field’s Cookies, decided on her own to begin making cookies for the Oakland A’s team for which she was a “ball girl” in order to market the cookies she would later start a business with.

• Independent

• Inquisitive

• Responsible

Walt Disney, the founder of Disney, believed that he could use his skills to produce animation and be successful at it which eventually led to what Disney is today.

• Self-Confident

• Inquisitive

• Responsible

J. C. Hall, the founder of Hallmark greeting cards, was a door-to-door salesman, so he became good at speaking to people and had excellent writing skills because he was able to write the poems and sayings that went into his first greeting cards.

• Math Skills

• Communication Skills

• Technical Skills

Leo Goodwin Sr., founder of GEICO Insurance, had a goal to deal directly with the customers for their insurance needs and was the first insurance company to do that.

• Human Relations Skills

• Basic Business Skills

• Technical Skills