Sir Alan Sugar once said about entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills “The entrepreneurial instinct is in you. You can't learn it, you can't buy it, and you can't put it in a bottle. It's just there and it comes out” (Mail online, 2010). Surprisingly enough this is a view not shared by all. While there is no denying that entrepreneurs are all ultimately unique, in some ways empirical evidence suggests that they all share some common characteristics and skills, some of which can be taught (Colette, et al., 2005). This essay attempts to define those characteristics and skills that enable entrepreneurs to realize the business potential in their ideas. It also explores the difficulties entrepreneurs may encounter along the path to a successful business venture. Meredith et al. (1991) describes an entrepreneur as someone who has the ability to see and evaluate business opportunities, gather resources to take advantage of them, and take the necessary actions to ensure success. Analyzing the literature we find that we can characterize entrepreneurial characteristics and skills into three distinct key groups: personal characteristics, interpersonal skills and practical skills. According to Locke (2000) one of the most common personal characteristics shared by successful entrepreneurs is their work ethic or “love of their work”. Timmons and Spinelli (2006) support this view by suggesting that it is this “passion for work” that allows entrepreneurs to cope with extreme levels of uncertainty and resource shortages when launching a new venture. Others such as Bass and Stogdill (1993) suggest that it is perseverance that pushes the entrepreneur through the difficult process of starting a business. Entrepren...... middle of paper ......chindehutte, M., Allen, J (2005) "The entrepreneur's business model: towards a unified perspective". Journal of Business Research, 58(6), pp 726-735. Mitchellmore, S., Rowley, J. (2010). “Entrepreneurial skills: A literature review and development agenda.” International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 16(2), pp. 92-111.Pickernell, D., Packham, G., Jones, P., Miller, C., Thomas, B. (2011). "Graduate entrepreneurs are different: do they access more resources?". International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 17(2), pp. 183-202.Ruvio, A., Rosenblatt, Z., Hertz-Lazarowitz, R. (2010). 'Entrepreneurial leadership vision in non-profits vs. For-profit organizations". The Leadership Quarterly, 21(1), pp. 144-158. Silva, O. (2007) 'The do-it-all entrepreneur: innate talent or acquired skill?'. Economic Letters, 97(2), pp. 118-123.