The purpose of this chapter has been to give you an overall perspective on the personal attributes and traits that are the key to the success of every technical entrepreneur. I'm certainly not trying to characterize any of them as "good" or "bad" in general—that's for you to decide.

Before you start down a long hard road, it's worthwhile to do the introspection, based on what you have read so far, to see whether you already have the entrepreneur mindset or have the interest and desire to acquire it. In my experience, the people who don't have it and don't want to change, probably won't be happy in the role of an entrepreneur. If you are not happy in the role, you probably won't do the job well, and you will have a tough time succeeding.

I want you to succeed and to have fun doing it. In that context, all the following chapters will focus on the specifics of doing it right, avoiding the mistakes that many others before you have made, and helping you make the right decisions.

The first of these decisions is to pick the right dream to start a business from. In the next chapter, I will outline all the ways that you need to take a hard look at your idea before assuming that everyone will love it as much as you and many customers are willing and able to buy your solution. Not every good idea is a good business.

Every technical entrepreneur I know has a wealth of good ideas. This is all about picking the right one for your first step into the business world. Enjoy!