So, self-belief is definitely required for an entrepreneur and never more so than when the hard knocks of developing the business within the competitive market place start to arrive.

Hard knocks can take the form of;

• A patent or idea not being protected and being copied resulting in legal battles.
• Competition which takes away employees, customers or prime locations.
• Unreasonable customer demands
• Inability to raise money and excessive time being taken to resolve such matters, diverting the entrepreneur away from the main task in hand.
• Machinery failure
• Running out of stock, or a key supplier failing
• An ‘act of god’ without adequate insurance
• Inadequate insurance
• ·An employee or team leaving taking part of the business or even setting up as a competitor
• System or IT failures

If any of these occur within the first two years of a business starting then the business will generally fail.

It would be most strange for the entrepreneur to have enough self-belief and resilience to deal with these and survive.