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 bottle it. It’s just there and it comes out” (Mail online, 2010). Surprisingly, this view is not shared by everyone. Although it is undeniable that entrepreneurs are all unique in some way, empirical evidence suggests that they all share certain common characteristics and skills, some of which can be taught (Colette et al., 2005). This essay attempts to define the characteristics and skills that enable entrepreneurs to realize the commercial potential of their ideas. Additionally, it explores the difficulties that entrepreneurs may encounter throughout their journey to business success. Meredith et al. (1991) describes an entrepreneur as someone who has the ability to see and evaluate business opportunities, marshal resources to take advantage of them, and take the necessary actions to ensure success. Reviewing 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 of 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 lack of resources when launching a new business. . Others, such as Bass and Stogdill (1993), suggest that it is perseverance that pushes the entrepreneur through a difficult business start-up process.Entrepreneurship...... 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 a development program”. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 16(2), pp. 92-111. Pickernell, D., Packham, G., Jones, P., Miller, C., Thomas, B. (2011). “Graduated entrepreneurs are different: do they have access to more resources?” International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behavior & Research, 17(2), pp. 183-202. Ruvio, A., Rosenblatt, Z., Hertz-Lazarowitz, R. (2010). “Vision of Entrepreneurial Leadership in Nonprofit and Not-for-Profit Organizations.” For-profit organizations.” The Leadership Quarterly, 21(1), pp. 144-158. Silva, O. (2007) “The jack-of-all-trades entrepreneur: innate talent or acquired skill? ". Economic Letters, 97(2), pp.. 118-123.