Entrepreneurs Say This Is the No. 1 Factor in Their Success

Are you a risk taker or a positive thinker? A salesman or numbers cruncher? Inc. asked the nation's fastest growing, private-company CEOs to take a survey, in which respondents were asked to choose three qualities to which they attribute their success.

The following is based on a five-year study of key entrepreneurial strengths by Gallup, a global research and consulting firm, which studied more than 4,000 founders to understand the talents that foster business creation and growth. They pinpointed the 10 most significant characteristics, which Inc. last explored in depth in 2014. And perhaps unsurprisingly, the winners would seem familiar to most entrepreneurs reading this.