10 Best Words For Someone Who Takes Initiative

If you’ve ever met someone who takes initiative in life, then they’re probably someone that you’ve looked up to – often because they’re considered to be a determined and hardworking person. Although, we may not have known an applicable term to describe this individual.

Which Words Can Describe Someone Who Takes Initiative?

Throughout this article, we will be going over a list of alternative terms that appropriately describe someone who “takes initiative”. The ten specific terms that we will be looking at are as follows:

• Proactive
• Go-Getter
• Initiator
• Entrepreneur
• Eager Beaver
• Ambitious
• Conscientious
• Achiever
• A Doer
• Driven

The preferred version that we will be highlighting is “proactive”. This is because when we say that someone is “proactive”, we are choosing the best way to describe that they are a person who takes initiative in a professional setting, relationship, at school, etc.

Proactive

Cambridge Dictionary defines “proactive” as taking action by causing change and not only reacting to change when it happens. Therefore, when we depict someone as a “proactive” individual, we are meaning to say that they constantly commit to forward-thinking.

When we say that someone is “proactive”, we are describing someone who pushes forward to find solutions for themselves, as opposed to waiting around for assistance.

Here are a few examples that depict the appropriate use of this term:

• She is a proactive student, that will request assignments and reading material in advance so she can be prepared.
• Companies are now becoming more proactive in finding solutions to assist in the ongoing climate crisis.
• He wanted to become a more proactive employee, so he began making lists of all the tasks he needed to complete by the end of the week.

Go-Getter

Cambridge Dictionary defines a “go-getter” as someone who is very energetic, determined to be successful, and able to deal with new or difficult situations easily. Therefore, we often equate a “go-getter” to being a person who takes the initiative to create their own pathway to success.

We consider a “go-getter” to have a high level of the drive towards their ambitions in life. This is not a complacent individual; it is someone who is willing to put in tremendous effort and work to get whatever it is they desire.

• My father is truly a go-getter in life and that is why he now owns three grocery stores – soon branching off to create an entire chain.
• I look up to my older brother, who above everything else, is a go-getter. He’s taught me what hard work can create for you in life.
• She is a fierce go-getter; truly a force to be reckoned with.

Initiator

Cambridge Dictionary defines an “initiator” as a person who causes something to begin. Often, we will consider someone who is an “initiator” to be a natural-born leader. This is someone who is very comfortable getting the ball rolling on a project, task, assignment, etc.

Similarly, we think of someone as an “initiator” as someone who greatly takes initiative, especially considering they are the first to start something.

To help further clarify the use of this term, we can look at the following examples:

• He was the lead initiator of the climate change project, even developing the plan and case study.
• She was the initiator of that partnership, however, it proved to be an excellent pairing as they did go on to win the science fair.
• Given the initiative and determination doled out by the initiators, I don’t believe that a failure is an option.

Entrepreneur

Cambridge Dictionary defines “entrepreneur” as someone who starts their own business, especially when this involves seeing a new opportunity. Because of this, we often consider someone who is an “entrepreneur” to be a very determined individual, always taking imitative and making things happen for themselves.

There is no denying that someone who starts their own business, like an “entrepreneur”, takes an immense amount of initiative in life. Opening a business and running one, is no small task – it takes a very motivated and strong person.

Some examples of how we can use this particular term are:

• He is known around town as an entrepreneur, a self-made millionaire, and now, an investor in small businesses.
• She has aspirations of becoming an entrepreneur, even dedicating time to take business courses in night school.
• My grandfather was an entrepreneur in the last ’60s, opening what is now our family-owned and running a car dealership.

You may also like: 11 Words For A Person Who Starts Their Own Business

Eager Beaver

Cambridge Dictionary defines an “eager beaver” as a person who is willing to work very hard. Therefore, we often consider an “eager beaver” to be a keen and enthusiastic individual, who often takes the initiative to start a task early, dedicate extra hours of work, put in more effort, etc.

We often consider an “eager beaver” to be extremely zealous about volunteering or performing duties. Generally, they are a very helpful and hardworking individual.

Here are a few examples that highlight the use of the term “eager beaver”:

• He was an eager beaver, always willing to work overtime if the company required it.
• She was attempting to be more like her older sister; an eager beaver who loved to volunteer in her spare time.
• He is so full of energy and such an eager beaver when it comes to assisting me in class.

Ambitious

Cambridge Dictionary defines “ambitious” as having a strong wish to be successful, powerful or rich. Therefore, we often consider someone “ambitious” when they are determined, hardworking, and willing to put forward immense effort to get what they want out of life.

Similarly, when we say that someone is “ambitious” we believe that they have the intentions to satisfy their high aspirations before they become more difficult to achieve.

We will now look at examples that showcase the use of this term:

• She was a very ambitious individual and because of that, she was able to achieve her dreams of becoming a high-end fashion model.
• Companies nowadays prefer to hire highly ambitious individuals that they feel will work hard for them.
• He was a very ambitious law student, who had aspirations of becoming a defence lawyer.

Conscientious

Cambridge Dictionary defines “conscientious” as putting a lot of effort into your work. Because of this, we often think of someone who is “conscientious” as someone who is always wishing to do what is right, taking the initiative to figure out what that is.

This is especially in terms of doing work thoroughly and correctly. A “conscientious” person will also generally consider the feelings of others and how their actions affect others.

For additional information, here are a few more examples:

• He was a very conscientious individual at work, always taking the initiative to finish up tasks that others may not have the time to get to.
• They are both conscientious students and classmates, you should be very proud.
• My husband is a very conscientious listener, which is one of my favourite qualities about him.

Achiever

Cambridge Dictionary defines an “achiever” as someone who is very successful in their job. Because of this, we often view an “achiever” as someone who has worked incredibly hard to achieve a high or specified level of success. Often, an “achiever” is someone that we will find very admirable.

An “achiever” is someone who has tremendous grit and an overwhelming need to become successful. These are folks who are known for taking action.

Some examples that appropriately use this term are:

• He is an over-achiever, always going the extra mile at work and school.
• All of the women that were interviewed are incredible achievers in their fields of study.
• She is an achiever on the team, taking the ultimate leadership role and pumping her team up before every game.

A Doer

Cambridge Dictionary defines a “doer” as someone who gets actively involved in something, rather than just thinking or talking about it. Therefore, we often consider “a doer” to be someone who takes an initiative or leadership role in order to ensure the completion of an assignment, task, etc.

Essentially, we consider “a doer” to be a person of action immediately, not someone who merely sits around waiting for a solution from someone else.

We will now go over the following examples, to better understand how we can use this term:

• There are far too many thinkers in this world and not enough doers.
• She is someone that you can consider a doer, not a whiner or a griper.
• This team is a group of doers and I have confidence that we will succeed in winning our tournament this weekend.

Driven

The last alternative that we will go over is “driven”. Cambridge Dictionary defines “driven” as someone who is so determined to achieve something or be successful that all of their behaviours are directed towards this aim. This is someone with high aspirations in life that they intend to achieve.

A “driven” individual is someone who is highly goal-oriented that sets and delivers on their expectations in life.

Here are our last few examples to go over for this article:

• He is a very driven person. He graduated high school at 16 years old and immediately wanted to start university in preparation for his dream of becoming a family physician.
• Like most of the defence lawyers I know personally, Hannah is incredibly driven.
• I want you to actualize your goals in life, so you need to put forth your best effort and focus on being a driven student and worker.