My publisher cut Chapter 2, “What it Really Takes,” from my upcoming book The Hockey Stick Principles and offered the following candid advice: “This is about entrepreneurship in general and doesn’t interest me as much.”
A central theme of the chapter was five “commonalities” I’d discovered about the successful entrepreneurs I’d interviewed while researching the book, such as:
- An undying curiosity and sense of joy in the knotty challenges of problem-solving
- A tough skin and resilience when encountering failure, which enables them to bounce back and persevere
- A flexibility of mind about their plans, both for themselves and for their company, which allows and even welcomes the inevitable changes the plan will require over time
- The combination of an inventor’s heart and skills with a good mind for management, or the good sense to recognize that they don’t have a business-management mind and must partner with someone who does
- An attitude of hope, which is not blind to the obstacles or delusional about setbacks, but which fortifies them with a persistently positive outlook about their ultimate success
Experts in entrepreneurship have devised many lists of the five, eight, 10 or more personality traits of successful entrepreneurs; you can find reams of them with a simple web search. One well-researched list is the subject of Stanford lecturer Amy Wilkinson’s book The Creator’s Code, which offers six attributes of extraordinary entrepreneurs…they:
- “…spot opportunities that others don’t see”
- “…focus on the future”
- “…continuously update their assumptions”
- “…hone the skill to turn setbacks into successes”
- “…bring together the brainpower of diverse individuals”
- “…unleash generosity by helping others”
Amy’s list and my list partially match up. I’ve seen other lists saying entrepreneurs are risk-takers, competitive, leaders, and believe in themselves. Bill Aulet, senior lecturer on entrepreneurship at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, when asked in a CNBC interview what the stereotypical entrepreneur is like, also highlighted how iconoclastic and headstrong entrepreneurs are: “First of all, they have the spirit of a pirate. ‘We’re doing things differently!’ They disrespect the existing authority. And this is what we at MIT call ‘creative irreverence’ or ‘taking on the man.’”[i] I would agree that some do this, but not all.
The point is: you can drive yourself crazy trying to see how well you line-up with all these lists; it’s like reading the symptoms for an illness on WebMD. But the fact is that there is no one definitive list. Forget the lists!
I think all of the characterization of the traits of entrepreneurs misses the central truth. If there is one key thing about successful entrepreneurship I have observed and that arises clearly out of my research, it is that success comes down to the doing; it’s not primarily about fitting a personality profile in some silly checklist, it’s about taking action.
I’m just glad my publisher knows what it really takes to write a successful book!
[i] CNBC video interview online: “Entrepreneurship guru: ‘Need the spirit of a pirate’ Thu, 8 Aug ’13 | 6:35 AM ET
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