Enter "entrepreneurial traits" into Google, and
the menu of frequent searches will complete the query with "... of Steve
Jobs" and "... of Bill Gates," among others. These are the
forces of nature that spring to mind for most of us when we think of entrepreneurs--iconic
figures who seemed to burst from the womb with enterprise in their DNA.
They inspire, but they also intimidate. What if you weren't
born with Jobs' creative genius or Gates' iron will? There's good news for the
rest of us: Entrepreneurs can be guided to success by harnessing crucial
attributes. Scholars, business experts and venture capitalists say
entrepreneurs can emerge at any stage of life and from any realm, and they come
in all personality types and with any grade point average.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, you don't have to be Type
A--that is, an overachieving, hyperorganized workaholic--or an extrovert to
launch a successful business. "Type A's don't take the risks to be
entrepreneurs," says Elana Fine, managing director of the University of
Maryland's Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, adding that the same goes for
straight-A students. "Very often it's C students who become
entrepreneurs."
However, the best entrepreneurs do share a collection of
characteristics, from tenacity to the ability to tolerate risk, that are
crucial to a successful venture. An analysis of 23 research studies published
under the title "The Big Five Personality Dimensions and Entrepreneurial
Status" found that entrepreneurs have different personality traits than
corporate managers, scoring far higher on traits such as openness to experience
(curiosity, innovation) and conscientiousness (self-discipline, motivation) and
considerably lower on neuroticism, which allows them to better tolerate stress.
Tenacity
Starting a business is an ultramarathon. You have to be able
to live with uncertainty and push through a crucible of obstacles for years on
end. Entrepreneurs who can avoid saying uncle have a better chance of finding
their market and outlasting their inevitable mistakes. This trait is known by
many names--perseverance, persistence, determination, commitment,
resilience--but it's really just old-fashioned stick-to-it-iveness.
"Tenacity is No. 1," says Mike Colwell, who runs
Plains Angels, an Iowa angel investor forum, and the accelerator Business
Innovation Zone for the Greater Des Moines Partnership. "So much of
entrepreneurship is dealing with repeated failure. It happens many times each
week."
When failure happens, you have to start all over again. Jett
McCandless was a partner in a fast-growing freight logistics operation. But the
rapid expansion triggered mistakes, including an invoicing glitch that left the
company without enough cash reserves. The business had to be sold for a
fraction of its value. McCandless didn't agree to the terms and was fired. He
lost the company house and car and wound up moving into his girlfriend's
apartment. "It was a very tough time," he recalls. "I came very
close to going bankrupt."
He went on 25 job interviews and got offers for logistics
positions paying $200,000 and up. But McCandless, who grew up in Section 8
public housing, wondered, Should I take a comfortable, secure job, or could I build
something better? "I was afraid that failure could define the rest of my
life, and I wasn't going to let that happen," he says.
So rather than accept one of those big offers, he started
over, founding a new company, CarrierDirect, in Chicago. Hamstrung by the
noncompete contract with his previous firm, he created a wholly new space in
the logistics field. Instead of matching shippers with truckers, he switched to
consulting, providing marketing and sales for logistics companies. In two years
CarrierDirect grew to $35 million in revenue. "I'm glad I didn't take one
of those corporate jobs," he says now.
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