Let’s say I study a ripe fruit in all its fragrant, traffic-stopping orange, knobbliness. And I say that these are the characteristics of an orange. And if I want more oranges I search for them in blossoms; in fact I tell blossoms to look at themselves and ask the question – Do You have What It Takes to Be An Orange?
A lot of the evidence which is used about entrepreneurs is completely inadmissible. Why? Some people study entrepreneurs, their personalities and habits and psychological propensities. This generalised data is then used to predict the characteristics that one must have before becoming an entrepreneur. I have a problem with this method.
Blossoms look nothing like an orange. Given the right circumstances – food, water, fertilisation – all blossoms on the orange tree can become oranges. In the same way it seems that – under pressure – all people can become entrepreneurs.
An orange is an orange once it is an orange. A definition of an entrepreneur is someone who has started a business. An entrepreneur is an entrepreneur once he/she is an entrepreneur.
What sort of pressure makes someone start a business? Some types of entrepreneurs desperately want creative or research freedom and start their own businesses for that reason. Some people have survival pressures and if they did not start their own enterprise they would not eat. Some do it with the slightly faked pressure of a business plan competition. Usually, if you have done it once, you will do it again.
There is research that truly looks at large groups of people before they turn entrepreneur, and then tracks them to see whether they do, and looks to see what they had in common. The conclusion is that there are more differences between people than there are between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs.
Useful studies show which characteristics of entrepreneurs affect the longevity of their businesses. Extraversion, emotional stability and agreeableness have no effect, openness to experience limits the lifespan of a company but conscientiousness is correlated to companies who last longer.
The Team. An entrepreneur gathers the skills that he/she needs to get the job done and this relates to something that I hear entrepreneurs and funders and venture capitalists talk about. Among the people on the team one must find people who can build and organise and create and analyse and have vision and convince others. The team must submit to the conscientious member’s rules. Funder’s know that the skills are in the team, and no funder will invest in a lone entrepreneur because this carries too much risk.
The CEO. For a new venture to grow fast the team should hire a CEO. Most will do so once the technical issues have been dealt with. CEO entrepreneurs are a breed apart with personality traits in common with one another; but you can hire them, just as you can hire an accountant. The characteristics of the CEO should not be confused with the characteristics of an entrepreneur.