Field of Dreams: Cracking the Mind of an Entrepreneur

By Randy Kaufman, with research assistance from Dustin Lowman

Due in large part to how entrepreneurs are depicted in pop culture (think HBO’s “Silicon Valley”), there’s a common perception that they tend to be young, insatiably energetic, tenacious and willing to risk it all. But studies have shown that when you push back the curtain, you see a much more fascinating, diverse, and often surprising portrait of our most prominent movers and shakers.

History of Struggle

Contrary to the wheeler-dealer, mastermind image that the word “entrepreneur” conjures, intrepid businesspeople often have to overcome inborn obstacles. Numerous studies have shown that entrepreneurs tend to have higher incidences of ADHD and dyslexia. They often struggle with reading and test-taking, and have a hard time holding down traditional jobs. Two recent studies by the Cass School of Economics in London show that while approximately 4% of the general population suffers from dyslexia, the figure is as high as 20% among successful U.K. entrepreneurs. In the U.S., 15% of the general population suffers from dyslexia, whereas 35% of successful entrepreneurs do. A considerable gap in both cases.

Charles Schwab, Richard Branson and John Chambers are three ultra-high-profile examples of entrepreneurs whose learning disorders and subsequent struggles have shaped a sense of self. Because of his condition, Schwab developed an alternate way of thinking: “I could see the end zone of a particular thing quicker than [my associates] could … I could go straight from step A to Z.” Schwab’s condition, perhaps, propelled him to more success than he might otherwise have attained.

True Grit

Peter Worrell, co-CEO of The Bigelow Company, LLC, studied 200 seasoned, successful entrepreneurs and their expert advisors, in search of common traits. He observed that entrepreneurs’ top five character strengths were authenticity, leadership, fairness, gratitude and zest. Relative to the general population, entrepreneurs also score more highly on grit — which includes traits like perseverance and passion for long-term goals, working strenuously to overcome challenges, and maintaining effort and interest over the years, despite failure and adversity.


One surprise finding in Worrell’s study is that entrepreneurs do not score highly on creativity — in fact, he found creativity to be a bottom-five strength. Another surprise is that many entrepreneurs suffered the loss of a loved one at an early age. For example, Ted Turner was only 24 when he lost his father to suicide. This does, however, align with anecdotal evidence I’ve gathered from interviews with entrepreneurs over the years, many of whom either lost their fathers or, in some cases, were kicked out of their houses, and onto the streets. Perhaps due to these early losses and/or rejections, entrepreneurs tend to care less about what other people think of them.


Other studies show that entrepreneurs tend to be vigilant in making sure goals are accomplished. They tend also to be inquisitive, with insatiable appetites for learning. Sue Birely, Imperial College Management School Professor of Entrepreneurship, concluded that in order to establish a business, you need someone with “persuasion [and] persistence, with no inhibitions about identifying resources to transform the vision into reality” (“What Makes an Entrepreneur?” by Anrel Voiculescu).


Personally, I believe that the most important trait of successful entrepreneurs is tenacity — refusing to fail. As Cary Cooper, Bupa Professor of Organisational Psychology at Manchester University, said, entrepreneurs are “bounce-back” people: “They do not get distracted by either success or failure; they just plough on, never satisfied and constantly in fear of ‘being found out.’ Often after one success they think, ‘I fooled them,’ and need to do it again to prove it was not a freak event” (Voiculescu). Thomas Edison put it similarly (and more pithily): “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”

Show Me the Purpose ... and Then the Money

Another common misconception about entrepreneurs is that they are driven by the desire to make money. Many reputable sources challenge this, positing other underlying motives. For example, in “Developing the Next-Generation Entrepreneur,” Doug Baumoel asserts that entrepreneurs are most motivated to make a difference, not to enlarge their bank accounts. Baumoel posits: “It’s more than about money, and this is what distinguishes the entrepreneur from the speculator or the opportunist.”


Scott Shane, author of “The Illusions of Entrepreneurship,” states that most people start businesses because they just don’t like working for someone else. They want to do things on their own terms, at their own pace, according to their own rulebook — not an inherited one.


Others allege that one of entrepreneurs’ main drivers is a fear of failure. James Hayton and Gabriella Cacciotti, writing for the Harvard Business Review, interviewed 65 entrepreneurs, finding that certain worries associated with failure positively contributed to entrepreneurs’ success. “It just makes me more aggressive to get this thing going as fast as I can,” one respondent confessed.


However you look at it — making a difference, doing it their own way, or averting failure — it doesn’t seem to be all about the money.

The Game of Risk Analysis

Most surprising of all, perhaps, is that risk-taking is not a top characteristic of entrepreneurs. Baumoel stated that while entrepreneurs do take calculated risks, they tend not to perceive them as “risks” as such — based on the odds, they are betting on themselves and their teams. Kelly Shaver, Professor of Psychology at William & Mary College, has stated that entrepreneurs are not “devil-may-care risk takers,” in spite of how it may seem. In reality, she says, there is a subtle difference in the way they appreciate risk and that they are worse than most of us at coming up with reasons why they might fail.


In their study “From Predators to Icons,” French scholars Michael Villette and Catherine Vuillermot concluded that the truly successful businessman is a “predator, and predators seek to incur the least risk possible when hunting.” In describing legendary hedge-fund investor John Paulson, Malcom Gladwell elaborated on this description: “The risk-taking model suggests that the entrepreneur’s chief advantage is one of temperament — he’s braver than the rest of us are. In the predator model, the entrepreneur’s advantage is analytical — he’s better at figuring out a sure thing than the rest of us.” Perhaps, as Scott Shane says, many entrepreneurs take big, uncalculated risks — but those are the ones who tend to fail.

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Featured Posts, Mind GamesRandy KaufmanEntrepreneur, mind of success, silicon valleyComment