Is Personality Important to Business Success?

“What does your personality have to do with your future success as an entrepreneur?”

I was posed that question in a round table discussion with some other self employed online business owners.  Here are my thoughts.

Often magazines and news articles about self-employment include tests or checklists that you can review to see if you possess the traits or qualities that are necessary to become a profitable business owner.

You might wonder how accurate such “predictors” are of future success.  I did when I was just starting out.

My experience in studying a number of these tests is that results vary somewhat depending upon the audience polled and the skill of the survey designer and the results analyst. Nothing is black and white.

So are these predictors useless? Do they have any value to aspiring solo business owners? Here’s my take:

Indicators or predictors are just that – they give us some clues about what might be – based upon probabilities captured in repeated tests. There are always exceptions and cases that fall outside the expected range of results.  So you certainly can’t make a final decision about undertaking full time self employment based on a group of indicators.  But if you have a personality that is very different from the model of the “perfect” entrepreneur in the test – it should at least give you pause to think a little more deeply whether this is something you will enjoy doing and can do profitably.

So it is with certain personality traits. Over the long haul, entrepreneurs may typically be expected to carry certain characteristics, but there will be plenty of examples that lie outside the norm.

I see the value in studying these particular personality traits, not in terms of a way to weed out those who most likely won’t be successful in business based on the averages, but as a survey of the types of qualities and mindset that have served entrepreneurs well in the daily circumstances they find themselves.

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:  one of the traits often associated with successful small business owners is their willingness to take on risks.

If you saw this question, “Are you willing to take risks?” in a personality survey, you may be led to conclude that if you’re risk averse and try to avoid such situations, you’re probably not cut out for small business.

In my way of thinking, that conclusion is wrong.

My view is that risks in business are a fact of life – they will come, and come often in the decisions of the day. Being risk averse doesn’t mean that you can’t take on some level of risk – to me it merely signifies that having such a trait will cause you to do things that will lower and minimize the downsides that you could be exposed to in the risks you are taking.

If you don’t want risk, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be in business … maybe it just suggests that you will be cautious enough to not take big risks … or that you will spend some extra time and effort to reduce the risks you do take as much as possible.

So it is with many of the self-employment traits that are usually associated with future success in business.

If you are easily bored you will find yourself within the ranks of typical entrepreneurs, at least according to most of the surveys.

But if you don’t get easily bored, I wouldn’t count yourself out as a good candidate for solo business.

Remember, indicators or predictors are just that – they aren’t conclusive but they do give us some clues about what might be – based upon probabilities captured in repeated tests. But predictors are not foolproof!

To your online business success,

Steve Browne

www.SteveBrowneDirect.com