Startup Spark

Traits of a Crappy Entrepreneur

by Ben Yoskovitz on November 22nd, 2006

We know what a perfect entrepreneur looks like, but what about a crappy one?

At morebusiness.com they list two bad traits for entrepreneurs:

1. Compulsive Gambling: They claim that almost without exception, people who start businesses are not gamblers. I’d bet that a few very successful, uber-wealthy entrepreneurs become gamblers after the fact (what else are they going to do with all that money, right?) but it makes sense that entrepreneurs are generally not gamblers.

   The article says, “They are attracted to situations where success is determined by personal skill rather than chance. They strongly prefer that their destiny be determined by hard work and conscious decisions rather than by the roll of the dice.”

   Having said that I can guarantee you that almost every entrepreneur will claim luck had a big part in their success.

2. High risk-taking: This is particularly interesting, because many people will say that being an entrepreneur is a huge risk. We’ve said risk plays a factor right here at Startup Spark! But I can agree with the notion that entrepreneurs aren’t necessarily bigger risk-takers than non-entrepreneurs. We might enjoy a real challenge and be a bit more confident and egotistical than others, but we’re not necessarily going to risk everything to hit a home run. Lots of entrepreneurs these days still hold onto their proverbial “day jobs” while they start a business on the side.

   The article has a very interesting quote, “In the world of small business, optimism is truly cheap and high risk-takers die an early death.” They’re right - optimism is cheap - but I don’t like the tone. We’d be nowhere without optimism, and while it’s dangerous to be over-optimistic, it’s equally as dangerous (and pointless) to have no optimism whatsoever.

There are other traits and characteristics that will make for crappy entrepreneurs. Stupidity is one (yes, I said it.) I’m sure there have been some stupid entrepreneurs, but I wouldn’t advocate entrepreneurship to stupid people.

How about laziness? Is there such a thing as a lazy entrepreneur? Fred Gratzon thinks so. He even wrote a book The Lazy Way to Success.

His Top 10 Signs You’re Made to be an Entrepreneur do match a number of the personality traits for the perfect entrepreneur that I set forth, but Fred’s got a unique take on things.

Without dwelling too much on the negative, what else would make for a crappy entrepreneur?

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POSTED IN: Entrepreneurship