How Entrepreneurs Think: 7 Conclusions of Scientists

What qualities allow you to successfully work for yourself?

Many people believe that entrepreneurs are not made, but born.

There is some truth to this. Family circumstances and certain personality traits can increase the chances of creating a profitable business. For example, stress resistance, sociability, and optimism will clearly not be superfluous for an entrepreneur.

But still, as research shows, there is no personality type that is unfit to run a business. Nor are there any qualities that guarantee success. Business psychologist Mark Parkinson notes that if you have all the qualities of a successful entrepreneur, but don't have a worthwhile business idea, you won't be able to stay afloat for long. Parkinson also adds that our personalities change over the course of our lives – many of the necessary qualities can be developed and an entrepreneurial mindset can be learned.

In this article, we have collected the conclusions of scientists about the qualities that make up the famous entrepreneurial streak. Some of them can really be developed.

At the Madrid Business School, Stroop test. The researchers used an encephalograph to measure the brain activity of 30 business founders and 30 non-business associates. During the experiment, they were shown pictures where the names of colors were printed in a font of a different color: for example, the word "yellow" in a picture is written in red letters. A person had to name the color of each word, without paying attention to the meaning of what was written.

This task requires more effort than it seems at first glance. The brain is more accustomed to perceiving the meaning of a text rather than identifying the color and remembering its name. And if you have to answer in a fraction of a second, people can get confused and make mistakes.

The results of the experiment showed that entrepreneurs often act impulsively: they immediately understand the problem, give an answer, and only then actively think about the consequences. In other words, they think more intensely about a decision after they've made it. Students, on the other hand, got lost, thought about each question for a long time, and ended up spending more time answering.

It seems to be this impulsiveness that helps in business. Scientists from the Netherlands have found that people who tend to act quickly are more likely to want to open their own startup. Researchers surveyed more than 10,000 college students about how active they thought they were, how often they made inattentive mistakes, and how they felt about risk. At the end, the students were asked if they planned to work for themselves after graduation.

It turned out that those who described themselves as impulsive were more likely to demonstrate entrepreneurial intentions. It is easier for them to work in conditions of uncertainty, the authors of the work believe.

These conclusions seem logical: in business, it's important to grasp a new idea first and then think through the details of the plan. Of course, the idea may turn out to be unsuccessful later, but it's normal for an entrepreneur to experience ups and downs.

Studies show that entrepreneurs and managers cope with logic tasks at about the same level. But they act differently when it comes to gambling.

Scientists from the University of Cambridge conducted an experiment: participants — 16 entrepreneurs and 17 managers — had to guess which cell the token was in — blue or red. Before the start of the game, everyone was awarded 100 points. Before answering, participants had to place a bet, risking losing points. The results of the experiment showed that entrepreneurs were more gambling: they were ready to bet 63% of points, while managers were ready to bet only 51%.

The researchers also found that 50-year-old business founders were more likely to take risks than young people aged 17 to 27, the most adventurous age group of all. Whereas managers take as much risk as other people their age.

A study by the Higher School of Economics also showed that among entrepreneurs and the self-employed, the highest number of those who highly assess their willingness to take risks. Some of them consider themselves absolutely tolerant of risk.

Although there are only 6% of such people among entrepreneurs, this is still more than in other groups. For example, among those who are employed, only 3% of respondents were most ready to risk themselves.

There are well-known stories of people who have built a successful business from scratch. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak made the first Apple circuit boards and computers in a garage, and William Harley and Arthur Davidson built the first motorcycle in a barn. It can be assumed that need and limited resources motivate a person to do his own business and become successful. But that's often not the case.

Most American entrepreneurs were born into well-to-do families and never made ends meet. Economists analyzed data from a national survey in the United States, which has been conducted since 1979 and covers almost 13,000 people. It turned out that the income of the families of entrepreneurs was higher - in 1979, their parents earned about 70 thousand dollars a year. In families where children became employees, the annual income was lower, about 57,000.

Researchers believe that wealthy or at least middle-class parents give confidence in the future. The presence of a "safety cushion" in the form of family capital makes it easier to make difficult decisions in the face of uncertainty.

So if you want your child to become an entrepreneur, provide them with everything they need.

Another common belief is that the best entrepreneurs come from C's and those who dropped out of college. Mark Zuckerberg left Harvard to build Facebook, though he did He received an academic degree. Jack Dorsey left New York University after two semesters for the development of Twitter. Spotify's founder, Daniel Ek, attended college for only two months. The simple conclusion is that they are not very good at education.

But according to the same study from the United States, the vast majority of people who have started their own businesses are white, highly educated men. Another piece of evidence was found by Ilya Strebulaev, a professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He studied the academic degrees of the founders of American "unicorns" — companies with a capitalization of more than $1 billion.

In total, the scientist counted 521 such companies and 1263 of their founders. Strebulaev's calculations showed that only 4% of founders dropped out of university. The vast majority of successful entrepreneurs are bachelors, the rest have an MBA, master's or PhD degree. Remarkably, many were educated at Harvard and Stanford.

Testosterone is considered a male sex hormone, but it is also produced in a woman's body. Dozens of studies have already shown that it can influence human behavior. High levels of the hormone are associated with a low level of fear, risk appetite, competitive behavior. These qualities can push you to start your own business.

Scientists from Warwick Business School analyzed data from more than 2,000 people and confirmed that high levels of testosterone in a man's blood increase the likelihood that he will work for himself. There is less data on women, but there is still reason to believe that high levels of the hormone correlate with entrepreneurial activity.

Another study looked at hormone levels in 110 MBA students. Some of them already had experience in business, but most of them had not yet launched independent projects. Based on the level of testosterone, scientists could identify experienced entrepreneurs - 31 people. Moreover, the effect remained significant even when the scientists took into account age, time of sample collection and other factors.

But that doesn't mean people with low levels of the hormone can't become entrepreneurs. The authors of the studies emphasize. Testosterone is just one of the factors influencing the willingness to go into entrepreneurship. Others also play an important role: education, access to funding, personal characteristics.

CONCLUSION NO. 6

Scientists from different countries have been studying for decades what factors affect the development of entrepreneurship.

For a long time, it was believed that a culture dominated by democratic values—equality of rights, individual freedom, and decentralized power—increased the chances of business development. But As Recent Research Shows, the relationship between the level of freedom in society and the number of entrepreneurs in the country is not at all direct. Although, in general, democratic guidelines are favorable conditions for business, there is still a high level of entrepreneurial activity in collectivist countries.

Scientists now identify several types of factors that affect the desire to start a business. Cultural attitudes towards entrepreneurship play an important role. If the development of one's own business is perceived positively by most people, then there are more people who consider such a life path for themselves.

But of course That's not the only factor, which determines the level of entrepreneurial activity. It can also be influenced by how comfortable and legally protected employment is: if it is not an optimal choice, then more people go into business. In addition, it may be important how tolerant the society is of mistakes, as well as how common the experience of entrepreneurship is among previous generations. In families where the parents were engaged in business, children are more likely to consider the same scenario for themselves.

In addition to cultural factors, government support plays a crucial role: laws that make it easier to do business, access to finance, and predictable changes.

Most people who run a business are very optimistic, research shows. The authors of one of them studied data from a survey in which 28,000 German entrepreneurs participated from 1991 to 2013. Respondents were asked on a ten-point scale to rate their actual level of life satisfaction and what they expected to do in five years. Respondents were also asked how satisfied they were with their jobs, income, and leisure activities.

It turns out that entrepreneurs tend to overestimate their future satisfaction with running a business. Moreover, excessive optimism was also found in people who have been building their business for more than five years and are no longer beginners.

However, the peak of optimism still falls on the first year of entrepreneurship: when a person has not yet faced all the pitfalls and has not made any mistakes. After that, the level of future life satisfaction decreases, but not critically. And although high expectations are not met, the entrepreneur still assesses the state of affairs in the future more optimistically than before launching the business.

Researchers have a hypothesis that explains the increased optimism of entrepreneurs. It's all about the feeling Life Control: If a person feels that he can influence a lot of things, it helps to tune in to a more positive mood.

What quality do you consider the most important for an entrepreneur?