The Myth of the "Entrepreneurial Personality"

My wife just sent me this article from the NYT about "hypomanic" entrepreneurs who seem to teeter on the edge of being brilliant and mentally illness. It reminded me once again about our deep seeded societal notion that successful entrepreneurs have a special personality type - charismatic, risk taking, hard charging, passionate yet abrasive, etc. This is usually evidenced by cherry picking certain famous entrepreneurs (Steve Jobs! Henry Ford!), while ignoring the vast majority of successful entrepreneurs who don't act this way at all.

I've met and read about thousands of successful entrepreneurs over the years and I can't point to any personality trait they tend to share in common. They all work hard, are passionate about what they do, etc. But I've found that that their success usually has much more to do with execution than whatever their brilliant idea was, which often turns out to not be so brilliant when it gets right down to it.

Personally, I wouldn't invest a dime in the young man in the article who wants to "build the game layer on top of the world." That doesn't mean he won't succeed - maybe he will. After all, I also won't be buying a lottery ticket on my way home tonight.

Where do Good Ideas Come From?

I just came across this short video previewing Steven Johnson's new book, Where Good Ideas Come From: http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m3O3C2EO0XITMC. It is very cool - if you like the UPS commercials with the whiteboard guy, you'll love this. But he also raises two great points that come up again and again in my classes - the myth of the brilliant flash of insight, and the need for collaboration and hard work to turn a great idea into a viable business opportunity. I'm looking forward to getting the book in October when it's released.