Drive and Confidence Characterize Entrepreneurs

The entrepreneur has long been perceived as a special person whose qualities and characteristics need to be investigated. Recent qualitative studies and narrative reviews suggest that entrepreneurs are different from non-entrepreneurs, and that typical entrepreneurial characteristics include higher tolerance of risk, stronger motivation to excel, more patience, and greater need for achievement, independence and power.Utilizing validated psychological questionnaires, we measured personality traits including self-confidence, self-efficacy, and motivation. We also obtained demographic, attitudinal and behavioral data relevant to entrepreneurship or entrepreneurial process. We found that the traits of motivation, reward-driven, and self-confidence mostly characterize entrepreneurs. A more self-confident individual would be more likely to start and operate his/her own business; the more reward-driven an individual was, the longer his/her business could be in operation. Interestingly, measures of cognition were not correlated with entrepreneurship, suggesting that the personality profile of the individual may play an important role in mediating economically relevant behaviors, such as the willingness to start and operate a business and perseverance.Our findings provide useful implications for individual entrepreneurship training, career counseling, and occupational decision-making