Playing around with Facebook this morning and an advert flashes up with Richard Branson’s face as the icon. Do you have the personality of a “great” entrepreneur, it asks? Find out, take the test.
I declined to do so for several reasons. First and foremost, I was sending a message to a friend about a weekend rendezvous and by the time I’d completed the task the icon had disappeared. Yet I’d inwardly sighed anyway because I get fed up with the “mind of an entrepreneur” myth, not least because it’s pedalled everywhere and, for people with fear of failure, it can be extremely off-putting. From the stereo-type painted it is obvious those with high fear of failure do not possess an “entrepreneurial mind”, and this deters many of them from doing what would probably be the most liberating action of their entire life: setting up and running their own business.
Yet the stereo-type is also annoying because it isn’t true. High-FFs (as I call those with fear of failure in my forthcoming book What’s Stopping You?) are perfectly suited to entrepreneurship, even if they fail to fit the image.
How come? Well, first, let’s look at the image. Here’s a description from British entrepreneurial guru Mike Southon in his well-known business start-up guide The Beermat Entrepreneur (written with Chris West in 2002):
“Entrepreneurs are confident. They are born optimists: they simply know they can do it….Entrepreneurs are also charismatic. They inspire people….they have optimism to spare which they radiate and instil into others around them…. Entrepreneurs are ambitious….Entrepreneurs are in a hurry….Entrepreneurs are also arrogant. They know they are good. At everything….Entrepreneurs are also manipulative….Entrepreneurs use people.”
This is a million miles from the attributes of the average High-FF. Yet virtually all start-up business books conjure this image of an entrepreneur as a swashbuckling risk taker: confident, cocky, manipulative, optimistic.
I disagree. I think this image describes the wrong person. Southon is a successful entrepreneur that has made millions. And he is describing himself. However, he is far from alone. Nearly all of the cashed-out big-name entrepreneurs write a book (or pay someone to do it for them) and they all state the same thing – to be a successful entrepreneur you have to be optimistic, ruthless and manipulative, just like me. Indeed, the fact Richard Branson was the image for the “entrepreneur’s icon” on Facebook is another giveaway. Entrepreneurship, it states, is for the giants and the wannabe giants.
Yet the vast majority of entrepreneurs are simply not like that.
Michael Gerber’s important book on why most small businesses fail called The E-Myth Revisited (2004) offers a better perspective. Referring to the “entrepreneurial myth”, Gerber states that people start businesses for many reasons but that most businesses are not started by visionary entrepreneurs trying to become the next Google or Microsoft. They are started by bookkeepers, barbers, plumbers, salespeople and secretaries who grew tired of working for somebody else.
“Great businesses are not built by extraordinary people but by ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” says Gerber.
This definitely chimes with those suffering from high fear of failure. Frustration is a key driver for many High-FFs and that frustration is often directed at a boss or employer that appears to thwart our progress. Many High-FFs feel that their talents are ignored or there is prejudice against them, making running their own business a practical solution despite their genuine fears.
And any reading of Rachel Bridge’s column in the Sunday Times Business section confirms this view. Many of her interviews with British entrepreneurs from all walks of life have made it into several books, including How I Made It (2005). In the introduction she describes the typical entrepreneur, or rather she doesn’t as she states that entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes – “they can be old and young, well educated or not, male or female, naturally confident or painfully shy”. She also states that they can be the type of person that “dreams up a dozen new business ideas a day or the sort who has only ever had one – which may not even be original”.
“What makes the whole idea of becoming a successful entrepreneur so very exciting,” she concludes, “is that there are no rules.”
Another strong book on this subject is Never Bet the Farm (2006) by US entrepreneurs Anthony Iaquinto and Stephen Spinelli Jr. They also de-myth the heroic entrepreneur stating that start-up business people are just ordinary people with fears and faults like everyone else. A key proposition for them is that successful entrepreneurs are “risk managers, not risk takers” exploding the myth of the swashbuckling entrepreneur.
Yet even this is too neutral for me. Just stating that High-FFs can become entrepreneurs isn’t good enough. In my view those with high fear of failure should become entrepreneurs – not least because they are perfectly suited for it. Here are six reasons why I think High-FFs have strong attributes for entrepreneurship.
1) High-FFs are cautious. Ignore the myth about risk taking – for every Richard Branson there are a 1,000 that gambled and lost. The best entrepreneurs are more interested in building a sustainable business that means they can pursue their love or their skills for their own bottom line, rather than someone else’s. And that takes careful planning and small steps. Staking everything on a throw of the dice is not what High-FFs do, which means they are far more likely to nurture a sustainable enterprise.
2) High-FFs are “good” with money. The quickest route for enterprise failure is through too much debt and/or over-expansion (perhaps by signing an office lease that was too ambitious or spending too much on a fit-out or other "luxuries"). Yet many High-FFs have financial phobia, which means they hate spending money. So far this has been seen as a negative. Start your own business, however, and bootstrapping is an imperative for sustainability.
3) High-FFs are not “wing it” merchant. Most High-FFs will have a thorough understanding that nothing comes for free. Blood, sweat and tears are required. High-FFs are likely to realise this from the off, meaning they will put in the required effort. High-FFs are mentally prepared for the challenges ahead.
4) High-FFs are facing the right way. As stated the vast majority of businesses are started by people wanting to work for themselves, perhaps because they feel frustrated working for someone else. This, rather than an overwhelming desire to make millions, is what drives the vast majority of sustainable businesses.
5) High-FFs are capable of strong people skills. This may take time as many High-FFs feel they lack people skills. Yet what they lack is confidence and self-esteem, which erodes their ability to deal well with others. Remove those frustrations through the development and pursuit of strong goals and the High-FF can become an excellent people-person because they have empathy for the other person – as long as they can remember what life was like on the other side of the fence. Those hustling, arrogant, high-achievers, meanwhile, go through life trampling on people - in many cases without even realising it. And this will eventually catch up with them: probably the first time their business hits a snag.
6) High-FFs understand fear. As Gerber states, starting a business is a terrifying experience. Yet terror is the natural state of the High-FF, so we are well prepared. More confident people may experience terror for the first time once the safety net of employment is removed, making them less able to cope.
Of course there are also downsides for entrepreneurs with a high fear of failure, of which the most acute must be the tendency to set inappropriate – avoidance-based – goals (as written on many previous blogs and a major theme throughout What’s Stopping You?). Motivation-focused experiments on children in the 1960s found that those revealing a higher-than-normal fear of (especially public) failure had no problem attempting tasks viewed as almost impossible while avoiding achievable but challenging tasks. This was because the cost of public failure remained low. And there was even the potential upside of being judged a “trier” at such a difficult level.
In terms of career choice this often means High-FFs pursue dream-fulfilment careers such as pop stardom or TV fame because the consequences of failure remain limited. They are extremely unlikely to succeed and – they calculate – will be judged kindly for trying. Meanwhile they reject "sensible" (but challenging) career choices due to their fear of public humiliation.
And those following the Richard Branson path towards fortune and fame – with fame being the primary objective – should perhaps re-examine their entrepreneurial goals in order to ensure their ambitions are not part of an elaborate avoidance-based strategy.
Those wanting to join Bill Gates and Steve Jobs may be best-off taking the Facebook test to see if they do have “what it takes”. Those, meanwhile, that want to start their own business because they are fed up with their current employment and feel that liberating their time, skills and endeavours from an unappreciative boss, should ignore all the noise about the personality of an entrepreneur and, instead, plan a strong future of sustainable self-employment.
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