Entrepreneurial DNA

So Thomas Harrison, a research scientist and cell biologist turned entrepreneur, has just wrote a book titled Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Your Business Goals, which, according to Trump University’s Michael Sexton, is about the inherent traits that contribute to a successful entrepreneur. According to Harrison these are a few of nature’s gifts to your firm or business:

1. Openness to Experience – Your receptiveness to new experiences and ideas.
2. Conscientiousness – Your ability to overcome impulsiveness and achieve goals.
3. Extroversion – Your level of ease in seeking out other people and connecting with them.
4. Agreeableness – Your ability to cooperate with other people.
5. Neuroticism – Your habitual reactions to the stresses of life.

Despite my apprehension about attributing success in the business world with the traits that you inhereted from your parents (which isn’t necessarily what Harrison suggests), it is interesting to think about the personality traits that you yourself hold, and how they help you (as an entrepreneur) each and everyday. Further, were those traits of entrepreneurial success developed during the growth your enterprise, or the foundation upon which you achieved that success?

Truthfully, I think you learn so much about yourself when you branch out, and you gain so many skills and traits that aren’t necessarily associated with the practice of law at all. From the full appreciation of the massive support your family is ready to give you at a moment’s notice, to the ability to foster personal relationships with clients that escape the chains of big business and associate infighting; to become a solo-practioner is to take on a whole new set of challenges, challenges which force us to grow or give up.