Entrepreneurial mindset: which traits go with starting a business

Two colleagues get the same idea for a small business on the same evening. One has a website up by the weekend. The other is still weighing it a year later. Psychologists have spent decades asking how much of that difference lies in the person. Their answer is that some of it does, though less than the stories about famous founders suggest.

Our Entrepreneurial Mindset Test looks at the traits that research links to starting and running a business. It gives you one score that describes your preferences and habits.

What the research found

In his 1961 book The Achieving Society, the psychologist David McClelland argued that people with a strong need for achievement, the drive to do things well and to measure yourself against a standard, are drawn to running businesses. Later research kept coming back to that idea.

In 2007 Andreas Rauch and Michael Frese pooled dozens of studies on the personality of business owners in a meta-analysis. They paid special attention to traits that match the real tasks of running a business: need for achievement, belief in your own abilities (self-efficacy), innovativeness, proactivity, tolerance of stress and need for autonomy. These traits were linked both to starting a business and to its success, and more strongly than traits that do not match those tasks. The links were real but moderate. Personality is one factor among many, next to skills, money, timing and luck.

Risk-taking, the trait most people picture first, did less well. In their data the link between willingness to take risks and business success was small. This is why our test asks about calculated risk and leaves thrill-seeking out.

What our test asks

We wrote the 12 statements ourselves, based on the traits Rauch and Frese describe, so this is a self-reflection tool, not a validated questionnaire. You answer each one on a five-point scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree, and your answers add up to one score for entrepreneurial mindset.

The statements cover achievement, risk, autonomy, proactivity and the habit of acting on your own. Examples: "I take calculated risks: I check how much I can lose, then act." "I prefer uncertain income with freedom over a stable salary without influence on direction." "Instead of complaining about circumstances, I look for what I can influence."

Two statements are scored in reverse, so agreeing with them lowers your score. One of them is "I prefer someone else to set the goals and tell me exactly what to do."

Reading your score

A high score means your answers match the profile that research associates with founders. You like setting your own goals, you act before you have every guarantee, and a setback pushes you to look for another route. It does not predict that a business of yours would succeed. With effects as moderate as the ones Rauch and Frese found, there is plenty of room for high scorers who fail and low scorers who build something that lasts.

A low score is no reason to drop an idea either. It may mean you value stability, prefer clear goals set by a team, or have not yet had a chance to act on your own. Look at the statements you disagreed with most, because they show where an independent project would feel hardest for you.

A score in the middle can point to a role in between, such as building a new product or service inside an existing company, with some freedom and a regular salary.

The belief that your own actions shape your results sits close to proactivity. The locus of control test measures it, and the post on Rotter's locus of control explains where the idea comes from. If you plan to build a team, try the leadership style test.