There isn’t.
I don’t think it is so much as a personality question. If you had asked ‘what personality do I need to be an entrepreneur’ it would be annoying, as it would be pointless. You are or you are not.
But this is more academic, and open minded.
The difference
In my opinion the difference between being a bitchy complainer and an entrepreneur is one thing… you do something about it.
I believe the defining characteristic of an entrepreneur is action.
Everyone complains ‘why can’t I find a cab in SF!?’ Travis did something about it. He just so happened to build a monster company.
But is Travis an entrepreneur because he is successful? No. He’s just a success story.
There are a tonne of bitches that complaining he ‘stole their idea.’ Come on. So lame. Complaining is the first stage of startup. Formulating a business model and then a plan is the next (of a smart founder). Doing… well that’s the third stage.
- Stage one is bitching
- Stage two is academic
- Stage three is doing
Stage 3 is an entrepreneur
You still suck
There are a lot of shitty entrepreneurs. There are.
Some crazy dude inventing fart guns who try sell them and get no where IS an entrepreneur; just a shitty one.
That dude who invented the Super Soaker, he is just as much as an entrepreneur as the fart gun dude I made up- just not as famous.
I wrote an answer on Quora that is getting mad views on 15 startup pivots which made unicorns. ALL of the were failures. The founders DID and kept hustling till it worked. Now they are worth a tonne on paper.
They were failures up until they made it… on paper (well, couple sold or IPO).
They made 51 failed games and ended up with Angry Birds…
No one is the same
Did you just watch Zuck at the Senate hearing?
Dude, he is a coder in an ugly suit who was made talk business. That could be any of us.
He found a problem, with the right timing and the right market, hustled like a beast and it ended up one of the most valuable companies of all time.
Do you think Zuck is the prototypical entrepreneur.
No.
Is he who you imagine in front of a senate committee answering dumb questions?
No.
But he’s an entrepreneur.
Why?
He said this “I founded Facebook and I’m the CEO so I am responsible”
Missing the ‘Bitch’ part 10 years later.
What is the personality
I don’t know. I don’t think there is.
I just think people are a type where they get pissed off to scratch an itch. They stop talking and start doing.
I’d love to know if other entrepreneurs feel the same. but if I scuff my foot or step on a crack on my left foot, I need to do the same with my right to make things equal. That started about age 5.
When something annoys me I wonder why? Is the market size for that problem big? ie stage 2.
But if I can execute on something I go to stage 3, ship and see.
There is no real personality I can see. It’s just this itch, this pissed off with everything feeling that annoys you and makes you feel unbalanced. And you just have this need to try and fix it.
You can be smooth, you can be Zuck and be weird as fuck, it doesn’t matter. All entrepreneurs just need to do is do.
Do you know what? I tried selling my toys at like 5 or 6. My mother said ‘Alex what are you doing boxing your toys!?’ I told her ‘I want to make money.’ I can remember this. I have no idea what the hell I wanted money for. It just made sense to me. That didn’t make me a good entrepreneur, I just was selling fart guns.