I remember when the PR firm for The Entrepreneur Next Door contacted me and I had two reactions. The positive one was that the title was similar to one of my favorite financial books of all time The Millionaire Next Door -- so this one had to be at least decent, right? The negative reaction was to the book's premise: how personality (tests) can determine who's a successful entrepreneur. Yawn. But I agree to review the book anyway, so here goes.
Book Summary
Here's a good summary of what the book is about from the press release accompanying the book:
In The Entrepreneur Next Door, Bill Wagner analyzes the characteristics and personality traits that make up a successful entrepreneur and invites readers to take an online personality test to determine their own entrepreneurial strengths and weaknesses.
The Five-Tier Performance Pyramid outlined in this book helps the reader learn more about their own personality, job behaviors, actions, results and metrics in comparison with those of already successful entrepreneurs. Studies have shown that a person will be five times more successful in a position if he or she has the right personality for that particular job. In addition, research indicates that many personality types, even less entrepreneurial ones, actually do have the potential to birth a successful business.
Wagner says, “Over the past eight years, I, and the members of my company, Accord Management Systems Inc., have interviewed and studied the behaviors of more than 1,500 fearless business founders and leaders. Most were under 40 years old, primarily in their 20s and 30s. They also all had annual sales of more than $1 million. What we discovered from our study is that, as different as these entrepreneurs appear, with relation to each other, they share a number of common personality traits. These traits were the predominant indicators of their success; far outweighing what we usually rely on to determine one’s success: education, family ties, skills, and experience.” Wagner is the top expert on understanding workplace behavior and knows what successful traits entrepreneurs posses that lead to financial independence. He can tell potential entrepreneurs how to start a business based on their best qualities and skills, and what they can do to achieve entrepreneurial success.
This is a pretty good summary of what the book actually covers. And if you're like me, you might be thinking that we're now entering the financial twilight zone. I thought I'd really find this book to be strange (I'm not much for personality tests predicting anything), but it surprised me.
My Thoughts and Rating
The book does a great job of showing and explaining how personality can help determine entrepreneurial success. It does this by including a detailed set of questions (your "Entrepreneurial Profile") that spits out a score telling you how well you're suited to be an entrepreneur. The rest of the book then goes on to explain the results as well as detail other aspects of personality and how they impact/predict entrepreneurial success. Finally, it gives thoughts and tips on your best chances of making it as an entrepreneur.
I was surprised by how much I liked this book. I'm not looking to start my own business, but if I was, I'd certainly buy this book, take the test, and listen to the advice. Being an entrepreneur is risky stuff (most businesses fail within the first few years) and I'd look for any insights possible to give me a better chance of success. I believe the ideas and suggestions in The Entrepreneur Next Door are valuable and can help would-be entrepreneurs be better prepared when they finally decide to go it on their own.
The Free Money Finance rating for The Entrepreneur Next Door (based on my 0 thru 10 rating system) is: 7 Stars.
There are only four things we can do with money, spend, save, give, or build. People tend to specialize in one or two of these. Entrepreneurs specialize in building.
Posted by: Lord | August 11, 2006 at 03:36 PM