Previous Return Next
ARE YOU A NATURAL ENTREPRENEUR?
Katherine Benziger, Ph.D.

(Part III for the May/June Exponent, Journal for the Women's Business Group, the Women MBA graduates of the University of Chicago's Business School.)

Now, how does a woman’s Natural Lead relate to her being a successful entrepreneur?

Basically, the women who have a natural lead in the Frontal Right, Jung’s intuitive types, tend to be more independent and conceptual, cutting edge, big picture. Looking at their own inner vision, they are not dissuaded by the fact that the product they want to manufacture or build does not exist or has never been done before. They see the trends and invent or create solutions, which make them potentially very good entrepreneurs.

Women who have a natural lead in the Frontal Left, Jung’s thinking types, can do very well as entrepreneurs – but generally elect to buy or leverage an existing company or product originally created by someone else.

Women who are natural Basal Rights, Jung’s feeling types, go into business for themselves often, although their businesses tend to be concrete and service oriented such as real estate, hair salons, day care centers, nursing homes, catering. As well, Basal Rights tend to be less comfortable making overnight business trips which cut them off from their family, so the scope of any venture they undertake tends to be more local or regional. They often make good money, but not as much as more frontal women who naturally focus on and explore bigger territories, and more complex ways to build and leverage any situation so that the ROI is greater.

Women who are natural Basal Lefts, Jung’s sensation types, are the least likely to become entrepreneurs, but may do so – especially if they are an only or eldest child, and or highly extraverted – by buying a franchise that permits them to leverage their own gift for implementing while, guaranteeing themselves support and guidance from the more the frontal thinkers who own or manage the parent company.

And, how does a woman’s level of inner wakefulness relate to her being a successful entrepreneur?

In general, the more introverted a woman is, the less likely she is to seek to become an entrepreneur. This is true for many reasons. For one thing, the ability to push against others to sell an idea to raise money or make a deal is key to being a successful entrepreneur. This type of ‘pushing’ tends to be very uncomfortable for introverts. Another key to entrepreneurial success is the ability to identify a product for which the market is ready – so that she and her investors will make a rapid and sizeable return on their investments. This ability is again one which is found in women who are more extraverted. Introverted women tend to be less interested in what the market is ready for and more interested in what they feel would be right and good for people. Introverts are sometimes seen as the caretakers of human morals and humanitarian values. As such they serve as our conscience, whether what they are choosing to focus on is popular or not. That makes them unsuited to being entrepreneurs.

Actually, I am an example of this. I am a natural Frontal Right, which means that I am quite naturally aware of big picture trends in my area of expertise – human development. However, as a highly introverted woman, I am drawn to solve the problems that I feel are morally and humanly critical more than the ones that will make me money. I have focused on Falsification of Type for 25 years because: I saw how our industrial and post industrial culture rewarded and educated our left modes significantly more than our right modes; how it bullied and bribed women who were natural Intuitives and Feelers to abandon their gifts to achieve success. I have observed as well the individual and societal costs of this trend – the diminished self-esteem; diminished creativity; and diminished community. As an introvert, I focus on what I believe is important for humanity – whether or not people pay me to do so. I believe it is important. 25 years ago, the market was far from ready to learn about Falsification of Type and its costs. Indeed, 25 years ago, the neuro-science explaining the phenomenon I was studying wasn’t well enough understood for me to prove what I thought I saw happening in the world was actually happening. The reality is that you would hardly refer to me as an entrepreneur. Rather you think of me as self-employed. That is the difference. Not right or wrong, just different. A more extraverted Intuitive looking at my work immediately starts to identify applications that link to marketable products because they are more interested in the delivering things to the market which the market will buy.

It is similar to the difference between an inventor and an innovator. The inventor who is extraverted is also, quite naturally an innovator who takes her invention into the market and sells it. The inventor who is more introverted invents, but has difficulty selling others on the value of what she has invented. In research labs, in companies like DuPont this can cause trouble because the introverted researcher may make a discovery or invent a new chemical, but due to her more introverted nature have difficulty selling her boss on how and why her work is important and deserves more funding.

Previous Return Next