Do entrepreneurs have psychological disorders?

The positive side of negative traits.

Plenty of famous entrepreneurs display weird characteristics. Many have ugly personalities. Some appear neurotic. Others are simply rude, arrogant or difficult to work with.

It can come with the territory. Starting a business is often frustrating. You could forgive the odd mental or emotional explosion.

Less forgivable are greed or dishonesty, like Steve Jobs famously short-changing Steve Wozniak, or Mark Zuckerberg dumping best friend Eduardo Saverin. These unflattering examples are the stuff of popular movies.

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Getting Lucky

Sometimes, the flip side is the better track

In 1978 Gloria Gaynor was a moderately successful singer. That changed when she covered a Righteous Brothers number called “Substitute.” Few would remember the tune. That’s because it flopped. On the flip side was a new track no one had heard of. It was called “I Will Survive.” It went to the top of the charts and so did Gloria Gaynor.

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Investment and life

Too much info, too much fear.

Got enough information? There’s plenty available. Search any idea and you’ll be overwhelmed in seconds. Little will be relevant; a lot will be rubbish.

It’s dangerous stuff.

Decades ago MIT professor, Paul Andreassen, asked two groups to trade an identical investment portfolio. One got minimal information, the other had loads of it. The former easily outperformed the well-informed latter. Information overload can curb performance.

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Why you are not always a great leader

Sometimes it’s someone else’s job.

Winston Churchill was a great wartime leader. If you took out the word “wartime”, would the statement still stand?

At school his achievements were patchy. As a politician he was deeply divisive. He made some massive policy errors. By returning Britain to the gold standard he helped trigger the Great Depression.

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Why helping others is good for you

Treating colleagues like customers. 

I once spent a few months working as a kitchen hand in a ski resort. It was the ideal job if you wanted to work on your skiing; not so great if you wanted to enjoy your work.

That wasn’t because the job was hard. It was because the chef was an idiot. His passion was customer service. He demanded the staff focus entirely on the experience of the diner. 

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