One of the important lessons in entrepreneurship is to figure out your goal: Do you want to run a small business forever? Grow into a multinational corporation? Or do you want to sell as fast as possible? Your business should fit your personality and your vision for your life.
New York magazine profiles a drug dealer trying to find an exit strategy for his mid-size company. Which sells cocaine, of course. Believe it or not, there's a market for drug dealerships. And you can tell this guy is an overachiever in the business world because he keeps his client list on an Excel spreadsheet.
Here's how he explains his plan: "The rule in any business is that you don't sell your company for what it makes in a year, but for what it makes in two or three or four years, right? Well in my business, you can't do that. Someone gets arrested and — boom– it's over. So you gotta sell it based on what you make in, like, six months."
For those of you who are thinking about entrepreneurship in a less life-threatening product category, try taking Pairwise's entrepreneurial personality test (scroll down the page to find it). This test tells you if you have the personality similar to other scrappy Internet company founders who Y Combinator has funded.
Y Combinator typically funds young technical-type guys in college or just out of college, (although every time I write this, Y Combinator asks me to say that this is an overstatement and they actually fund a wide range of people.) If you know you are not this type even without taking the test, and you know you can't stomach the drug trade, there's still hope.
Current research from the academics says that there is no one personality type for a successful entrepreneur. There are so many ways to be an entrepreneur today that you can create a business to fit your strengths.









Thanks for mentioning that NY Magazine article, I love reading articles about "industries" that are normally shrouded in secrecy (at least most of the time). It was an exceptionally interesting read.
Posted by jim on 04/04/2007 at 04:25pm | permalink | Reply to this comment
The first question listed is: “Are you inclined to rely more on improvisation than on careful planning?” Didn't you tell us your answer last week. (And recommend it for everyone?)
Posted by Recruiting Animal on 04/04/2007 at 07:21pm | permalink | Reply to this comment
The "One Man Drug Company" article is fascinating, thanks for the pointer! That's one of the things I love about your blog, you have great links. The book I'm reading now, Freakonomics by Levitt and Dubner, has a lot of other intriguing details about the business of the drug trade.
Posted by melanie gao on 04/04/2007 at 09:29pm | permalink | Reply to this comment
This really reinforces my belief the addict personality type often makes for a great entrepreneur. For something interesting along these lines, look up the organization '12 Angels'. They provide micro finance to entrepreneurs in recovery from alcoholism or drug addiction.
Posted by Randy Spelling on 12/18/2008 at 03:54pm | permalink | Reply to this comment
Randy- thank you for this information. I work in addiction treatment and I am going to pass this onto the board. This looks like a fantastic organization- and it is a brilliant idea. Some very capable recovering addicts just need a 'jumpstart' and something to work for.
Posted by Treatment Professional on 01/02/2009 at 08:27pm | permalink | Reply to this comment
I agree, this type of person does make a good entrepreneur, however their honesty is questionable?
Posted by Ellie on 03/18/2009 at 07:22am | permalink | Reply to this comment
One of the important lessons in entrepreneurship is to figure out your goal. I thinks this is the most important point, If you want to grow your business, so that you have to picture your business.——- public bankruptcy records
Posted by marriage public records on 11/06/2009 at 07:52pm | permalink | Reply to this comment
This test tells you if you have the personality similar to other scrappy Internet company founders who Y Combinator has funded.
Posted by Healthy on 12/18/2009 at 07:11am | permalink | Reply to this comment