Need for Achievement

The Need for Achievement in Small Business

Is the need for achievement, a personality attribute, necessary for success in small business? Why or why not? Locus of control? Independence? Leadership?

Small businesses ownership takes quite an amount of time involvement from the owner. Many small businesses become a part of the owners’ family as a result of the total time involvement. I can speak as an example of the time involvement for a family owned and ran business. Ever since I can remember I have been involved with our family owned and operated business located in Forest City, NC. A small business requires time, dedication, investment both monetary and non-monetary, as well as basic fundamental knowledge of the particular business. With all of the involvement and dedication along with the ups and downs as part of finding success it is hard to believe that anyone would want to dive into such a risky endeavor. What makes the average person with an idea different from the entrepreneur? Entrepreneurs must possess a need for achievement. Something inside of them wants to take the risk and make their idea become a reality. As humans we are risk-averse, the average human stays away from the uncertain. While it is fun to fathom up great ideas and let our imaginations run wild, only a small percentage of people actually take the risk.

Entrepreneurs must have a need for achievement and must possess certain personality traits. I do believe that certain personality traits are imperative to success inside a small business without attributes such as leadership and independence entrepreneurs would fail a lot more than statistics already prove. This would also explain why a lot of top executives leave their high paying jobs for futures as an entrepreneur. They fill driven by something inside of them that is saying they can do something better than it is already being done for the customer. They are not okay with the hours that they are working or having to answer to hierarchy about every aspect of their job. They are ready for a change and are willing to risk their lively hood in order to become an entrepreneur.

This is why all entrepreneurs must have a need for achievement. They must strive toward success and don’t take no as an answer. All kinds of courses and classes can prepare you for the overwhelming responsibility and teach you how to eliminate risks so that you will be better set up for success, but they cannot make you go into business. This is where the phrase “entrepreneurs are born not made” comes into play. I firmly believe that entrepreneurship can be taught. You can teach future entrepreneurs how to increase their productivity while minimizing costs, evaluate risks, track inventory, and even handle employees, but you cannot make them go into business for themselves. It has to be a part of them, an overwhelming array of independence and leadership that cannot be contained. Entrepreneurs, a lot of times, go into fields that they are comfortable with, that they see as successful and profitable, a business that they believe in.

According to David McClelland’s studies about entrepreneur’s mindset and need for achievement he was able to prove that majority of entrepreneurs “hold a certain psychological set.” His studies were performed at Harvard University Center of Entrepreneurial History. In his studies he performed tests that evaluated “relationships between an n Arch score (need for achievement score) and entrepreneurial behavior in young men.” He was able to prove that the following attributes were entrepreneurial traits that must be possessed by entrepreneurs:

• high need for achievement
• high need for independence
• locus of control
• tolerance for ambiguity and;
• innovation.

 

“The best entrepreneurs have some similarities with the old-fashioned adventurers of earlier history. Like the gunslinger, pirate or explorer, the entrepreneur is often unconventional.” Warren Avis