THE ENTREPRENEURIAL PERSONALITY 7idea into something concrete. Entrepreneurs also have the ability to
instill highly contagious enthusiasm in an organization. They convey a
strong sense of purpose and, by doing so, convince others that they are
where the action is. Whatever it is — seductiveness, gamesmanship, or
charisma — entrepreneurs somehow know how to create an organization
and give it momentum.
Why Study Entrepreneurs?
Studies of work behavior from a psychotherapeutic or psychoanalytical
perspective have been relatively scarce. Most of the existing literature
concerns itself with cases of work inhibition or compulsion. Occasion-
ally, one fi nds a discussion of people in the creative professions. No
attention has been paid, however, to entrepreneurs, even though they
are major contributors to economic development.
The paucity of clinical material about entrepreneurship in psycho-
analytic and psychotherapeutic literature suggests that entrepreneurs are
u n l i kely to t u r n to ps ychoa n a ly st s or ps ychot her api st s when t he y encou n-
ter personal diffi culties. They are not usually given to the kind of self -
refl ection and inner orientation called for by the clinical profession. And
only in extreme situations (given the amount of time that needs to be
invested in it) will they choose psychoanalysis as a form of therapy.
Although most of my research on entrepreneurship has been of the more
traditional management type (Kets de Vries, 1970, 1977, 1985 ), I was in
fact fortunate enough to have an entrepreneur come to me for psycho-
analytic treatment. This gave me the opportunity to study the inner
world of one particular entrepreneur in great depth.
In presenting a clinical case study of an executive, I follow a tradi-
tion started by a number of other researchers interested in the nature of
managerial work. In their search for rich description, these students of
executive behavior realized (for pragmatic considerations) that they had
to limit their sample size if they really wanted to understand managerial
behavior (Carlson, 1951 ; Stewart, 1967 ; Mintzberg, 1973 ; Kotter, 1982 ;
Noel, 1984, 1991 ). What differentiates my observations from the work
of others is that the subject of analysis in others ’ studies has been the
general manager, not the entrepreneur.
Some of my observations are also based on extensive studies of
entrepreneurs operating in a wide range of industries all over the world,
including Russia and Asia. My usual entry into their companies was as
an expert in strategic human resource management with a special inter-
est in entrepreneurship and family business. Sometimes senior executives