WHERE THE MONEY-MAKER DWELLS

        Perhaps entrepreneur is hard to define, because we’re viewing it from too narrow of a perspective. Entrepreneur is better defined as a process rather than a person. Chris Steyaert (2007) reviewed 20 years of entrepreneurial research and concluded that the entrepreneurial process is a culturally shaped achievement, the result of engaging with and transforming social practices of doing and living. What this means for us is that we can view entrepreneurism as a process on a continuum. We will find a normal distribution of entrepreneurs at every stage of an organizations development, but says Stevens (2009) those at either end are considered to have distinctive traits that set them apart from the average business leaders. It is the needs of the organization that determines the traits necessary for success.

        One success trait that is common to entrepreneurs at the extreme ends of the continuum is an unusually high drive for success. The entrepreneur that gravitates to the start up operations of a company has a strong drive to initiate revolutionary change. People at this end of the continuum have the ability to break out of existing paradigms generating ‘‘less expected and probably less acceptable solutions’’ (Kirton, 1988). On this end of the continuum we find the Warrior Entrepreneur. They love the fray; the everyday battles that challenge their interpersonal and cognitive skills. However, on the opposite end of the continuum dwells the Empire Builder Entrepreneur. This is the individual that has a strong drive for planning strategies and applying systematic step-by-step approaches to business. (Lynch 1986; Mintzberg, 1989). I propose that if we place either entrepreneur at the opposite end of their cognitive abilities they will fail. In other words, the Warrior struggles to make money when the social structure requires building the organization and the Empire Builder will be defeated in the battle of new company start ups.