James Kilgarriff’s Weblog

Why do successful entrepreneurs think differently?

I came across a very compelling document written by Frank La Pira and Murray Gillin of the Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship claiming that successful serial entrepreneurs think more from their intuition or gut feeling than they so from logic.

We are aware that Intelligence can be measure by IQ levels. A new awareness is emerging in business circles known as Spiritual Capital or SQ. In other words some business leaders are beginning to perceive the business world with emphasis on Intuitive awareness. In today´s business world, for entrepreneurs to succeed they have to make fast decisions rather than depend on orderly sequential analysis of a situation otherwise opportunities are lost in the thinking process.

It would appear from the report that the heart receives intuitive impulses before the brain and it is from this emotional thinking space that many of the best entrepreneurs make so called illogical choices that turn out to be successes. Many entrepreneurs will enter new markets and industries without having any specialised knowledge and many do this on a “hunch”.

This is not to say that entrepreneurs just go all out with no information. According to the report they have the ability to take risks while realising the downside and go forward anyway.

The report summarises that the entrepreneur´s uniqueness does not entitle them to follow a self serving path and that making decisions from gut instincts also requires a sense of honesty and integrity and doing the right thing.

If you consider Bill Gates or Richard Branson, these are two great examples of people who have used unusual thinking styles and went against the grain and they have created great wealth and are now giving back to society in their own unique ways.

Although these finding are at the early stages of investigation this does point to a compelling vision of the business world moving more towards a more holistic way of operation. It may take many years before it becomes a mainstream acceptance, however, our model of the world in which we live and work is changing and there is no going back or holding onto the old patterns of thinking and success.