Entrepreneurial DNA:
Do you have what it takes to succeed?
by Michael Sexton
Michael Sexton interviews Thomas L. Harrison, author of Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Your Business Goals
Thomas L. Harrison might be America’s most unusual CEO. He began his career as a research scientist and cell biologist. As the pull of entrepreneurship became stronger and stronger for him, he finally hung up his lab coat and plunged into the world of business. Today, he is Chairman and CEO of Omnicom Group’s Diversified Agency Services, the world’s largest holding group of marketing services companies.
Harrison’s deep insight into parallel disciplines - genetics, psychology, and management, to name just a few - led him to write Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Your Business Goals. In this book, he maps a strategy for using knowledge of your own genetic makeup to achieve success.
In the conversation that follows, Trump University’s President Michael Sexton talks with Harrison about the link between DNA and success.
Michael Sexton: Is there really such a thing as entrepreneurial DNA?
Thomas L. Harrison: I believe there is. As a cell biologist and physiologist, I noticed many years ago that certain people possess particular traits that allow them to become successful more easily than other people can.
Now, that doesn’t mean that other people can’t be successful. They can! In fact, my book is really about helping people identify where they might lack a little DNA-given entrepreneurial talent. Once they know where their strengths and weaknesses are, they can work to develop the skills they need to get to the top.
MS: What is the first thing you notice when you see someone with great entrepreneurial DNA?
TLH: The most visible thing is the ability to handle risk, which really means two things. First the comfort to take risks; and second, the ability to manage risks. Those skills come much more easily to entrepreneurs than they do to others. They are the foundation of success.
MS: How can you understand your own genetic odds of success and what you need to work on?
TLH: You need to look at how strong or weak you are in what I call the Five Genetic Personality Traits:
Openness to Experience - Your receptiveness to new experiences and ideas.
Conscientiousness - Your ability to overcome impulsiveness and achieve goals.
Extroversion - Your level of ease in seeking out other people and connecting with them.
Agreeableness - Your ability to cooperate with other people.
Neuroticism - Your habitual reactions to the stresses of life.
The first chapter of my book includes an Entrepreneurial Personality Quiz that helps readers understand how they stack up in those areas. In later chapters, people use the results of that quiz to counterbalance any weak areas. Instinct does not provide a “one size fits all” prescription for success, but provides a personalized roadmap, based on one’s genetically inherited success and personality traits.
People tell me that my book, which provides both a tool for self-analysis and guidelines for addressing specific shortcomings, is practical and unique. It works!
MS: And to succeed, you need to have those traits working at equal strength?
TLH: Strongly, yes, but not necessarily equally. Different strengths create different personalities. After all, Donald Trump and Richard Branson are both successful entrepreneurs, but nobody would say that they have similar styles or outlooks.
MS: Can you tell me about the Picture Painting Gene, one of the eight critical success genes that you describe in your book? Is that a gene that helps successful people visualize their own success?
TLH: It is. The Picture Painting Gene is a turned-on ability to see yourself in success. In their minds before competitions, top athletes play and replay images of how they will perform. Not want to . . . but will perform. In great detail, they visualize how they will run their sprints, perform their backstrokes and win their marathons. And they win, because they have visualized themselves as winners.
Of all the Eight Success Promoters I describe in my book, the Picture Painting gene is one of the most important. If you can’t visualize yourself as successful, you’re not going to get there. But visualize success, and you’ll focus, move forward and attract people and events around you that will help you get to success. The success that fits your personal, genetic makeup.
For more insights on turning your entrepreneurial potential into real-world success, get involved in The Entrepreneurship Mastery Program from Trump University. Classes are forming now.
Michael Sexton is President of Trump University.
Posted on March 2 2007 at 7:18 AM
Category: Entrepreneurship
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Posted by Leesa for (c) DB7 International (LLC) on 03/02/2007 6:02 PM
I do believe that some people are genetically predisposed to greatness or inbred. Scientists say that it can be traced back generations!
Some other personality traits are evident in early childhood, such as leadership, initiative and drive. I'm sure that during entrepreneur week at elementary schools was evidence of those who were seemingly interested...gravitating to it, though having no understanding as of yet.
Although these skills can be learned, I feel that nature usually outlines the peking order along the way....
"I'm the king of the castle, and you're the dirty rascal..."
Survival of the fittest is usually defined in the beginning, unless late bloomers come along to catch up.
I wonder if Donald Trump ever had a kool-aide stand?
Posted by lightwayvez on 03/02/2007 8:23 PM
'TLH: It is. The Picture Painting Gene is a turned-on ability to see yourself in success. In their minds before competitions, top athletes play and replay images of how they will perform. Not want to . . . but will perform. In great detail, they visualize how they will run their sprints, perform their backstrokes and win their marathons. And they win, because they have visualized themselves as winners.'
Perhaps this why I see Mr Trump with such great form when I think skydiving with theworldteam
Posted by user89187 on 03/02/2007 8:26 PM
Cool, very cool!
by Michael Sexton
Michael Sexton interviews Thomas L. Harrison, author of Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Your Business Goals
Thomas L. Harrison might be America’s most unusual CEO. He began his career as a research scientist and cell biologist. As the pull of entrepreneurship became stronger and stronger for him, he finally hung up his lab coat and plunged into the world of business. Today, he is Chairman and CEO of Omnicom Group’s Diversified Agency Services, the world’s largest holding group of marketing services companies.
Harrison’s deep insight into parallel disciplines - genetics, psychology, and management, to name just a few - led him to write Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Your Business Goals. In this book, he maps a strategy for using knowledge of your own genetic makeup to achieve success.
In the conversation that follows, Trump University’s President Michael Sexton talks with Harrison about the link between DNA and success.
Michael Sexton: Is there really such a thing as entrepreneurial DNA?
Thomas L. Harrison: I believe there is. As a cell biologist and physiologist, I noticed many years ago that certain people possess particular traits that allow them to become successful more easily than other people can.
Now, that doesn’t mean that other people can’t be successful. They can! In fact, my book is really about helping people identify where they might lack a little DNA-given entrepreneurial talent. Once they know where their strengths and weaknesses are, they can work to develop the skills they need to get to the top.
MS: What is the first thing you notice when you see someone with great entrepreneurial DNA?
TLH: The most visible thing is the ability to handle risk, which really means two things. First the comfort to take risks; and second, the ability to manage risks. Those skills come much more easily to entrepreneurs than they do to others. They are the foundation of success.
MS: How can you understand your own genetic odds of success and what you need to work on?
TLH: You need to look at how strong or weak you are in what I call the Five Genetic Personality Traits:
Openness to Experience - Your receptiveness to new experiences and ideas.
Conscientiousness - Your ability to overcome impulsiveness and achieve goals.
Extroversion - Your level of ease in seeking out other people and connecting with them.
Agreeableness - Your ability to cooperate with other people.
Neuroticism - Your habitual reactions to the stresses of life.
The first chapter of my book includes an Entrepreneurial Personality Quiz that helps readers understand how they stack up in those areas. In later chapters, people use the results of that quiz to counterbalance any weak areas. Instinct does not provide a “one size fits all” prescription for success, but provides a personalized roadmap, based on one’s genetically inherited success and personality traits.
People tell me that my book, which provides both a tool for self-analysis and guidelines for addressing specific shortcomings, is practical and unique. It works!
MS: And to succeed, you need to have those traits working at equal strength?
TLH: Strongly, yes, but not necessarily equally. Different strengths create different personalities. After all, Donald Trump and Richard Branson are both successful entrepreneurs, but nobody would say that they have similar styles or outlooks.
MS: Can you tell me about the Picture Painting Gene, one of the eight critical success genes that you describe in your book? Is that a gene that helps successful people visualize their own success?
TLH: It is. The Picture Painting Gene is a turned-on ability to see yourself in success. In their minds before competitions, top athletes play and replay images of how they will perform. Not want to . . . but will perform. In great detail, they visualize how they will run their sprints, perform their backstrokes and win their marathons. And they win, because they have visualized themselves as winners.
Of all the Eight Success Promoters I describe in my book, the Picture Painting gene is one of the most important. If you can’t visualize yourself as successful, you’re not going to get there. But visualize success, and you’ll focus, move forward and attract people and events around you that will help you get to success. The success that fits your personal, genetic makeup.
For more insights on turning your entrepreneurial potential into real-world success, get involved in The Entrepreneurship Mastery Program from Trump University. Classes are forming now.
Michael Sexton is President of Trump University.
Posted on March 2 2007 at 7:18 AM
Category: Entrepreneurship
Permalink | Forward to a friend
3 Comments Post a comment
collapse all comments
Posted by Leesa for (c) DB7 International (LLC) on 03/02/2007 6:02 PM
I do believe that some people are genetically predisposed to greatness or inbred. Scientists say that it can be traced back generations!
Some other personality traits are evident in early childhood, such as leadership, initiative and drive. I'm sure that during entrepreneur week at elementary schools was evidence of those who were seemingly interested...gravitating to it, though having no understanding as of yet.
Although these skills can be learned, I feel that nature usually outlines the peking order along the way....
"I'm the king of the castle, and you're the dirty rascal..."
Survival of the fittest is usually defined in the beginning, unless late bloomers come along to catch up.
I wonder if Donald Trump ever had a kool-aide stand?
Posted by lightwayvez on 03/02/2007 8:23 PM
'TLH: It is. The Picture Painting Gene is a turned-on ability to see yourself in success. In their minds before competitions, top athletes play and replay images of how they will perform. Not want to . . . but will perform. In great detail, they visualize how they will run their sprints, perform their backstrokes and win their marathons. And they win, because they have visualized themselves as winners.'
Perhaps this why I see Mr Trump with such great form when I think skydiving with theworldteam
Posted by user89187 on 03/02/2007 8:26 PM
Cool, very cool!
posted by AcrosticGuy at 5:41 PM
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