Test Yourself: What Is Your Entrepreneur Quotient?

By Betsy Simnacher | April 11, 2014 |

You’ve heard it before: Successful entrepreneurs are driven, outgoing, confident, assertive, resilient. That doesn’t mean a shy person can’t run a successful startup. But most entrepreneurs share common traits. We’ve compiled a totally unscientific quiz to help you determine your entrepreneur quotient—or at least to prompt a chuckle.

1. Who is your mentor?

a. Charlie at the He’s Not Here bar and grill
b. Jack Betterway, serial entrepreneur, who quit his widget-making job after designing the Betterway Widget Maker and selling it to Facebook for $1 bazillion
c. Ron Upright, head of engineering, who took you out to lunch last week

2. The glass is…

a. Half-empty
b. Half-full
c. Drained
d. I don’t know, but I see suds on it

3. I am most afraid of:

a. Bankruptcy
b. Airplane flights
c. Highway overpasses
d. Snakes on a plane
e. Support groups

4. A friend just gave you a gift certificate for a hot-air balloon ride. What do you do with it?

a. Buy a jacket because it might be chilly up there
b. Secretly re-gift it to Ron Upright
c. Allow your mother to talk you out of it
d. Borrow a parachute so you can experience skydiving as well

5. Your biggest client just rejected your latest presentation. What do you do?

a. Pull an all-nighter, totally reworking your pitch based on the client’s comments
b. Visit Charlie at the He’s Not Here bar and grill
c. Call engineering chief Ron Upright for some new ideas
d. Work on your script for Modern Family
e. a and c
f. b and d

6. Your friends describe you as a:

a. Workaholic
b. Perpetual student
c. Night owl
d. Carlos Danger

Give yourself 10 points each for these answers: 1. c, 2. b, 3. any answer but a., 4.d., 5.e., 6.a. Give yourself 40 points for being a good sport and taking this quiz. If your total is 100 points, you need to get started right away; anything less and maybe you should keep that day job.

We’re testing for the characteristics of a successful entrepreneur as outlined by Mike Allan, associate director of Livingstones Australia, an employment advisory firm: resilience, openness to new ideas, assertiveness or extraversion, conscientiousness, self-discipline and deliberation combined with the ability to take action.

Check out a more serious quiz to assess your entrepreneurial mettle.