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I was fascinated by the recent BBC program “child of our time” which conducted the largest ever personality test in Britain.

It was reported that we all have five core traits in our personalities but to different degrees:

• Openness indicates how willing we are to explore new ideas and ways of doing things.

Scoring high in openness means you should be suited to creative jobs such as journalism, art, research

• Conscientiousness indicates how well we plan and exhibit self-control.

It was shown that those scoring high in conscientiousness tend to be happy in whatever role they choose as in the work place you have the ability to create structure and rules and understand that the more you put into your work the great the rewards will be.

• Extroversion indicates our desire for stimulation.

It is thought that if you score highly in extroversion you are suited to careers with lots of simulation and social contact such as sales, finance, law and teaching.

• Agreeableness indicates how easily we get along with others.

A high score here indicates you would be most content in caring industries such as health care and education.

• Neuroticism indicates how we deal with negative emotions such as stress and anxiety.

Displaying high levels of neuroticism is perfect for administration roles because these negative emotions drive the need to be perfect thus minimising errors.

After watching the program and listening to the traits I found it exceptionally difficult to judge what my profile might look like. I was keen to understand how I came out so I could relate this back to how I perform at work. After taking the test I found I was a fairly even mix but conscientiousness was highest and neuroticism was lowest.

To find out the balance in your personality you can take the BBC online test https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/results/personality/index_safe.html

I thought I have a look at the traits considered important to succeed as an entrepreneur and associate these to the personality traits:

Inner Drive to Succeed (conscientiousness)

Strong Belief in themselves (extroversion)

Search for New Ideas and Innovation (openness)

Openness to Change (openness)

Competitive by Nature (extroversion)

Accepting of Constructive Criticism and Rejection (agreeableness)

The thing to appreciate here is that we are all a mix of all the recognised personality traits and after looking at the research it is my belief that anyone can start a business. The initial desire must first be present, which already indicates you have a higher leaning to the tendencies required.

The moral of this story is that to run a successful business it’s vitally important to be self aware and appreciating what you can do well and understanding what someone else could do better for you. Which opportunities are more suited to your personality profile? Perhaps you’ll need to employ managers or take on an accountant in your chosen venture.

Entrepreneurs out there, I would be very interested to learn what your results came out like.