The Entrepreneur Next Door

The Entrepreneur Next Door
Bill Wagner
Entrepreneur Press
ISBN: 1-932531-96-3
Non-Fiction, Business
Reviewed by Dr. Tami Brady

The idea of having your own business and being your own boss sounds like a fantasy come true. Unfortunately, although many individuals have the dream, not everyone actually follows through on entrepreneurship. Furthermore, off those people who do start their own businesses, many fail within the first three years simply because the entrepreneur doesn’t have the skills, the know-how, or the right personality to do the job at hand.
The Entrepreneur Next Door primarily looks at personality types. The book identifies seven different personality types: Trailblazers, Go-Getters, Managers, Motivators, Authorities, Collaborators, and Diplomats. These groupings are based upon levels of dominance, sociability, relaxation, and compliance. The first four personalities in this list are labelled generalists and tend to be natural entrepreneurs while the final three categories include specialists that tend to be more successful when they find a particular entrepreneur opportunity that matches their area of expertise.
I found these personality categories very interesting and helpful. At first, it didn’t seem like the category closest to my personality actually suited me. However, after going through the chapters on how each personality type leads, learns, sells, and what ticks them off, I realized that the information was quite insightful and useful in my business planning and strategies.