“Of course, perseverance does not guarantee success, but success is often unattainable without it.”, Peterson and Seligman (2004)
Based on the quote by Peterson and Seligman (2004), perseverance may be a character strength relevant to success. Character strengths are morally positive valued units of personality, and there are twenty-four character strengths (e.g., perseverance, creativity, and kindness) that contribute to fulfillment (Peterson & Seligman, 2004).
In my master thesis at the renowned department of Prof. Willibald Ruch at the University of Zurich, I quantitatively answered questions like how do character strengths relate to entrepreneurial success? Why are some entrepreneurs more successful than others? Can character strengths predict entrepreneurial success? To answer these questions, entrepreneurs answered online questionnaires, e.g., the VIA-IS 120 (a quantitative scientific questionnaire measuring character strengths with 120 items). Below I present you a summary of the character strengths constituting the character of successful entrepreneurs according to my research:
- How do successful versus less successful entrepreneurs differ themselves regarding their character strengths? Successful entrepreneurs reported having higher levels of zest and humor when compared to less successful entrepreneurs. Yet, successful entrepreneurs reported having lower levels of prudence than less successful entrepreneurs.
- What are the five highest character strengths of successful entrepreneurs? Character strengths can be ranked regarding their centrality to the individual (i.e., the extent to which they are central and naturally expressed in an individual) (Harzer & Ruch, 2013). In my master thesis, the highest character strengths of successful entrepreneurs were honesty, curiosity, kindness, fairness, and creativity.
- How do character strengths correlate with entrepreneurial success? Love of learning was positively associated with firm performance, such that the more the entrepreneur reported loving to learn, the higher the firm performance was rated. Meanwhile, leadership was related to workplace relationships. In other words, the higher the self-reported levels of leadership, the better the entrepreneur rated the relationships at work.
Take-home Message
Character matters for business success. For instance, character strengths are differently associated with entrepreneurial success, such that successful entrepreneurs reported higher levels of zest and humor when compared to less successful entrepreneurs. Thus, I ask you: What are your character strengths? If you would like to find this out, you may want to consider the free instrument VIA-IS (German version; English version). Meanwhile, I wish you a successful entrepreneurial endeavor!
