Beyond Stereotypes

I noticed it immediately - indeed it was unmistakable: The charged-up energy of entrepreneurship. It hit me like a wave as soon as I arrived at Perfect Pitch 2009, the entrepreneur/investor conference I attended this week.

The level of excitement, stress and pure self-promotion at the conference seemed almost testosterone-fueled. Perhaps that's because the audience - and presenters - were mostly male. Or perhaps it's because there's a mythos that surrounds entrepreneurs, who are usually portrayed as hard-charging, risk-taking extroverts.

But that popular perception, however ubiquitous, may be off the mark. Dr. Candida Brush, an professor of entrepreneurship at Babson College, writes that being a successful entrepreneur is more about what you do than who you are.