Home-run sluggers want to change the world in a big and obvious way, says serial entrepreneur John Warrillow. They are not thrilled with incremental success, and the trend toward serial entrepreneurship is not necessarily appealing to them. Sluggers would rather make a single business their life’s work, and make it big (if at all.) They are not as amenable to early exits or succession planning. Fred Smith of FedEx is an obvious example of a slugger.
Think of business owners who have a series of successful business start-ups to their name as you would hitters in baseball who have a high on-base percentage. Like the on-base hitter, these entrepreneurs are content to achieve success in bite-sized bits on a regular basis, rather than all in one flourish. Rene Lacarte fits this description. The founder of PayCycle and Bills.com has launched a serious of similiar businesses in the online payment field. Each has been a success, though none has been a bullseye.
Fact Finders, as defined by the Kolbe personality test, are entrepreneurs who seek details before making decisions. Just as picking at a single yarn in an old sweater unravels it, each answer to a fact finder’s question triggers a new set of questions. The fact finder seeks out the answers to his or her questions before making decisions.
Follow-Through entrepreneurs love systems, according to the Kolbe test. In fact, creating a system is how they react when confronted with the chaos created by any start-up enterprise. Follow-Through entrepreneurs think in a linear fashion, where Step 1 leads to Step 2 and so on. Their companies tend to operate by methodology (think Six Sigma) and to reward employees for continuous process improvement.
Implementers, the Kolbe test says, live in the physical world and enjoy building and fixing things. They are innovative by nature, and always looking to build the proverbial better mousetrap. Implementers thrive in environments that allow them to work with their hands.
