From the Reporters
Carole Matthews

The Merits of Madness

 

Join the discussion! Read Inc.'s May 2005 "Book Club" column by Reporter Darren Dahl here, post your comments about the book, and e-mail questions you have for the authors. Send them to Darren Dahl at ddahl@inc.com, using the subject line, May Book Club. We'll send the best ones to the authors for answering, and then post a complete Q&A on Fresh Inc.

Everyone knows entrepreneurs are a little crazy, and a new book claims it's both genetic and very American. In The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (a Little) Craziness and (a Lot of) Success in America, author John D. Gartner claims that the personality traits that define entrepreneurial overachievers, like exceptional energy reserves, gut-instinct decision making, and an affinity for taking risks, are symptoms of hypomania, a psychiatric cousin of bipolar disorder. Gartner suggests the U.S. leads in churning out entrepreneurs because this is a nation of immigrants, another group high in hypomanic risk-takers. He uses case studies of historic visionaries like Alexander Hamilton and Andrew Carnegie to support his contention that hypomanics have long been threatening to change the world.--Darren Dahl