This is an article full of anecdotes, but most of the anecdotes are wrong.<p>Steve Wozniak isn't an entrepreneur. He's an inventor. Steve Jobs was the entrepreneur and convinced Woz to do things his way (i.e. the way that ended up working).<p>Marissa Mayer is not an entrepreneur, and she's not even a good CEO. I'd argue she's an absolutely abysmal CEO.<p>Warren Buffett is certainly not an introvert if you've ever seen him speak, and his history also suggests he's not an introvert. He was a door-to-door salesman as a young man.<p>It's just ridiculous to say that being introverted is a benefit in entrepreneurship. Starting a company is more about people and relationships than almost any other task in life, and it's <i>much</i> easier when it's something you enjoy and can do naturally.
The problem with this line of thinking is that, like most other things, introversion/extroversion is not binary; it's a spectrum. The Myers-Briggs type indicator (considered as borderline pseudoscience by many) places me, for instance, in the introvert camp, but the tests suggest that I'm only 6% into it, which makes things way less clear-cut than one would be inclined to believe. Relying on it being a strictly binary identificator opens up the possibility for all types of these interesting speculations and categorizarions, but they all break down when you realize the complexity of human psyche very resiliently defies them. An introvert who can effectively pretend and act like an extrovert (which is a skill like any other) can be a better entrepreneur than an extrovert who doesn't know how to use their extroverted tendentions for this particular use-case. I'm not contending that the article is completely false, but the overall conclusion is too exclusive ane definitive to be applicable to humans at large. People with the skills that define entrepreneurs are good entrepreneurs; their other characteristics may help them or not, but no effective conclusions can be drawn from such a narrow point of view as the one presented in the article.
In my oppinion there is truth to it, big part of top management positions are filled with extraverted people because they are most likely to speak before everyone else. While introverted people like to take their time to think about it.<p>Like the article said, introverted people are better leading self-motivated employees who don't need a lot of direction. Which means he has more time to focus on the things that matter.
Is there some study with correlations etc?<p>I think until recently introverts needed extroverts to run the business, raise money etc. But today cost to run business is pretty low and it is no longer case. All we need today to start decent business is a laptop and bit of savings.<p>Today Tesla could probably stay at home (or tropical island), run his business from Austria, manufacture parts in China and find customers all around the world. No need for Edison.
I am not saying introverts can't make great entrepreneurs but lot of the characteristics can be of anybody - introvert, mildly introvert, mildly extrovert, or extrovert.<p>Generalisation when there is no need - that's what the article is about.
> Introverts, whom experts say comprise about a third of the population...<p>Stuff like this implies it's clear-cut. But I don't even know whether I'm an introvert or an extravert. I strongly identify with traits at both ends of this supposed spectrum. And I don't see myself as someone who 'swings' between the two, nor do I see my traits as conflicting. I just don't identify with this spectrum at all. And I can't confidently place other people on it either. It feels willfully vague and pseudosciencey to me.
An interesting/semi-related question comes to mind - do the majority of comments on HN come from people who fall on the more extrovert side of the spectrum, or introvert side?
Anyone else think its ironic that Mark Zuckerberg is on the list of introverts? Facebook by design favours extroverts more, those who talk about themselves and feel comfortable sharing about their lives.
You need Cash/Caste to succeed as an Entrepreneur in India;
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varna_in_Hinduism" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varna_in_Hinduism</a>