Are successful entrepreneurs big risk takers?

There is a popular conception that successful entrepreneurs are risk takers. However, the opposing view is that entrepreneurs actually succeed by minimizing risk.

Implications to Other Questions

Would the typical entrepreneur be better off as an employee?

Experts and Influencers

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Agree

Experts In Business

Forbes Magazine Business Magazine

Agree

...entrepreneurs, politicians, athletes and show-business types ...all support the same conclusion: The best results come to those willing to take a chance--an important reminder for entrepreneurs, financiers and political leaders as the global economy braces for even rougher weather. ... [Illustratingly, one of the most impressive entrepreneurs we talked to said his greatest risk was] the time he mustered the courage to board an unknown, unsaddled horse.

The Goading Pitch

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01 Oct 2008 Source

Experts In Cognition

Robin Hanson Economics Professor

Mostly Agree

Much of the value in investing, or entrepreneurship, comes from an option value that is impossible to quantify... I suspect every novice investor is somewhat overconfident, and too many people invest recklessly... But there is a method to the madness, because... [overconfidence] offsets the general underappreciation of the option-value of investing on one’s career, where you can provide a variety of auxiliary services in finance, and risk-taking is part of the application process.

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03 Jul 2008 Source

Disagree

Experts In Business

Nicholas Carroll Entrepreneur, Programmer

Mostly Disagree

One of the most common misperceptions about successful startups is that successful entrepreneurs are risk-takers. Actually, they take risks from necessity, because it comes with the territory. By personal inclination, successful entrepreneurs are risk-minimizers.

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21 Sep 1999 Source

Experts In Psychology

Malcolm Gladwell Journalist, Author

Disagree

The truly successful businessman, in Villette and Vuillermot’s telling, is anything but a risk-taker. He is a predator, and predators seek to incur the least risk possible while hunting. Would we so revere risk-taking if we realized that the people who are supposedly taking bold risks in the cause of entrepreneurship are actually doing no such thing?

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18 Jan 2010 Source

Comments

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1 Point JGWeissman 06 Mar 2010 Stance on Question: Neutral

Success requires good risk management. This involves an ability to accurately assess how likely a risk is to pay off, and to consider the costs and the potential payoff. Systematically successful entrepreneurs Shut Up and Multiply.

0 Points jenifferjones 21 Sep 2012 Editorial Comment

http://cyberworldltd.academia.edu/RobertPattinson

1 Point Joe 01 Feb 2010 Stance on Question: Disagree

Sometimes entrepreneurs get famous for taking one big make-or-break risk - that made it for them. These are the newsworthy risks that you hear about and popularize the (mis)conception that successful entrepreneurs are big risk takers.

0 Points Anonymous 01 Feb 2010 General Comment

A success story also sells better by exaggerating the risk element. This not only distorts the stories of successful entrepreneurs, but also causes a selection bias such that more risky entrepreneurs are more likely to have their story told compared with an equally successful but more conservative entrepreneur.