Jewish World Review

Are you successful, but a real jerk?

By Louise Witt

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | (KRT) We've read about them over and over again. An entrepreneur founds a wildly successful business and then is forced out, because he's alienated those who work with him.

The common explanation is that these companies get too big for the entrepreneurs to run. They're not managers; they're idea guys.

But John Gartner, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, has another theory: It's not that they just haven't been trained as managers, but they're not wired to be managers — they're hypomanics.

Garter, who studied successful businesspeople in his recent book, ``The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between A Little Craziness and A Lot of Success in America'' (Simon & Schuster, $26), said the most successful entrepreneurs are somewhat manic in their single-mindedness. "They have an offbeat idea, which they believe with messianic fervor will change everything," he said. "And their evangelical zeal gets other people on board."

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Apple Computer co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs thinks his company's product will change our lives, and is a good example of this type of visionary. In fact, Gartner said, Jobs formally acknowledged the importance of evangelism in business when he made Guy Kawasaki the company's Macintosh evangelist in the early `80s. Jobs also embodied the hypomanic's dark side, and was ousted from the company in 1985 due to his mercurial management style. He returned as CEO in 1997.

It was during the dot-com era that Gartner, a psychologist, started to notice that entrepreneurs had the same manic behavior as those who consider themselves to be religious prophets. "I started to realize that all these figures on CNBC and in FORTUNE magazine shared some of the same qualities as messianic visionaries," he said. "They said, `We are going to change the world and get rich doing it.'"

In profile after profile, Gartner said, business publications described these entrepreneurs as "maniacs." To Gartner, describing someone's behavior as manic was more than an easy label - it described a specific type of behavior. Maniacs have grandiose visions and high energy, and are risk-taking and impulsive. A hypomanic shares some of the same characteristics of a manic-depressive, but he doesn't suffer from a psychiatric disorder.

"It's not an illness, but it's not normal," said Gartner. Hypomanics "don't think outside the box, because they don't even see the box." In his book, Gartner cites J. Craig Venter, founder and former CEO of Celera Genomics, as a classic example of a hypomanic. Setting off a race to map the human genome, Venter bragged that Celera would beat the National Institutes of Health's Human Genome Project, even though the government initiative had a considerable head start. In early 2001, both announced their findings.

Yet, less than a year later, the biotech firm fired Venter, because he refused to consider that the company might be more profitable as a pharmaceutical company. Venter and his foundation, The J. Craig Venter Institute, in Rockville, Md., are now at work mapping the genomes of the airborne microorganisms like fungi, bacteria and viruses in order to study how they affect human health.

Venter's ouster from Celera shows the downside of being a hypomanic entrepreneur — these personality types can be real pains in the rear.

Hypomanics tend not to listen to others' suggestions because they believe their ideas are the right ones. They also are impatient with others, because they believe they must take action immediately. And they can make disparaging comments without considering that they may hurt people's feelings. While these characteristics may not prevent entrepreneurs from starting their ventures, they could become liabilities later on when the company needs loyal employees.

If you think you are a hypomanic, Gartner has some tips about how you can modulate your behavior.

• Don't be a jerk. You may think that it's perfectly understandable for you to get angry at someone who doesn't agree with you, but you have to realize that your temper tantrum may have lingering repercussions. You may not remember what you said five minutes later, but the person you insulted won't forget so quickly.
  

• Don't rush into decisions. Take time to consider different courses of action. While making a quick decision may pay off in some cases, in others it may cost you your business. One entrepreneur told Gartner that his modus operandi was "ready, shoot, aim," He finally realized that it would be better if he changed it to "ready, aim, shoot."
  

• Don't assume that your company will be an instant success. It's good to think big, but not so big that you set yourself up for failure.

Remember, you may have the best idea in the world, but if you can't work well with others, you may not be around to see it to fruition.