An author finds what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur
Five years ago, Amy Wilkinson was attending a birthday party in New York City when she looked around at the prominent guests and saw several well-known entrepreneurs. They included the founders of Google, eBay, and Gilt Groupe.
That got Wilkinson, a fellow in the White House Trade Office at the time, thinking. She wondered what had made these entrepreneurs successful when so many others had failed. “I decided to study the most successful entrepreneurs to figure out what skills they had in common,” says Wilkinson, a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Thus began her research odyssey: 200 interviews with leading entrepreneurs, including the founders of LinkedIn, Spanx, Chipotle, and Airbnb.
This piece originally appeared in Stanford Business Insights from Stanford Graduate School of Business. To receive business ideas and insights from Stanford GSB click here: (To sign up: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/about/emails)