high levels of positive affect have been found to reduce attention to negative information--especially information that contradicts currently held beliefs and attitudes

"People who experience a preponderance of positive emotions tend to be successful and accomplished across multiple life domains ... not merely because success leads to happiness, but because positive affect engenders success."

the tendency to experience and express positive affect is strongly associated with many desirable outcomes

Positive affect increases the volume of creative ideas, but, when intense, can actually interfere with careful evalua-tion of such ideas, especially in the absence of offsetting negative affect.

There is a powerful and general belief that being "positive" -experiencing and expressing positive feelings-is an important "plus" in life.

emotional reactions appear to overrule logic

evidence from neuroscience research indicates that affect plays a fundamental role in human thought, and that trying to understand cognitive processes such as decision making, planning, and problem solving in isolation from affect and emotion is unlikely to yield the full, comprehensive information we seek.

expectations (an aspect of cognition) often strongly influence the emotions and feelings we experienc

current moods strongly influence perceptions of the external world,

current moods influence memory

To examine this relationship in detail, the present chapter proceeds as follows.

current moods influence creativity

wo basic dimensions: activation (low-high) and valence (pleasant-unpleasant).

the benefits and potential costs for entrepreneurs of positive affect-positive moods, feelings, and emotions-will be exam-ined.

entrepreneurs are somewhat higher than other persons in extraversion-a tendency to be outgoing, expressive, and sociable

Clearly, this involves their ability to manage their own emotions (e.g., Baumeister, Zell, and Tice, 2007), one key component of emotional intelligence (e.g., Salovey and Grewal, 2005), which includes the capacities to recognize emotions accurately (in others · and ourselves), to use them to advance important activities and goals, and to manage one's own emotions effectively.

the emo-tional effects of failure, and how entrepreneurs attempt to cope with it, will be considered

attention will be turned to entrepreneurial passion, the powerful positive feelings and deep commitment entrepreneurs feel with respect to their ideas for something new and useful

entrepreneurs tend to be relatively high in expressiveness, the propensity to communicate their feelings and emotions in outward, visible ways

passion influences entrepreneurs' goals and self-efficacy (their beliefs that they can accomplish whatever they set out to accomplish)

Affect encompasses both moods, which are often relatively long-lasting reactions but are not clearly focused on specific events or objects (e.g., cheerfulness, depression), and emotions, which are generally shorter in duration but more specifically directed toward a particular object (e.g., a person, event, object), and include reactions such as anger, sorrow, and joy

entrepreneurs-in contrast to other groups such as managers-tend to truly ride an emotional roller-coaster. Their "highs" are higher and their "lows" lower than those experienced by many other persons.

several studies indicate that passion-entrepreneurs' powerful commitment to their ideas, visions, and ventures-plays an important role in their success

entrepreneurs are indeed higher than other persons in optimism-the belief that events will generate positive outcomes

We were young, but we had good advice and good ideas and lots of enthusiasm.

here is a "feeling" side of life too, and it is just as important and central as cognition

it is clear that entrepreneurs often lead an incredibly rich emotional life. Typically, they show intense com-mitment to and enthusiasm for the ideas they generate. Further, they are known for high levels of optimism, enthusiasm, energy, and perseverance in the face of adversity-reactions with strong emotional components

the goal is to show studentsthat performance can improve with practice. This belief is essential as it provides studentswith the motivation necessary to endure otherwise imperceptible progress.

expos-ing students to real-life cases where grit is easily observed gives students the message thatthey can be successful in spite of hardship

the dependent variable in the study is entrepre-neurial intent, which does not necessarily translate into entrepreneurial action

Ideally, grit will become an inherent component ofthe learning environment experienced by university students. This in turn will result inmore entrepreneurs and more successful entrepreneurs

here was a strong positive associationbetween grit and entrepreneurial intentions. It was also found that grit shared a significantpositive correlation with both agreeableness and conscientiousness

grittier peopleare more optimistic when failing and that is why they continue to put forth more effort.

practitioners should teach students strategies for setting goals (Willingham, 2016).Grit requires perseverance toward a long-term goal. As such, learning to set good goals isthe first step in developing grit in students.

the high grit participants emerged as havingsignificantly higher means scores for entrepreneurial intent than their counterparts in thelow grit group

Given the fierce competitive environment facing new and young businesses, it isn’tunrealistic to assume that grittier entrepreneurs will be more successful.

Can grit be taught?

this studymakes an important contribution in that it substantiates the notion that grit is a meaning-ful variable for comparing entrepreneurial intentions between groups.

In a study of university students, Lucas, Gratch, Cheng,and Marsella (2015) found that grittier participants increased their effort in a losing situationcompared to less gritty participants.

business education, that teaches grit,may influence entrepreneurial intent.

The results of this study are intriguing in that extraversion and entrepreneurial intentwere not significantly correlated

grit as one of several self-regulatory processesneeded to support entrepreneurship

individuals higher in grit are higher in conscientiousness and agree-ableness and lower in neuroticism

Since the sample consisted of college students focusing on entrepreneurial intent, itmay be that, in this population, students with more extraverted personalities are fo-cused on positive emotion, sociability, energy, and stimulation in their current environ-ment.

highgrit students had higher means scores for entrepreneurial intent than their counterpartsin the low grit group.

business education allows students to be more realistic about what is neededto start a business, essentially suggesting that endurance (i.e., grit) development should bea cornerstone of the curriculum

Ultimately,openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism predicted grit

Participants’grit was measured using 12-item scale created by Duckworth et al. (2007).Items on this scale were evenly distributed between two subscales: Grit Interest andGrit Effort

older students exhibited greater entrepreneurial intent.Surprisingly, there was no significant correlation between age and grit. Grit was, however,positively correlated to the number of business classes that students had taken. This sug-gested that students who take lots of business courses are likely to have a high grit scoreas well

correlations between the Big Five and grit werepositive for agreeableness and conscientiousness and negative for neuroticism

Duckworth et al.(2007) found a positive association between grit and age

grittier students were less put offby hard practice, which is the most significant predictor of long-term performancegains

Mean scores on the Big Five personality traits (openness, extraversion, agreeable-ness, and neuroticism) will be significantly different between students with high gritscores and those with low grit scores

A group of students who are higher in grit are expected to have higher meanscores on entrepreneurial intent than a group lower in grit.

educators and men-tors may be able to influence grit by encouraging individuals not only to work with in-tensity, but also to build stamina in pursuit of long-term goals

Significant intercorrelations exist among the study variables (participants’age, thenumber of business classes they had taken, the Big Five, grit, and entrepreneurial intent)

Overall, this study aims to explore the influence of grit on entrepreneurial intentions (i.e.,an individual’s inclination to start new businesses). In particular, a better understanding ofgrit, personality traits, and entrepreneurial intentions may inform business educators

Grit, like personality is an individual difference variable; however, unlike personalityDuckworth et al. (2007) purported that grit may be influenced (e.g., through educa-tional interventions) and changed over time.

Gritty

entrepreneurial intentions precede entrepreneurial actions

there has been increasing interest in examiningself-regulatory processes in entrepreneurship. Self-regulation is associated with successin a number of different areas of activity.

elf-regulatoryprocesses should be especially related to entrepreneurship within innovation ecosys-tems. Innovation ecosystems are competitive environments in which the member orga-nizations share a common set of technologies, knowledge, or skills.

with long time horizons, avoid distractions, invest a lot of effort into those goals, andare not deterred by difficulties.

grit was related to conscientiousness more than anyother of the Big Five personality traits. Grit and conscientiousness share variability intheir focus on achievement; however, grit is distinct in explaining the unique variabilityin persevering toward a long-term goal, while conscientiousness is more short-term ori-entated.

Grit entails the focus of attention onand stamina in pursuit of long-term goals, which are referred to as consistency of inter-est and perseverance of effort (

Most people would agree, at least anecdotally, that individuals who work hard withpractice and diligence may be successful despite of a lack of natural talent

finalists with more grit performed better than non-gritty fi-nalists, due in part to more hours spent studying

These two studies show that talent or IQ, alone, does not translate to success. It takesgrit to be successful.

self-regulation occurred through theindividual’s control over thoughts, emotions, impulses, motivations, and finally behav-iors

People who have grit stick with their goals for years even when there are set-backs and failures

self-regulation was a better indicator of academic per-formance than intelligence

the current study adds to the literature by examining howgrit, a construct related to, yet distinct from conscientiousness, influences the entrepre-neurial intentions that precede future entrepreneurial actions

an individual effectively selects goals, chooses appropriate strategies andactions to achieve those goals, and attends to feedback in order to monitor progressand adjust actions to stay on course or avoid obstacles

entrepreneurs scored higher on conscientiousness and openness to experiencethan managers

the currentstudy sought to elaborate on the impact of individual differences on the entrepreneurialprocess, thus bolstering the explanatory power of broad personality traits through grit.

The current study does not attempt to arrive at an“entrepreneurial personality;”rather, it seeks to understand the variability in entrepreneurialintent explainable by broad personality traits, i.e., the Big Five.

Itshould be further noted that there is evidence from meta-analyses that measures of broadpersonality traits, like the Big Five, do explain variability in entrepreneurial intent

They studiedundergraduate student’s GPA and SAT scores compared to their grit score.

The inconclusiveness ofprevious research leads researchers to wonder if the Big Five traits are too general, sosome researchers have attempted to explain entrepreneurial behavior through more spe-cific traits.

higher grit scores correlated with higher GPAs

a comprehensive framework for the numerous traitsthat can describe a personality. To this end he used the Big Five personality traits:openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroti-cism

individ- uals with an “entrepreneurial personality”tend to be proactive.

ntrepre-neurial intent as “...a self-acknowledged conviction by a person that they intend to setup a new business venture and consciously plan to do so at some point in the future”

some researchers have endeavored to measure per-sonality in narrow traits to attempt to capture the elusive “entrepreneurial personality.”

entrepre- neurial intent was associated with individuals who were high in openness, conscientiousness,extraversion, and average on agreeableness.

those high in agreeableness related negatively to entrepreneurial intent.

people who were exceptionally open to experi-ence or those who were high in conscientious as related positively to entrepreneurial intent

personality traits precede entrepreneurial inten

A positive relationship between openness and entrepreneurial intentand no relationship between neuroticism and entrepreneurial intent is the only consensus inthese studies.

resultsconfirmed that there was a strong positive association between grit andentrepreneurial intentions

ersonality traits predict entrepreneurial intention, aside from neuroticism, which wasnegatively related

intent may ormay not lead to entrepreneurial action in starting a business and future success.

intent reliably predicts human action

We introduce grit as apotential mechanism through which personality traits relate to entrepreneurial intent

entrepreneurial intent

This project specifically aims to explore the role that the individual characteristic ofgrit plays in relation to entrepreneurial intentions.

Research in the field of entrepre-neurship has placed models of entrepreneurial intentions at the center of our under-standing of the entrepreneurial proces

Grit is described as a consistent focuson and enduring attention to the pursuit of long-term goals.

The current study addresses how per-sonality traits and individual differences in grit influence individuals' entrepreneurial intent.

Openness had a direct positive effect on entrepreneurialintentions, but there was no predictive relationship between openness and grit.

measures of grit within a larger constructlabeled tenacity

A direct effect without mediation indicated that the Big Five personalitytrait in question significantly predicted entrepreneurial intent with no mediation bygrit

entrepreneurial intent is “the expressed behavior intention to becomean entrepreneur”

egulation of emotions was the highest ability of the sub-scales for each entrepreneur. Self control was highly evident in the ability to focus despite ambiguity, obstacles, or emotional chaos and to cope with workplace stress, as well as personal stress

Expression of emotion was not only evident of the entreprencurs, but they appeared expres- sive the majority of the time and do not practice withholding their own emotional information. They each promote a work environment where “the cards are laid on the table” and expression of emotion is encouraged and part of work strategy.

of the self-awareness dimension, each entrepreneur exhibited an exceptional amount of well-grounded self-confidence, a realistic assessment of their own abilities and using self-prefer- ences to guide decision making. Of the self-regulation dimension, delaying gratification was consid- erably apparent. Recovering from distress was also apparent. Of the motivation dimension, using passions to motivate, perseverance and the determination to improve, was highly exhibited by all seven of the entrepreneurs. Of the empathy dimension, cultivating rapport among employees and clients was a skill that each entrepreneur not only exhibited, but also promoted in the work environ- ment. Of the social skills dimension, the ability to persuade and negotiate was considerably strong as well. Therefore, as well as satisfying all three dimension of the Mayer, Caruso, and Salovey (1990) EQ model, each entrepreneur satisfied the components of the Goleman (1998) model

cial skills involve adeptness at inducing desirable responses in others. Similar to the Mayer, Caruso, and Salovey (1990) sub-scale of utilization, the difference lies in its focus of negotiation and persuasive skills.

ach entrepreneur exhibited utilizing anxiety as a source for determination and relentle .

consists of perception, appraisal and expression of emotion; emotional facilitation of thinking; understanding, analyzing and employing emotional knowledge; and reflective regulation of emotions to further emotional and intellectual growth.

Little is known about the EQ possibility to be learnt, and therefore the implications for training

Empathy is awareness of other's feelings, needs, and concerns. Basically the same as the Mayer, Caruso, and Salovey (1990) model, its only difference is the emphasis on rapport building.

Utilizing emotions in problem solving, and in day to day functioning, was particularly strong in all of the entrepreneurs. Emotional reactions to such situations as criticism and rejection, ambigu- ity and stress appeared to be utilized to achieve greater results and persistence. Regarding a setback as a challenge, enduring periods of major and continual minor setbacks, accepting setbacks as nor- mal, transforming them into a positive reason for improvement, showed incredible utilization of emotions.

Self-regulation is managing one’s internal states. impulses, and resources. It involves managing emotions so as to avoid task ation to pursue goals, recovering from emotional distress and being conscientious.

what is missing in the entrepreneurship debate is the influence of emotions, and how imperative a role they play in entrepreneurial success.

Self-awareness involves knowing one’s internal states, preferences, resources and intuitions. It also involves having a realistic assessment of self-ability and a well-grounded sense of self-confidence.

Motivation is emotional tendencies that guide or facilitate reaching goals. It is using passions to drive one towards one’s goals, to persevere and strive to improve.

Trail, cognitive and achievement-motive theory have in some ways enriched the literature and have at least encouraged the debate of an underlying individ- ual difference that sets these personalities apart from the rest. However, the story behind what defines an entrepreneur remains relatively elusive.

Emotions tend to be more fleeting than moods because of their intensity. However they are responsible for creating the ongoing mood,

oods are low intensity, generalized feeling states, unre- lated to the events and circumstances which may have created the mood originally.

ognitive theory, such as the Neck, Neck. Manz & Godwin, (1999) theory of Self-Efficacy Perception, have attempted to explain entrepreneurship as definitive thought processes, in that entre- preneurs are able to perceive greater self ability than the norm and thus achieve greater results.

Emotions are high intensity feelings that are triggered by specific stimuli

the deep desire for personal achievement as the motivator for entrepreneurs to perform beyond the norm.

ntensity defines their differences.

entrepreneurs seem to be defined by one particular talent, they are constantly ‘bringing into being something new, and wrestling with making a success out of what is only partly established’

Entrepreneur trait theory is based on the premise that the beginnings of devel- oping a business is determined by the individual (Littunen, 2000). However, a fundamental problem with trait theory in general is that, not all entrepreneurs have shown to possess the same array of traits.

They are opportunists and creators of opportunities that they can then exploit

Goleman (1998) defines emotional intelligence as having personal competence in the follow- self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.

The exclusive and integral nature of emotions and moods in cognition and behavior has recently been receiving its due attention

Recent times have seen researchers move away from the financial and economic domain of entrepreneurship and produce a flourish in the effort to define the personal qualities behind the entrepreneur that develops outstanding businesses

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) has been identified as a crucial predictor for workplace success.

hree main theories, motive theory, trait theory and cognitive theory have dominated the psy- chology-based research of entrepreneurship,

While follow-up research that builds on this exploratory study is required, we encour-age entrepreneurship educators to think deeply about how the development of emotionalintelligence competencies can be incorporated into entrepreneurship education.

Trustworthiness is commonly thought of as a combi-nation of character and competence. Teamwork and collaboration depend upon trustwor-thiness and good communication skills. Fortunately, all of these aspects of entrepreneur-ial leadership can be enhanced through focus and skill development and thus these find-ings can prove useful to entrepreneurs

entrepreneurship educators should examine whether integrity andethics are fully incorporated into the entrepreneurship curriculum. In addition, the abilityto deal with uncertainty and ambiguity seems to be a challenge that needs to be continu-ally addressed

but unlike the entrepreneurs in this study,these leaders also scored highest on emotional self-awareness, organizational awareness,developing others and inspirational leadership

The participating entrepreneurs reported that they demonstrated higher levels of self-con-fidence, trustworthiness, achievement orientation, service orientation, empathy, changecatalyst, and teamwork and collaboration in comparison to other competencies in thequestionnaire. In addition, these competencies seemed qualitatively higher when com-pared to the norm in the overall population.

Stagg andGunter (2002) found in their study of firefighers and officers that outstanding leadersdemonstrated higher levels of emotional self-awareness, self-confidence, achievementorientation, organizational awareness, developing others, inspirational leadership, andconflict management.

we found the lower level of demonstration for initiative and adaptabili-ty interesting. Despite explanations offered earlier associating these findings with the cal-culated risk-taking of entrepreneurs, it could be that even successful entrepreneurs find itdifficult to deal with uncertainty and ambiguity.

previous studies

this research is important to our understanding of entre-preneurs and the entrepreneurial process. In particular, the findings may be of interest tothree groups: practicing entrepreneurs who wish to enhance their entrepreneurial skills inan effort to growth their business ventures; entrepreneurship research scholars who strug-gle with definitions of entrepreneurs; and entrepreneurship educators who are faced withpreparing prospective and nascent entrepreneurs.

Another interesting finding was the negative direction for optimism and number ofyears since founding the firm. One might argue that entrepreneurs are most optimisticwhen initiating a new venture and that optimism is likely to be tempered with a huge doseof reality as the firm becomes more established and deals with the challenges of growingand maintaining a business venture.

seize opportunities and becoming impatient and frustrated when these actionsdo not produce desirable results immediately.

While entrepreneurs are often forced to act in unfamiliar situations, the notion of “calcu-lated risk taking” is based on the assumption that entrepreneurs seek information in orderto make decisions and, prior to moving forward, to exploit opportunities. Moreover, whilethose decisions may appear risky to others, the entrepreneur has reduced his feelings ofrisk and “unfamiliarity” associated with pursuing a particular opportunity or set of oppor-tunities through these information and experience gathering activities

higher levels of self-confidence,achievement orientation, and change catalyst.

, and orientation to others

contrary to the popular myth of autonomous and indi-vidualistic entrepreneurs (McClelland, 1961), our entrepreneurs reported a higher level ofdemonstration of teamwork and collaboration compared to other competencies in thestudy

Further research is needed in this area to assess theimportance of trustworthiness in the entrepreneurial process

Since all study participants are highly successfulyoung entrepreneurs, it is possible that they possess a higher level of self-awareness thantypical entrepreneurs.

, personal maturity

An unexpected finding was that both initiative and adaptability were also lower amongthe survey respondents. A person who demonstrates initiative is “ready to seize opportu-nities, pursue goals beyond what’s expected of them, cut through the red tape and bendthe rules, and mobilize others through unusual, enterprising efforts” (Goleman, 1998:122). A person who demonstrates adaptability can “smoothly handle multiple demandsand shifting priorities, and adapt their responses to fit fluid circumstances”

The self-assessment data revealed a number of interesting phenomena among entrepre-neurs. The participating entrepreneurs reported that they demonstrated higher levels ofself-confidence, trustworthiness, achievement orientation, service orientation, empathy,change catalyst, and teamwork and collaboration

found that achievement traits

, controlling and directing

A personwho demonstrates emotional self-control “manages their impulsive feelings and distressingemotions well,” is able to “stay composed even in trying moments,” and is able to “thinkclearly and stay focused under pressure”

distinguished superior-performing entrepreneurs

Table 1. Emotional Competency Clusters and ScalesSelf-Awareness Self-ManagementEmotional Self-AwarenessAccurate Self-AwarenessSelf-ConfidenceEmotional Self-ControlTrustworthinessAdaptabilityAchievement OrientationInitiativeOptimismSocial Awareness Social SkillsOrganizational AwarenessService OrientationEmpathyDeveloping OthersInspirational LeadershipInfluenceChange CatalystsConflict ManagementTeamwork and Collaboration

Emotional self-control was one of the lowest demonstrated competencies

it does not seem prudent totranslate prior emotional intelligence research on leadership to entrepreneurship directly

Goleman (1998) classified emotional intelligence intofour distinct sets of emotional competencies (see Table 1): self-awareness (awareness ofoneself); self-management (management of oneself); social awareness (awareness of oth-ers); and social skills (management of one’s relationships with others)

rustworthinessmight be one of the key ingredients of successful entrepreneurs. Goleman (1998) definedtrustworthiness as the ability to maintain standards of honesty and integrity. A person whodemonstrates trustworthiness acts ethically, builds trust through their reliability andauthenticity, admits their own mistakes, and takes tough and principled positions despiteunpopularity (Goleman, 1998). It is then likely that without building and having trust,entrepreneurs might have difficulty building the support network necessary to ensure thesuccess of their start-up business.

our samplereported that they demonstrated lower levels of emotional self-control, adaptability, andconflict management, and with the exception of conflict management, their values, whilestill slightly higher, were consistent with the norm in the overall population

emotional intelligence helps us to recognize our own feel-ings and those of others, to motivate ourselves, and to manage our own emotions and alsoemotions in our relationships with others

trustworthiness was ranked the highest of all competencies andscored much higher than the overall norm.

little attention has been given to the emotional intelligence of entrepreneurs

these competencies seemed qualitatively higher when com-pared to the norm in the overall population

an emotional competence is “a learned capability based on emo-tional intelligence which results in outstanding performance.”

entrepreneurs runcompanies that are posed for rapid and explosive growth whereas small-business ownersare building lifestyle companies that provide an income.

The concept of an entrepreneurial mindset has been used to bridge the two domains ofdiscovery and creative entrepreneurial proces

Emotional intelligence, defined by Salovey and Mayer (1989) as a form of social intel-ligence

emotional competencies that result in effective oroutstanding performance act as a conduit for emotional intelligence

the key distinction between entrepreneurial behavior andmanagerial behavior is the entrepreneur’s intentionality toward the creative process.

In the creative process, opportunities emerge as individ-uals explore ways to generate economic wealth

Entrepreneurs are defined by theirkeen ability to perceive opportunities that are available to all, but only acted upon by afew

In keeping with the entrepreneurial mindset perspective, we suggest that emotionalintelligence may also contribute to our understanding of the people who are able to suc-cessfully discover, create and exploit opportunities.

egarding the entrepreneurial decision-making process, Hoy and Carland(1983) found entrepreneurs to be more perceptive and flexible while small business man-agers were more logical and methodical in their decision making

Recent cognitive-based research theory development could be classified as eitherfocusing on the discovery or creative process of entrepreneurs

researchers have suggested that a focus on defining entrepreneurship interms of personal characteristics and behaviors of the entrepreneur has been a significantobstacle to the development of a conceptual framework for the field of entrepreneurship

the entrepreneurial mindset includes passionately seeking newopportunities, pursing opportunities with enormous discipline, a focus on execution, andthe ability to engage the energies of others toward a goal

may require demonstration of competencies such as self-management orsocial management skills that are included in the emotional intelligence inventory

not only do entrepreneurs create opportunities through an emergentsearch process, but this process also creates the entrepreneur.

emotional intelli-gence helps us to recognize our own feelings and those of others, to motivate ourselves,and to manage our own emotions and also emotions in our relationships with others

entre-preneurship should not be defined solely in terms of who the entrepreneur is and what heor she does but rather as “a scholarly examination of how, by whom, and with what effectsopportunities to create future goods and services are discovered”

emotional intelligence is the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feel-ings and emotions, to discriminate among them, and to use this information to guide one’sthinking and action

In the discovery process, entre-preneurial opportunities exist to be discovered by alert entrepreneurs who can objective-ly assess and evaluate the risk factors and exploit opportunities

large number of studies have focused on the task of identifying these motives, and overall, have found that financial gains are one, but by no means the only or even most important, motive. In fact, a review of exiting evidence (Franklin & Baron, 2015) indicates that the desire for autonomy or independence is ranked as the most important by entrepreneurs. Financial gain is second, followed, in descending order, by the desire to grow and develop as a person, to escape from unpleasant work environments, to acquire status and recognition, to contribute to the well-being of their communities and societies, and to contribute to solving important social problems

Motiva-tion refers to internal states (often not open to direct observation) that energize and guide behavior, and underlie its persistence

when goals are so challenging as to be realistically unattainable, performance and motivation may both decrease.

motivation without cognition leads to undirected, random actions, while cognition without motivation lead to inaction—no overt actions occur. Only when the two function together does goal-directed, planned behavior occur.

it is crucial to adopt challenging but attainable goals.

The process of converting ideas into reality

Since all entrepreneurs start with dreams of success and are highly motivated to attain them, an important question arises: why do so many experience disappointment instead of realization of these dreams?

entrepreneurs need many skills, relevant knowledge and experi-ence, personal characteristics, motives, and goals. Together, these aspects of human and psychological resources provide them with what might be viewed as the tools they need for success.

without entrepreneurs “nothing happens, the entrepreneurial process simply does not occur.”

motiva-tion is intimately linked with cognition

It is a basic theme of this chapter, however, that many of the causes of entrepreneurs’ success or failure, involve the entrepreneurs themselves

Whatever the specific goals individuals seek or whatever actions they view as helpful in reaching these goals, their purposeful, planned actions, reflects motivation.

nging eudaimonia to such inquiries could reveal patterns ofeffects opposite to those observed for hedonic well-being (life satisfaction) in high-stress entrepreneurial pursuits. Su

Relatedness is, in fact, a basic human need in self-determination theory, along with competence and autonomy –all are framed asinherently intrinsic motives.

r those who did not create ventures, human capital was negatively related to post-disaster functioning.