The simple truth is that adults in mid-life are tired of doing the same ol’ thing. Day in and day out, they get up to work for someone else at a job they don’t like. They are burned out, undervalued and overworked. Most times, this career unrest actually stems from something much deeper than what’s visible on the surface. My career change services help the mid-life career changer find the purpose they can pursue with a passion for the rest of their life. People are seeking both meaning and money, and I help them find that.
Is Becoming an Entrepreneur Your Next Career Move?
As you may know, many of CDA’s career coaching clients start their own business rather than going back to work for someone else. The entrepreneur characteristics indicator below is what clients take as they contemplate starting their own businesses. Take the entrepreneurial quiz today and see how you compare.
Entrepreneur Characteristics Indicator Checklist
| Indicate how true the following statements are about you by placing the corresponding number in the blank by each numbered statement, using the following scale: | ||||||||||
| NOT AT ALL | SLIGHTLY | SOMEWHAT | QUITE WELL | COMPLETELY | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||||||
| _____ 1 | Need to feel a strong sense of control over my own destiny. | |||||||||
| _____ 2 | Have good health and a high energy level. | |||||||||
| _____ 3 | Set clear goals which are challenging and obtainable. | |||||||||
| _____ 4 | Have foresight and commitment to work toward these long-term future goals. |
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| _____ 5 | Have a firm belief in my ability to achieve my goals. | |||||||||
| _____ 6 | See myself as an overcomer with a high level of tenacity and determination. |
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| _____ 7 | Have moderate people skills and communicate well. | |||||||||
| _____ 8 | Stay relatively cheerful, cooperative, and tactful. | |||||||||
| _____ 9 | Impose my own standards and compete with myself. | |||||||||
| ____ 10 | Know how to build on successes and learn from failures. | |||||||||
| ____ 11 | Like situations where I can make a measurable impact. | |||||||||
| ____ 12 | Tolerate frustration and ambiguity. | |||||||||
| ____ 13 | Deal successfully with modest to high levels of uncertainty and job insecurity. |
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| ____ 14 | Can work on a number of different projects and issues at once. | |||||||||
| ____ 15 | Stay cool under fire and solve problems well under pressure. | |||||||||
| ____ 16 | See myself as fairly original and creative, as well as analytical and realistic. |
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| ____ 17 | Seek aid from outside resources as needed. | |||||||||
| ____ 18 | Have the knowledge and/or technical skills in my field for building a business. |
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| ____ 19 | Understand the language of business: i.e., the financial, legal requirements, etc. |
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| ____ 20 | Have a healthy respect for making and managing money. | |||||||||
| ____ 21 | Have a close family member who has owned his/her own business. | |||||||||
| ____ 22 | Know I can do my work better than anyone else. | |||||||||
| ____ 23 | Tend not to be interested in outside investments over which I have no control. |
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| ____ 24 | Have a clear vision — a purpose — a plan to create and implement. |
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| ____ 25 | Not particularly interested in partnerships. | |||||||||
| ____ 26 | Willing to learn new skills to be more successful. | |||||||||
| ____ 27 | Not especially interested in managing or supervising others. | |||||||||
| ____ 28 | Have a tendency to focus on my own interests and concerns. | |||||||||
| ____ 29 | People tend to label me a workaholic since I appear to have limited outside interests. |
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| ____ 30 | Take only calculated risks, though others tend to see me as a risk-taker. |
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| ____ 31 | Creating/designing a successful business is my major motivation. |
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| ____ 32 | Buying an existing business and building it is a major motivation for me. |
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| ____ 33 | Making money is an important measure, but not the only measure, of my success. |
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| ____ 34 | The approval of others is not particularly important to me. | |||||||||
| ____ 35 | Fear becoming stale in my work. | |||||||||
| ____ 36 | Making something out of nothing is a major motivation of mine. | |||||||||
| ____ 37 | Primarily motivated to do something very well. | |||||||||
| ____ 38 | Do not fit in a conventional, traditional organization. | |||||||||
| ____ 39 | Have a knack for spotting new ideas, concepts, and coming needs. |
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| ____ 40 | Constantly aiming higher than where I am currently comfortable. | |||||||||
| ____ 41 | Set realistic, attainable goals for my work. | |||||||||
| ____ 42 | My goals are consistent with my interests, values, motivations, and skills. |
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| ____ 43 | Compete with my past achievements rather than with another person. | |||||||||
| ____ 44 | Can delay gratification and work toward distant goals. | |||||||||
| ____ 45 | Can deal with temporary failure and mistakes on my way to my goals. | |||||||||
| ____ 46 | Have a “right” sense of timing, an instinct for the best time to act. | |||||||||
| ____47 | Practice continuous and increasingly ambitious goal-setting. | |||||||||
| ____48 | Have the ego strength to know and admit when I’m wrong. | |||||||||
| ____49 | Consumed by my work since I find it stimulating, satisfying, and revitalizing. |
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| ____50 | Have high confidence in my abilities and competencies in my work. |
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| ____51 | Prepare well and leave little to luck or fate. | |||||||||
| ____52 | Except for business reasons, I am not a joiner by nature. | |||||||||
| ____53 | Have an ego that tells me that “I will do well –” not “I’m the greatest ever!” |
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| ____54 | Can master challenges, overcome obstacles, and realize my goals. |
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| ____55 | Can make a decision and act quickly. | |||||||||
| ____56 | Have difficultly working for others. | |||||||||
| ____57 | Know my weaknesses, and either overcome them or work around them. |
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| ____58 | Have faith in my abilities and skills. | |||||||||
| ____59 | See mistakes as temporary barriers and know that I will recover. | |||||||||
| ____60 | Take responsibility for my failures. | |||||||||
| ____61 | Can give great attention to details if it’s critical to my business. |
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| ____62 | Can balance facts and intuitive decision-making. | |||||||||
| ____63 | Rely on my hunches and intuition for business decisions. | |||||||||
| ____64 | Can tolerate uncertainty. | |||||||||
| ____65 | Have always liked to make money. | |||||||||
| ____66 | Personal achievement and challenging work have always been important to me. |
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| ____67 | If I won the lottery, I would continue to work much as I do now. |
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| ____68 | Even when young, I was the leader, in charge, the one in control. | |||||||||
| ____69 | Control over my time and choices is important to me. | |||||||||
| ____70 | Have an instinct and history of turning negative into positives. |
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| ____71 | Have little patience with game-playing and office politics. | |||||||||
| ____72 | Thrive on responsibility and accountability. | |||||||||
| ____73 | Competitive by nature. | |||||||||
| ____74 | Fear failure, but that doesn’t stop me. | |||||||||
| ____75 | Tend to work at odd hours when the mood hits. | |||||||||
| ____76 | Frequently find it easier to do things myself than to show others. |
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| ____77 | Become bored with a profession or business role after about 2 years. |
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| ____78 | Tend to be a perfectionist in my work product or service. | |||||||||
| ____79 | Use a good idea regardless of its source. | |||||||||
| ____80 | Want to pursue my life in my own way. | |||||||||
| ____81 | See corporate organizational life as restrictive, irrational, and intrusive. |
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| ____82 | Want flexibility to set my own pace, schedule, lifestyle, and work habits. |
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| ____83 | Hedge my bets. | |||||||||
| ____84 | Willing to lower my standard of living for future opportunity. | |||||||||
| ____85 | Don’t rest on my laurels, but move on to another challenge. | |||||||||
| ____86 | Have sometimes felt displaced, disengaged, or misfit in my work life. |
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| ____87 | Had distant relationship with my father. | |||||||||
| ____88 | Mother was dominant but supportive of me. | |||||||||
| ____89 | Labeled non-conforming and rebellious by many others. | |||||||||
| ____90 | Had real problems dealing with authority figures in the workplace. |
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| ____91 | Have no problem doing things differently from others. | |||||||||
| ____92 | Feel as if I “march to a different drummer.” | |||||||||
| ____93 | Have felt victimized by a former employer. | |||||||||
| ____94 | Many see me as having a killer instinct. | |||||||||
| ____95 | Feel confident I could succeed in many kinds of businesses. | |||||||||
| ____96 | Rarely trust outside consultants — especially counselors and academicians. |
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| ____97 | My biggest problems relate to personnel. | |||||||||
| ____98 | Don’t do things by the book. | |||||||||
| ____99 | Always feel a need to keep learning. | |||||||||
| ____100 | Have a string realistic, common sense quality. | |||||||||
| ____TOTAL | ||||||||||
| Range = 100-500. The higher you score on the indicator, the more traits you have in common with entrepreneurs, according to the literature. | ||||||||||
| Are you currently self-employed? | ____YES ____NO | |||||||||
| Are you considering it in the future? | ____YES ____NO | |||||||||
Now that you have reviewed the entrepreneur characteristics indicator checklist, how do you compare? Could owning your own business be in your future? Career Design can help you answer that important question, as helping adults change careers is what we do best.
Contact us today and schedule an initial appointment (at no cost) to explore your career circumstances, and our career change services.
