Need for Achievement

A section titled, “The Need for Achievement” in chapter 8 caught my attention. Making perfect sense, but still interesting, was the fact that entrepreneurs have a higher need for achievement than other workers. The three common characteristics mentioned include, “they prefer working on tasks of moderate difficulty, they prefer situations in which performance is due to their efforts rather than other factors, and they desire more feedback on their successes and failures.” A person who challenges themselves, wants rewards based on efforts, and wants honest feedback is much more likely to be successful than someone who does not strive to achieve. I believe that anyone could relate to these characteristics as long as the objective is of interest to them and something they are passionate about.

The reason this section caught my attention is because I have been doing a lot of research of what it takes to be an entrepreneur. What I have found is people have a more successful career working on something they are passionate about than when they are rewarded by extrinsic factors such as a large pay check. While trying to figure out my career path, I have made this concept the basis of how I choose.