Many people talk about the dangers of narcissists in business and the workforce, but could there be some benefit Narcissistic founders can have in startups?
Narcissism is defined as someone who is grandiose, entitled, arrogant, aggressive, self-serving, and has a lack of empathy. A study on narcissism and entrepreneurship done by B Burger suggested that narcissists could actually increase a startup’s success in the beginning.
One of the reasons why narcissists mainly benefit startups is because narcissists tolerate risk more than the average person and they gain more from the risks they take. Startups are an insanely risky business model and the vast majority of them fail, so it’s necessary for the CEO of a startup to thrive on taking massive risks.
Many people aspire to become entrepreneurs because they think they have a good idea that can help others, but many people want to be entrepreneurs in order to become famous or respected as genius innovators. This desire has its pros and cons, the benefit of this desire is that it can motivate someone to work harder even when it’s tough due to having an intense desire for admiration. On the other hand, wanting fame can make the individual impatient when it doesn’t pan out right away, or even with the understanding that most CEOs even if they are fairly successful, do not become world famous as they had hoped.
Studies done by Grijalva and Harms, 2014 have shown that when a problem occurs or even if the whole startup has failed that narcissists tend to blame other people instead of themselves. This can prevent the narcissist from losing their confidence and giving up, but it also means that they don’t learn from their mistakes, and they are likely to keep repeating them until they learn the hard way.
Other issues that can pop up with a narcissistic CEO include engaging in scams or pseudoscience. If a company is caught using, promoting, or even creating fake science or products, it could destroy a new startup and potentially end the CEO’s reputation and ability to create new reputable companies for good.
Overall, there are pros and cons to having a narcissistic CEO, narcissists charisma, self-confidence, risk-taking behavior, and ambitious nature make startups especially appealing to them and allow them to take chances and roll out products and services more often and faster than the average person. But on the flip side, once the glamour and novelty of the company begin to wane, the narcissist often loses interest or becomes demotivated and can negatively impact the company’s success.
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