Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Your Business Goals

This book is a must read - from those interested in a start-up venture to corporate managers wanting to maximize their success and leadership skills. With the right mix of scientific evidence and real life examples, Tom Harrison's Instinct reveals not only how to act on your entrepreneurial DNA, but also how to compensate if you do not have perfect instinctive genes. This book is sure to find its way into business schools serious about their entrepreneurial programs.

Tom Harrison's inspiring story of success and the practical guidance he shares is a wonderful synthesis of theory and real-world experiences. As an entrepreneur and business owner, I am a fan of the business book genre and over the years I have had the pleasure of reading and crediting a great many authors for my own professional growth. Tom is now among those authors. I'm getting copies of the book for my entire management team. The book presents a scientific framework for understanding entrepreneurship along with practical guidance on how to be successful in business. This book is important not only for those of us who resonate with a genetic predisposition to entrepreneurship, but also for those who want to grow their abilities to think and succeed in creative business ventures.

As an anthropologist that works in the business environment I found Harrison's book both insightful and inspiring. His science based reasoning, extensive research and real life business experience weave together to guide the reader through complex personal and professional landscapes. The anecdotes helped me frame the discussion, the science helped me ground the opinions presented. I found myself retaking the tests in the book a few times - thinking carefully how the answers affect my business life. I use the book almost daily as it helps me discover processes that are not only based on realizing my instinctive power but also trusting my very own personal approach to my work life. An example of how it has changed my daily work procedures is that I no longer think in binary terms of `yes' and `no'. They are road signs, helping me to make the next move. The result is I have broadened the scope of my new business work, increasing the amount of new business and the reach of the projects. It is rare to find a text that is generously written yet is so easy to read. It boils down to one thing. Thanks to Harrison's work, I trust my entrepreneurial instinct and have released my creative instinct in the process. I am more productive and enjoying my work more. Bravo.

I'm so sick of business books that have "THE ANSWER" for everything, which usually turns out to be just the same old stuff. This book points out that "one-size-fits-all" advice ignores the fact that we all come to our careers from different starting points. We all have inborn traits that either help us succeed or make us our own worst enemy. This book is great because it points out that the real secret is knowing what those traits are for yourself. And it shows how to develop and use them to find the right fit for you. The entrepreneurial stories are fascinating, but I also found it interesting as a parent. If you recognize a child's inborn tendencies early, you can help create the evironments and conditions that make the most of what they're naturally good at. That gives them an early experience of success, which the book says is important. This is not just another useless business book.

In addition to learning a great deal about what Harrison refers to as "entrepreneurial DNA" and "the DNA of success," I also thoroughly enjoyed reading this book because the material is so well-organized and presented with a clarity and eloquence I seldom encounter in books which respond to questions such as these: 1. "What prevents one person from evolving and adapting to change [while there are others who get ahead] regardless of the obstacles that stand in [their] way?" 2. "Are some people [in italics] naturally [end italics] endowed from birth with characteristics that invariably lead to success?" 3. "And if so, what about those of us who may not be so genetically gifted?" 4. "Are we doomed to a lifetime of repeated failure if those qualities don't come naturally?" 5. "Is success the product of something in our DNA or something we learn?" 6. "Or is it some combination -- a genetic, instinctive predisposition that we can enhance at crucial moments in our lives by using learned skills and abilities?" Harrison offers his own responses to these important questions, and explains the reasons for the conclusions he has reached. Those responses are best revealed within his narrative. I'm not giving away the plot, however, when adding that Harrison explains how highly successful people have leveraged certain inherited traits and learned how to compensate for those that they lack. He thereby suggests how those who read his book can do the same. This is not an easy read but well worth the effort to absorb and digest the material. Obviously, following Harrison's suggestions is much easier said than done. He has carefully studied the works of Charles Darwin and believes in the concept of natural selection. At one point, he asserts that evolution "is what it's all about -- in business, careers, and life....Evolution has refined our genetic instructions over centuries to help us survive as a species. The DNA that has been passed on is the DNA that worked." To his credit, Harrison focuses most of his attention on 22 exemplary entrepreneurs and business leaders who agreed to share their personal stories. (A complete list of them is provided on pages 227-228.) The process of self-inquiry which Harrison recommends begins with completing a comprehensive "Entrepreneurial Personality Quiz" which consists of five sections. After each, Harrison suggests what response patterns may (just may) indicate. This is by no means a definitive exercise. Its purpose, rather, is to give to each respondent at least a sense of her or his entrepreneurial quotient. Please go back and re-read the six questions listed earlier in this brief commentary. If you are as interested now as I was then in learning what Harrison's responses are, I urge you to purchase this book and then read it one chapter at a time, then re-read the chapter before proceeding to the next. The journey he invites you to begin should proceed at your own pace. Enjoy each moment while keeping in mind that