Preface viii
Introduction 1
Part A Review of Existing Research, Research Questions and Methodology 6
1. Review of Academic Wealth Research 8
2. Defining the Wealth Elite 24
2.1 Who are the economic elite?
2.2 The role of habitus for advancing into the economic elite
3. Review of Entrepreneurship Research 37
3.1 Somhart, Schumpeter, and Kirsner on the role of the entrepreneur
3.2 American and German research on entrepreneurial personality traits and goal-setting
3.2.A Questions and methodological challenges
3.2.B Attitudes to risk and risk perception
3.2.C Self-efficacy
3.2.D Action orientation after failure
3.2.E The importance of setting goals and planning (goal-setting theory)
3.2.F Nonconformism, agreeableness, and assertiveness
3.2.G Typology and models for successful entrepreneurs
3.2.H Motivations for entrepreneurship and their correlation with success
3.2.I Key influences during childhood and adolescence
4. Questions Raised by Behavioural Economics and Learning Theories 70
4.1 The role of gut decisions' and intuition
4.2 Optimism and over-optimism
4.3 Risk perception and risk assessment
4.4 Nonconformism
4.5 Explicit and implicit learning - informal learning
4.6 Financial success and formal education
5. Existing Attempts to Explain Success: What Role Does Chance Play? 99
5.1 The role of happenstance
5.2 Luck as an unconscious defence against envy
5.3 Using luck and coincidence to explain success
6. Dispositional Personality Traits: The Big Five and Beyond 110
7. Methodology 116
7.1 The limits of quantitative methods in academic wealth research
7.2 Definition and composition of the target interviewee group
7.3 Reasons for selecting the guided interview method
7.4 Issues of social desirability bias in interviews with elites
7.5 Methods of transcription
7.6 Nature of the hypotheses
Part B Interviews with 45 Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals 140
8. Structure and Topics of the Interviews 142
9. Formative Years 145
9.1 Social background
9.2 Early influences and career plans
9.3 Relationships with parents
9.4 School and university
9.5 Sports
9.6 Early entrepreneurship
10. Motivations for Self-Employment 194
10.1 The 'misfits': "I could never have worked as an employee"
10.2 "Things move too slowly for me in such companies"
10.3 "I never thought about working somewhere as an employee"
11. Wealth as a Goal in Life? 216
11.1 "If it's written down, it can be verified"
11.2 "It just happened"
12. What Does Money Mean to You? 232
13. The Importance of Sales Skills 243
13.1 "No matter what we do, we are always selling"
13.2 "No really doesn't mean no"
13.3 Successful selling with empathy, didactics, expert knowledge, and networking
14. Optimism and Self-Efficacy 265
14.1 "As a result of your own abilities, you are always able to identify solutions"
14.2 "I never complain about problems, I look for solutions"
14.3 "He's drunk on his own success"
15. Risk Propensity 278
15.1 The risk scale
15.2 The illusion of control: "I'm in the driver's seat"
15.3 "I certainly think about things more than I used to"
16. Decision-Making: Gut Feeling or Analysis? 296
16.1 "Gut feeling means that you just don't feel certain"
16.2 "You can't ask an auditor to analyse someone's character"
16.3 The role of analysis
17. The Big Five: Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness and Neuroticism 324
18. Antagonism and Agreeableness 329
18.1 Necessary corrections to the Big Five test
18.2 The agreeable interviewees
18.3 The conflict-oriented interviewees
19. Nonconformism: "Swimming Against the Stream" 341
19.1 "I have made it my absolute mission to think differently from everyone else"
19.2 "The pickings are slim in the mainstream"
20. Dealing with Crises and Setbacks 356
20.1 "I am hectic on the outside, but totally relaxed on the inside"
20.2 "Don't pass the buck"
20.3 "You'll see this through, with your integrity intact"
20.4 "Looking back on it, what happened was always for the best"
20.5 "On the day after your exams, everything is forgotten"
21. Conclusion 381
21.1 Summary
21.2 Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research
Appendix: Guided Questions for the 45 Interviews 398
The Neo-FFI Test 402
Bibliography 406
About the Author 420