Effect of comfort zone on entrepreneurship potential, innovation culture, and career satisfaction

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate preliminary determinations that a person's comfort zone, as measured on a newly developed CZone Scale, has significant correlation with their potential as an entrepreneur or innovator. "Comfort Zone" is a behavioral state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviors to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk (White 2008). Our preliminary data, based on approximately 1000 samples, shows that the potential of an entrepreneur or innovator is much more correlated with higher tolerance for uncertainty than it is with field of study. We also find that this critical indicator of entrepreneurial potential is linked with the ability to learn and grow professionally, and that comfort with uncertainty is even an indicator of a person's perception of overall career satisfaction and personal happiness. We also find two particularly interesting characteristics; firstly, that comfort with uncertainty in professional decisions does not have to be the same as comfort with uncertainty in personal situations, and secondly, that a person's comfort with uncertainty can change in both directions over the course of his or her life and career. In fact, entrepreneurs tend to increase their comfort with uncertainty over their career, which is not true of non-entrepreneurs. Our findings have implications on how entrepreneurship is taught, on how to test for entrepreneurial and innovation potential, and even what types of individual-level behaviors are most critical to increase the innovation culture of an organization. Our study supports a position that not only can students and employees be screened for these fundamental characteristics, but also that this ability can be developed, grown, and reinforced. This study further reinforces a hypothesis that seminal entrepreneurship and innovation skills can actually be learned.