Aspergers & Entrepreneurship

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I'm sure this is something that has been discussed before but do you guys think Asperger's is a great match for entrepreneurship. I certainly do as creativity, obsessional thinking and a tendency to see "perceived" faults in society are hallmarks of entrepreneurship and are often typical in AS cases too. Furthermore traditional employment can be an issue with many AS types because of somebody else's enforced rules, rather than our own.

Of course we often have to work jobs whilst we create a stream of income on the side, which is something I am now doing but I honestly can't wait until the day I can set my self free from the shackles of working for someone else.

Generally, it's our blunt social skills that stand in the way of more of us becoming entrepreneurs. Business is just as much about making the customer feel good about doing business with you as it is about the kind of business you do.

I suppose it comes down to how Aspergers affects you but if we're not so bad on the social side, not so blunt, maybe just quiet and thoughtful we can come across as knowledgeable and intelligent.

This is often construed as being condescending to someone who is more interested in having his or her feelings acknowledged.

I've had many conversations where the other person was just trying to vent his or her dissatisfaction with something, and who then became offended when I offered a workable solution first.

An example would be where someone is insisting on an apology for a perceived insult while I am trying to get the facts of the situation - they get angrier and angrier because I'm not apologizing, and because I am disassembling their argument with logic.

Another example might be where a woman is claiming to have been assaulted several years ago - long after any material evidence shoulda/woulda/coulda been collected. Without evidence, she has only her claim. She is upset, distraught, and possibly suicidal, yet all any investigator can do is take her statement. She wants to know why no one believes her, while everyone else is looking for a reason to believe her.

Feelings first, then business.

Yeah what you're describing is actually the typical "male" response and perhaps even more so with Aspergers, where we try to rationalise everything.

Many women entrepreneurs fall into this trap, as well - it is not just a "male" thing.

This is why people who want to focus on the business aspects tend to hire more sociable people to deal directly with the customers.

Unfortunately, this often leads to Customer Service having little or no understanding of the products and services of their business, or how their business is run.

You are absolutely right there. Also AS types are easily overwhelmed so often they resort to hiring those that take care of the details.

Entreprenuership types can vary. I'm sure an Aspie can do very well if their business is their special interest.

Also we have the internet and computers, some of us can sell apps and games and never have to see a human being in person. Others can make stuff and sell it on etsy or ebay.

I am an entrepreneur myself. and just like Fnord said. it's the social or face to face contact that can kill it for you. I happen to be an electrical engineer in the business of designing custom electronics devices. Most of my customers are in the entertainment industry and I never meet them face to face or in person. Most of my interactions with the client is done ether by e-mail or on the phone. Most of my client are too far away to meet in person anyways. So ya! If you can avoid in-person contact with your clients. Then entrepreneurship is perfect for an aspie. Unfortunately, being an entrepreneur was not really a choice for me. It was ether that or I be living off welfare. I still live off welfare because I can't always make ends meet. Now if I had better social skills. I could be doing a lot better then I am now. Having weak social performance really effects a lot of thing you can do in life.

Well I just watched the movie 'Nightcrawler' and I can safely say that the two subjects can easily be great or bad for one another. LOL. Depends on what you want to go into business doing and how it will affect you AND others.

(Not to say the main character in that film had or hadn't ASD)

I'm an entrepreneur.
The good thing is,
people expect artists to be eccentric.

Not sure where you are, but it's getting to be very corporate here in NYC. And, it used to be that you could go in and get clear instructions (before the computer made everything appear instantaneous) and you would go home and do it, then deliver it and an invoice. Now it's all hodge podge and thrown together. I have many examples of that. And, even though they know a job would last three days, they want to hear one day. I can't do that. And, it's gotten to where I hate the 'meet and greet'.

And, in the last year, I've even had difficulty through email. I'm not sure what it is.

I perceive Donald Trump as the archetype of the entrepeneur, and he most certainly is not autistic.

I have my own business and I do well enough but it succeeds because I am working outside my own cultural background. I work in a foreign country where my quirky eccentricities are simply because of my "foreign-ness".

If I were in my own cultural world, negotiating and doing business would be almost impossible.

I would definitely not put Donald Trump in the realm of representing entrepreneurs. I have know many successful entrepreneurs and they are not complete asses like he is. Opinionated and determined, but actually quite humble because most people do not have his backing and know it could go in an instant. Knew a woman just this last week that lost more than a million USD in China because of their stock troubles this week. I mean, that clown has how many bankruptcies? Split hairs all you about how his 'businesses went bankrupt, not him", it's just that if you have enough money, you can throw spaghetti at the wall all you like until it sticks. And, he has bunches of money at his disposal and he started with bunches of money.
The Donald: "Hey! You know what they are doing is stupid and terrible. I mean, look at me! I've had failure and I'm worth billions! You're a loser if you don't have billions!! I mean, look at all those loser vets that don't have money!! I don't care if they got caught and spent years in P.O.W. camps.....They're losers because they got caught!! And, I'm a winner because I never got caught over there!! That's because I'm a winner!! !"

I didn't used to BE blunt yet still found I failed in traditional employment situations -- and that was when I used to be "A NICE PERSON."

Go figure.

And by the way, certain people here shouldn't be so cock-sure that they know the entire trajectory of other people's true natures or history or personal journey.

ASSUMING has the word "ass" in it, interestingly.

Back to the entrepreneurial issue:

I'm blunt NOW but have been successfully and continue to be successfully self employed for 23 years now.

The nature of my client situation normally means there is nothing to get blunt about anyway; contact is minimal meaning fewer chances for anyone to get to dislike anyone in either direction to begin with.

And the clients I've felt tension with, I'm the one who simply quits them instead of the other way around. Because when you're self employed there's far less sh!t you have to just take from whomever you deal with; you have more choice.

Ummmm....where did that come from?