Ever wonder what drives successful entrepreneurs?  Want to know about their backgrounds?  A recent Kauffman Foundation report provides surprising clues. 

From the covers of magazines to the front of the business pages, entrepreneurs receive great admiration.  But new entrepreneurs often make the mistake of putting successful people on a pedestal and then talk themselves out of their own greatness by saying, “I could never be like that.”

Think only “certain people” from “the right side of the tracks” are the ones who become successful entrepreneurs?  A recent Kauffman Foundation report suggests that you think again. 

Researchers from the University of Akron, the University of Southern California, and Duke University surveyed 549 entrepreneurs who founded businesses in some of the most dynamic sectors if the economy released the report in July 2009.

“The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur: Family Background and Motivation paints a compelling, and surprising portrait of what makes entrepreneurs tick.  

 From computing to health care, aerospace to electronics, successful entrepreneurs reported some surprising things about themselves.  What were some of the most surprising findings? 

Most of these entrepreneurs came from middle class or working-class backgrounds and half the group and were the first in their families to start a business.  Less than one percent of them came from extremely rich or poor backgrounds. 

Why did they take the entrepreneurial plunge?

The report finds several top motivations.  They wanted to build wealth, see an idea of theirs come to fruition, and they wanted to own a company.  Also interesting, they found little appeal in working for someone else. 

Think that entrepreneurs are hard-driving single guys?  Not so, says the report.  Most of them are actually middle-aged married folks with at least one child at the time they began their companies.

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