The INTUITIVE EXPERT is one of four entrepreneurial types that belongs in the expert or “target” zone. The key attributes or characteristics that distinguish you as an expert in venturing are intuition, desire and resources (such as cash, contacts, infrastructure, technology, investing, start up, etc.). You also have a specialized understanding of venturing, though likely in a very specific field or industry. Your discernment capabilities are especially valuable to an entrepreneurial team, where you can generally tell if a new venture is “on” or “off” course (you can look at an entrepreneurial venture and determine whether the conditions within the business and surrounding it, fit the “entrepreneurial success script”).

But INTUITIVE EXPERTS should be wary of venturing outside their domain or area of “extraordinary expertise”. Once they are “beyond their limits”, they become the GAMBLER entrepreneurial profile type. Another weak point with INTUITIVE EXPERTS arises when they are dealing with information that is irregular, uneven or unbalanced. Without consciously realizing it, they can find themselves “fighting fires” that could have been avoided consciously applying an “expert script” (the pattern for achieving success in a new business venture).

What You Should Do

Because INTUITIVE EXPERTS possess venture expertise that is intuitive, it is in some sense unreliable. Consequently, you can end up in a zone outside the scope or reach of your intuition, without really knowing it. So before you initiate a new venture in an unfamiliar industry or industry segment, it would be worthwhile to obtain the evaluation of an experienced operator such as a venture capital organization in that domain or area of entrepreneurial interest.

Your “hunches” may prove to be right some of the time. But they can just as often be accompanied by surprise side-effects and unanticipated venture consequences that must be dealt with, before a new venture can be a venture success. So if you are looking to venture in an industry outside of your own area of expertise, obtaining a first, second, and third opinion from experienced operators such as start up companies, venture capital organizations, investors, and successful entrepreneur in that industry of interest, should pay for itself over the long run.

Sources: Dr. Ronald K. Mitchell, CPA, Ph.D and Howard Mitchell