Divorce low, happiness high among entrepreneurs

If you are an entrepreneur who is suffering through lots of sleepless nights, whose marriage is on the rocks and who hates everything about your business, you aren't likely to be found among truly successful Utah entrepreneurs.

These are some of the conclusions of a recent survey of more than 100 of Utah's leading entrepreneurs. According to the study, Utah entrepreneurs have low divorce rates, high levels of job satisfaction and no trouble sleeping six hours or more per night.

Forty interdisciplinary BYU students who were part of a course offered to non-business majors by the Marriott School of Business conducted the research. The class, basic entrepreneur skills for the non-business major, includes students seeking degrees in disciplines as diverse as photography, exercise science, German and microbiology. They took on the role of myth-busters after reading "The E-Myth Revisited," by Michael Gerber, one of three texts required in the pass/fail class.

This eclectic band of students contacted successful entrepreneurs who were identified by the MountainWest Venture Group as the founders of the 100 fastest-growing companies in Utah. The students also surveyed the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum's "25 under 5" category of business owners, which includes 25 entrepreneurs who are running highly successful companies and have been in business five years or fewer.

Some of the subjects explored in the survey concerned the importance of higher education, personal happiness levels and the value of goal-setting.

While many in the academic world feel that additional education might dampen entrepreneurial fever or passion, the research shows that 62 percent of those surveyed feel it is desirable to have at least a master's degree as preparation for a career as an entrepreneur. Seventy-six percent of those surveyed had a bachelor's degree or higher, and they received better than average grades — 88 percent had a B average or higher, while none had a GPA below 2.0 (thankfully, I wasn't among those surveyed or I would have brought the average down).

Divorce was extremely low among the respondents; 83 percent are married, with only 13 percent single, and a mere 4 percent were divorced. Those who were divorced said the business had little effect on their marriage (we didn't poll the former spouses to see if they would agree).

When asked about job satisfaction, 100 percent said they enjoy their work. In fact, 85 percent said they enjoy it very much. I don't know this, but I'd bet the percentage of those in the corporate world who enjoy their jobs isn't that high.