Producer Mentality for Entrepreneurs

One of the interesting aspects of entrepreneurs that I’ve noticed, but haven’t articulated, is that of the producer mindset. What I mean is that entrepreneurs typically have an inherent need to continually build things — companies, products, teams, projects, etc. When looking for that right co-founder, I’d probe and ask them if they did any of the following in their youth:

• Lemonade stand
• Yard work for neighbors
• Classified ad newsletter (this would be pre-Craigslist)
• Web design for businesses
• Miscellaneous business (e.g. sports cards, animal husbandry like hamster breeding, etc)

Then, the most important follow-up is to ask why they did one or more of those items. The key response you want to hear is that they identified an opportunity and went after it — not that their mom/dad said they needed to get out of the house.

What else? Do you agree that entrepreneurs typically have a producer mentality?