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It has been a pretty good run so far for businessman and entrepreneur, Thomas L. Harrison. After advancing from a thriving career in pharmaceutical sales to a position in marketing, he opted to start his own company and achieved success there, also. Now, he is chairman and CEO of Omnicom Group's Diversified Agency Services, the world's largest holding group of marketing services companies. Most recently, he has authored a new book about, well, being successful, leveraging his early training as a scientist to explore what genetic traits may in fact comprise the "born" entrepreneur. Maybe, proposes Harrison, these traits really are part of what we are born with, as surely as brown or blue eyes, dark or light hair.

Drawing on current research on genetics and personality, Harrison first presents an overview of what he calls the "Big Five" personality traits that are present at varying degrees in everyone's personality, and seem to be predictors of entrepreneurial success. These include Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, and Extroversion. He provides a short quiz to help you identify which of these traits are stronger in your personality, and which are less so. And if you long to start your own business, but find you are short on Extroversion, for example, he also discusses strategies to help you develop that trait, and ways to compensate.

With its mixture of practical, hands-on advice and the scientific research to back it up, Instinct emerges from a sea of "how-to succeed" and "get to know yourself" self-help books as a thoughtful proposal on how both nature and nurture combine to form character, and the ability to dream, and to achieve dreams. Join Tom Parish for an engaging talk with a man who's been open to the unexpected turns his own life has taken, has enjoyed success in many areas, and wants others to enjoy that success, too, whether in business or personal relationships. You may come away with some new insights about who you are, and strategies about how you can achieve success in your own life goals.

Resources

www.instinctdna.com

Bio

Thomas L. Harrison is the author of INSTINCT: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Your Business Goals (Warner Business Books), and is chairman and CEO of Diversified Agency Services (DAS), the largest, most profitable, and fastest growing division of the multibillion-dollar advertising and marketing company Omnicom Group, Inc., a Fortune 500 company. He holds a Master of Science degree from West Virginia University in Cell Biology and Physiology and is a published scientist. Previously he was a Research Associate at West Virginia University Medical Center. He lives in New York.

Production Credits

Dana Farver, Executive Producer, Communities Editor-in-Chief
Tom Parish, Audio Producer, Show Host
Kimberly Stone, Web Development Manager
Scott Ebner, Web Developer