At one time or another, you might have thought of a great idea and wanted to start a new venture. But for some reason or another, you never did. Most people attribute the lack of action in starting a company to a lack of time or money or to other pressing matters in their life. Also, typically fear, doubt and aversion to risk or failure play a key role in our decision not to start a new venture.

Some interesting research reveals that another factor might come into play – the personality trait of self-control. Self-control is a trait that reflects an individual’s capacity to exercise will power.

A sample of people with intention to start a company found that those individuals who had high levels of self-control were more likely to take action to start a company than individuals with lower levels of self-control. The results seemed to indicate that self-control counters the feelings of fear, doubt and aversion.

While this is only one study, the results are interesting and provide some insights into when and why entrepreneurial intentions are followed, or not followed by action.