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Michael A. Freeman

Michael A. Freeman

Psychiatrist, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCSF, and founder of Econa who researches entrepreneur mental health; co-author of "Are Entrepreneurs Touched With Fire?"

Sep 22, 2026

5:39
So what are those traits and what are the mental health conditions that entrepreneurs are just more vulnerable
5:47
for? It all relates back to a neurotransmitter called dopamine.
5:54
And Entrepreneurs are just more dopaminergic in general than our managers and job holders.
6:05
Dopamine is associated with motivation, reward, novelty seeking, goal engagement, opportunity recognition, enthusiasm, excitement, leadership, pleasure.
6:18
And it shapes a set of personality traits.
6:23
Those traits include things like openness to experience, and creativity, and innovativeness, and the ability to improvise, motivation, opportunity recognition, goal engagement, enthusiasm, excitement, dominance behavior, leadership, thoroughness, hard work, industriousness, um, persistence.
6:52
And, and there's more, but you get the general concept that these personality traits in general are all pretty good traits to have if you're going to be an entrepreneur.

19 MINS LATER

26:26
Yeah, maybe that's the right

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