The cult of the ‘self-starter’ is killing your team

What if I told you nearly half of all new hires flame out within eighteen months?

That’s not bad luck, that’s a systemic failure. And yet, scan any job ad and it reads like a corporate cliché drinking game: entrepreneurial, self-starter, hustler. I even had ChatGPT scrape Seek.com and found “self-starter” shows up 4.1x more often than humility. Which probably explains why so many workplaces feel less like businesses and more like tense family reunions — everyone’s pretending they want to be there, until they don’t.

And here’s the kicker: how often would you hire someone who slaps “confident self-starter” on their resume? Probably more often than you’d like to admit. On paper it sounds like an ambitious go-getter who’ll take things off your plate, right?

Wrong. That’s the kind of hire who snatches things off your plate, drops them, and runs off chasing something shinier, while the rest of the team cleans up the mess.

And don’t get me started on candidates who lead with “entrepreneurial traits.” Whatever that means in a salaried role. If your definition of entrepreneur is “stuck it in your Insta bio after flogging sneakers on Depop,” congratulations you haven’t hired a team player, you’ve hired a walking distraction.

A reality check: Harnessing “intrapreneurs”

In Your Next Five Moves, Patrick Bet-David makes an important distinction: entrepreneurs build their own companies, but intrapreneurs help build within one. They bring entrepreneurial energy and direct it towards advancing the mission of the organisation they’re part of.

That’s the nuance most companies miss. We say we want “entrepreneurial spirit,” but what we need are intrapreneurs, employees who can think like owners without acting like the CEO in waiting.

This isn’t a philosophical slip-up, it’s a commercial time bomb

Gallup’s research it shows that “entrepreneurial traits don’t always translate to team success,” with engaged teams delivering 21% higher profitability and 17% greater productivity. It’s not lone-wolf hustle that drives performance, its collaboration, recognition, and psychological safety.

I want to break down that 21%. Sure, they’re your entrepreneurial heroes, but what about the other 79%? They’re critical team members too, often balancing life priorities like starting families, buying homes, caring for loved ones, or securing residency. Do we really want fewer of these well-rounded individuals?

This isn’t a flash in the pan, our ‘entrepreneurial’ tendencies are feeding the worst traits in our workforce. A study published in Plos One found the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated personality changes in ways rarely seen outside of major trauma. Researchers discovered significant declines in openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. Our workforce is already becoming less agreeable and conscientious and we’re openly hiring for these traits.

Patience is crucial, we know the empty seats haunt us, but we know full well the cost of mis-hiring is enormous. The Society of Human Resource Management estimates that replacing a bad hire can cost up to 50-250% of the role’s salary. In Australia this turnover costs businesses A$47b per year.

Let me ground this in reality. I recently spoke with an associate, five months into their graduate role, about the traits we need: curiosity, coachability, and consistency. Nowhere did I say, you need to revolutionise our business before your probation review, that’s absurd. Their job isn’t to reinvent the model from day one; it’s to learn, contribute, and grow. Yet many workplaces glorify “entrepreneurial spirit” without harnessing it, and in my experience that often leads to disengagement, toxicity, and flight risk.

Why hiring humility and teamwork can outpace hype-driven hires

When organisations over-index on entrepreneurial drive at the expense of cultural alignment, they sacrifice organisational performance for the sake of narrative. But companies that lean into hiring for cultural fit, team orientation, and humility don’t just build nicer workplaces, they are commercially stronger.

Organisational psychologist David Burkus notes that, as more values-aligned employees join a company, team engagement and cohesion rise, and performance naturally improves – but only if leaders actively shape and reinforce culture consistently.

It isn’t about looking for more of those 21% of engaged employees but rather building a culture that raises all employees.

You might think I’m an anti-entrepreneur. You’re wrong.

What frustrates me is the careless way we import “entrepreneurial spirit” into workplaces, teams and roles where it doesn’t fit. What we don’t want are workplaces collapsing under the weight of inflated egos, but we also can’t kill that entrepreneurial energy. According to the recent productivity commission, entrepreneurship isn’t optional, it’s the fuel for growth, competitiveness, and the standard of living we all enjoy.

A Reality Check: Harnessing “Intrapreneurs”

Your job is to harness that intrapreneurial spirit productively not unleash a wave of wannabe C-suites, which means:

• Giving employees structured autonomy.
• Offering ownership with guardrails, so innovation aligns with strategy.
• Recognising value creation in all forms.
• Building growth pathways for employees with entrepreneurial drive.

When done right, entrepreneurial spirit is rocket fuel. When done wrong, it’s a workplace grenade. I dare you to pull the pin. You’ll have ego wars, burnout, and half your team polishing their LinkedIn profiles. 

So, let’s kill the fantasy that every role needs a wannabe founder.

What companies need are people who can think critically, collaborate like adults, optimise processes, and scale their impact inside a team. Because the truth is: you don’t need your next hire to be the next AFR Fast 100 founder, you need someone who can grow the business you’ve already got, without burning the place down in the process.