Sunshine Sentinel

Emotional intelligence is one of the key traits of successful entrepreneurs, said Joe Pici, co-founder of Orlando, FL-based sales training and business consulting company Pici & Pici, Inc.

“Great entrepreneurs have tremendous emotional intelligence and control,” said Pici. “How we respond to things. Can people push our buttons? Can they get us to our last nerve? If we're having a bad day, how do we handle that next call, that next client? If we get bad news, how do we handle when we go in and work with that client?”

Since 1992, Pici has served as a "catalyst for sales teams and individuals," according to Global Gurus, helping them sharpen their skills for creating appointments and closing sales through his live phone call workshops. 

“I believe right now, one of the biggest things I see lacking in our society is emotional control and emotional intelligence,” said Pici. “People are very reactive and they believe they should be able to say whatever they wanna say. And they don't realize how dangerous that is to a business as well as their personal lives.”

A 2020 study conducted by researchers at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business examined the importance of emotional intelligence (EI) in entrepreneurship.

“We found that entrepreneurs benefit much more from emotional competences than other competencies — such as IQ — due to high uncertainty and ambiguity that comes with the world of entrepreneurship and even more applicable in a crisis,” said Regan Stevenson, assistant professor of entrepreneurship and management at Indiana University and one of the co-authors of the study. 

The study found that “both General Mental Ability (GMA) and EI matter for entrepreneurship success, but that the size of the relationship is more than twice as large for EI.”  

Pici’s comments came during a presentation to The Freedom Circle men’s community, a mastermind run by CEO, entrepreneur, and author, Curt Mercadante. Mercadante is CEO of Advantage Informatics, LLC, and founder of Freedom Rising Enterprises. He is author of the bestselling book, Five Pillars of the Freedom Lifestyle.