[takinola]

I don't think the empirical evidence supports this assertion. I don't think successful founders are necessarily that much of an outlier in terms of technical or emotional capabilities. Sure, those help and I am sure there are tons of examples of founders that rank crazy high on these scales.

However, I suspect it is a lot simpler (in concept not execution) than most of us think. Success probably is a combination of ability (you must be able to actually do the work), persistence (to push through when it is hard going), insight (to be able to determine where to apply the previous two skills) and a healthy dose of luck (never hurts).