A Valentine’s Day Edition of the Kauffman Sketchbook Reminds Us Why We Love Entrepreneurs.  Paul Kedrosky, senior fellow with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, outlines the attitudes that set entrepreneurs apart and motivate them to devote all of their energy to their startup idea in the newest installment of the Kauffman Sketchbook series.

In the video titled "The Itch," released today by the Kauffman Foundation, Kedrosky suggests that the best entrepreneurs are people who scratch their own itch. "One of the things that you see that's really unusual ... is this degree of itchiness and impatience," he says. "They just can't wait for someone else to do it."

Kedrosky cites the stories of renowned entrepreneurs Craig Newmark of Craig's List, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Steve Jobs of Apple to help illustrate his points. "It's this kind of monomaniacal need to satisfy themselves crossed with impatience," Kedrosky says. "They were maddened and frustrated at the world, they scratched their own itch, and it turned out to be an itch that a lot of us had."

Click here to watch the video.

Based in Kansas City, Missouri, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation was established by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman. The Kauffman Foundation's vision is to foster "a society of economically independent individuals who are engaged citizens, contributing to the improvement of their communities." In service of this vision, and in keeping with our founder's wishes, we focus our grant making and operations on two areas: advancing entrepreneurship and improving the education of children and youth.