There is a saying that: "When your best and worst intentions coincide, things happen." This might be jealousy at the success others are having, coinciding with your own genuine desire to do the same thing better. Whatever the case, there are certainly a number of negative emotions traditionally involved in the elusive recipe for entrepreneurial success.

Joe Cohen, founder, in 2006, of Seatwave, writes about two of them in an article for the Independent in the UK. He calls the article Dissatisfaction, disruption and determination: the three Ds of success.

There are, of course, many other criterion required for success but we should not let that spoil a good title! I am leaving aside the positive essential, 'Determination', to concentrate on the two negative catalysts, 'Dissatisfaction and Disruption'.

Cohen's Seatwave was set up in response to his irritation and disgust that unwanted tickets to 'sold-out' shows could only be found on ebay or through ticket touts. This would frequently lead to outrageous prices being sought and paid. With Seatwave, fans were offered a transparent way to buy and sell tickets, keeping prices to real market values. They were very aggressively received by the status quo in the early days, a sign, for Cohen, that they were doing something right.

Seatwave now claims to be Europe's leading fan-to-fan ticket exchange. Cohen attributes a large part of that success to the idea being born from dissatisfaction and causing disruption.

Dissatisfaction

This is the easier of the two. If you are dissatisfied with something and have an idea of how to do it better. You have three choices. You can moan and complain, you can let it go or you can do something about it. Which you choose depends on your personality. If you choose to do something about it then your dissatisfaction can be a constant source from which to nourish your determination.

Disruption

Disruption of the status quo is a more complex matter. There is a lot to the idea that if you are not upsetting anyone then you are not doing anything of value. Change disrupts. Change, necessarily, meets its equal force in resistance. Cohen concentrates on the fear of disruption and controversy and rightly advises a "feel the fear and do it anyway" attitude. I would go further. It can be faced down as a fear, but it is so much more powerful when the sense of dissatisfaction is so strong that you actively want to disrupt. If that disruption takes the form of genuine and constantly renewed desire for a better situation then the resistance will slowly give way.

These traditionally negative emotions are crucial to the energy required to feed the determination needed to keep facing the difficulties of running your own business.

We would love to hear which negative emotions you might add to the list.