Are all innovators alike? Yes, in both personality and skills. Anyone can learn the skills necessary to innovate, but personality traits are different. Some people are born with highly developed curiosity, openness to new ideas and experiences, risk-taking, persistence, and imagination.

Marc Andreessen, the creator of Netscape and co-founder of VC firm A16Z recently sat down with Andrew Huberman for a wide-ranging conversation.

In one part of the conversation, they talk about the psychology of innovators and the factors that contribute to their success. Here are the 5 personality traits of an innovator:

“When you’re talking about real innovators—people who actually do really creative, breakthrough work—I think you’re talking about a couple things:”

1. Very high in trait openness. “Just flat-out open to new ideas… And the nature of trait openness means you’re not just open to new ideas in one category—you’re open to many different kinds of new ideas… But of course, just being open is not sufficient because if you’re just open, you could just be curious and explore and spend your entire life reading, talking to people, but never actually create something.”

   Openness to new ideas and experiences is essential for innovators to be able to think outside the box and come up with new and creative solutions.

2. High level of conscientiousness. “You need somebody who’s really willing to apply themselves—typically over a period of many years to accomplish something great… For most of these people, it’s years and years of applied effort. You need somebody with an extreme willingness to basically defer gratification… Of course, this is why there aren’t many of these people—there aren’t many people who are high in openness and high in conscientiousness because to a certain extent, they’re opposed traits.”

   Innovators need to be hardworking and dedicated to see their ideas through to fruition. They need to be able to persevere through challenges and setbacks.

3. High in disagreeableness. “If they’re not ornery, they’ll be talked out of their ideas… Because the reaction most people have to new ideas is ‘Oh, that’s dumb.’ So, somebody who’s too agreeable will be easily dissuaded to not pull on the thread anymore.”

   Innovators often need to be willing to challenge the status quo and disagree with conventional wisdom. They need to stand up for their ideas even when others are skeptical.

4. High IQ. “They just need to be really smart because it’s hard to innovate in any category if you can’t synthesize large amounts of information quickly.”

   Innovators need to be intelligent enough to understand complex concepts and to be able to think critically and creatively.

5. Relatively low neuroticism. “If they’re too neurotic, they probably can’t handle the stress.”

   Innovation and failure are inseparable twins; it’s not business as usual and there will be more downs than ups. Innovators need to be able to handle this.

It’s worth mentioning intrinsic motivation, while not explicitly mentioned in the podcast, Mark Andreessen emphasizes that innovators are driven by a deep passion and curiosity for their field, rather than external rewards or recognition.

OK, now why does this matter to you?

Innovation is as much about attitude and perspective as it is about process. With that said, as a business leader, hire people with the above traits and then get out of their way if you want to improve your innovation capability.