Face Value

The face says a lot about a person. From the shape of the eyes to the length between the nose and chin, you can decipher someone's personality traits before he or she even speaks, says Naomi R. Tickle, owner of the Petaluma, California-based firm Face Language International and author of You Can Read a Face Like a Book: How Reading Faces Helps You Succeed in Business and Relationships. She teaches clients to apply face reading to their everyday lives as well as their entrepreneurial endeavors. We asked Tickle to analyze a few famous entrepreneurial faces using her techniques. Here's what she had to say about Donald Trump, Michael Dell and Martha Stewart.

First, Tickle notes these entrepreneurs have some shared physical traits. They are all competitive, says Tickle, as they each have heads wider in the back than in the front. They're also forceful, as the head is higher in the back--they make things happen. Each entrepreneur has wide-set eyes, which illustrates their ability to look at the big picture and multitask. And their oval foreheads mean they're good at maintaining client relationships, projects and businesses. You can also determine how analytical someone is by how visible his or her eyelids are. These famous entrepreneurs' eyelids are covered with folds of skin, indicating they're very analytical. Finally, they all possess tenacity, as shown by their protruding chins, says Tickle. Read on to find out how they differ--and how you might use some of these face-reading clues in your own life.