Today I'll be looking at a much debated topic, are entrepreneurs made? Or are they born?
Since the 18th century, business has constituted a been a major composition of the society. The success of people like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg e.t.c has caused a lot of people to decide to take the entrepreneurship route and start a business for profit. And some are striking gold while a while lot of others are bankrupting. You start to wonder. Are entrepreneurs born?
Or, are they made?
One school of thought believes that entrepreneurs are made. They believe that the entepreneural ability is a function of nurture not nature. On the opposite side, another school of thought believes that though entrepreneurs can be nurtured to be better, they must first have been born with some key entrepreneurial traits e.g risk taking tolerance.
ENTREPRENEURS ARE NOT BORN
Entrepreneurs are not like athletes , they don't need natural inherent muscles or bodies. In society most athletic parents end up having athletic children. But there are many cases of family business being bankrupted by the next generation.
A look ay the most important traits that determine enteprenueral ability would further help us understand why entrepreneurship is a function of nurture.
Innovation
The main quality of entrepreneurs is innovation. The ability to innovate. But innovation is not as unique as people assume. Innovation is simple an ability to respond to problems in an efficient form. Innovation is not grown naturally, it comes from opportunity. Where there are opportunities there is a chance for innovation.
Several years there was no readily available software for computers. Bill Gates noticed the opportunity from the problem and then BECAME an entrepreneur by attempting to solve that problem. The problem finding quality is the quality that everyone were born with, and the opportunity is just coming from those problems
The problem finding ability one that everyone is born with, and opportunity presents itself in those problems
Experience
Experience is another key component of enteprenueral ability. About 60 percent of the entrepreneurial leaders are "transitioned", and the number one ranking factor of success is the experience (Pinelli, 2001)., Yu Min Hong, a great entrepreneur, started his tutoring school, New Oriental, after his experience of teaching and tutoring in Peking University. He created his method of teaching around the methods and inefficiencies he had seen during his time. In Peking.
Knowledge
The third key trait of entrepreneurship is knowledge, which is definitely not inborn but acquired from education. " And if experience is the best education, the classroom is not far behind. Higher education was ranked the number one factor by almost one-third of respondents, just behind employee experience" (Pinelli, 2001). Entrepreneurs are faced with various types challenges from finance, operation, organization, and laws. Operating the business requires you understand financial statements. Financial statements, consisting of income statement, cash flow statement and balance sheet. It is a tool used by entrepreneurs to track their operations The knowledge of financial statement is not acquired naturally, it is obtained from study/tutoring. Not only the understanding of financial statement, but also financial ratio analysis which is important in running the business.
Lack of finance knowledge could be fatal. The Native Americans, for example, sold their lands to the Americans hundreds of years ago and we're promptly eradicated from their homeland by the foreigners, however, if they lent the lands with a low rate, they will still be able to buy it back today and even gained some returns from lending it out.
Others
Apart from innovation, experience and knowledge their are other key traits that shown that entrepreneurship is definitely learned. These traits include;
- good communication skills ( we all learn to talk first)
- teamwork
- integrity e.t.c.
So, if your wondering if you have what it take so be an entrepreneur, here's your answer. It takes nothing!. So, better get to it.