Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?

SIDEBAR: Are entrepreneurs born or made?

There’s a long-running debate about whether entrepreneurs are born or made. Put differently, can anyone be an entrepreneur? Competing book titles (Made, Not Born and Entrepreneurs are Born) attempt to persuade readers one way or the other. The side arguing that entrepreneurs are born argues that not everyone is cut out to run his/her own venture, just as not everyone with glasses can be a fighter pilot.

 

Some of what inclines people toward  entrepreneurship, the argument goes, is either inherited or learned in early childhood. And just as not everyone has the temperament to be an astronaut or a veterinarian, not everyone is comfortable with the risks of entrepreneurship. If you’re terrified of heights or squeamish about sick animals, there might be other more suitable fields, the argument goes.

 

On the other side of the argument, entrepreneurship researchers contend that entrepreneurship involves a combination of knowledge, skills and temperament that can be developed and sharpened. Students of entrepreneurship can learn techniques for spotting market opportunities, the argument goes, just as medical students can be trained to spot tumors. Entrepreneurship students can also learn from a growing literature of tactics and case studies to glean best practices that can be applied to new ventures. This certainly can’t ensure success, but it can help reduce the likelihood of some types of entrepreneurial errors.

 

A study of alumni of Babson College, known for its entrepreneurship curriculum, assessed 4,000 alums who graduated between 1985 and 2009, two-thirds of whom took at least two entrepreneurship courses. The study found that studying entrepreneurship significantly affected students’ plans to become an entrepreneur and their actual decision to do so. The effect remained strong long after graduation.

A compromise viewpoint might suggest that while certain individuals have personality characteristics or capabilities that are aligned with those evidenced by many successful entrepreneurs, there are certainly many successful founders who have sharpened their skills through schooling and work experience.