Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?
There’s no single, clear-cut answer within academic or business circles. Still, most experts agree that anyone can develop useful traits and hone key skills
Pursuing a Passion
“From what I have seen in my nearly 20 years’ experience with the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, anyone anywhere has the opportunity to build a business as long as they have a passion, an attitude of never giving up, and valuable mentors that can complement their skill sets,” says Dean Lindal, the organization’s vice-president.
Longtime entrepreneurial consultant John J. Rooney, managing director of Capital Partners IBG in Manhattan Beach, Calif., agrees: “In my experience working with hundreds of entrepreneurs and teaching on the faculty at the University of Southern California’s entrepreneur program, it is clear that much of entrepreneurship can be successfully learned. However, it is also clear that people who take positive action and are focused and committed and continue on despite some negative feedback or setbacks have skill sets and personality traits that can be inborn or learned.”
Moreover, the very traits that lead naturally to entrepreneurship can have negative flip sides. “The fact is, most entrepreneurs fail at what they try to do. They fail because they rely too heavily on their innate skills and not enough on learned skills,” says John Delmatoff, an executive coach based in Murrieta, Calif.
This is very true. I have failed in the past but you learn from your mistakes. Thomas Edison failed over and over again.
He often coaches entrepreneurs who chase every good idea they run across. “They focus their often limited resources on too many ideas simultaneously, none of which gets adequate attention, and the idea fails,” Delmatoff says. “Or the entrepreneur gets bored early in the idea development stage and starts looking for another idea to develop.”
Other Factors
Other factors may be just as important as entrepreneurial traits, Rooney says. He says a survey from a business training program he worked in at the University of Southern California shows that 87 percent of successful entrepreneurs start companies in niches where they already have business experience. People who get formal training are much more likely to succeed than those who fly by the seat of their pants. “I’ve seen students do very well even if they don’t have the flamboyant personality that we expect from entrepreneurs. They can learn how to sell even if they are uncomfortable with it or have cultural challenges,” he says.
Optimism and persistence, perhaps the two most essential entrepreneurial traits, can be intentionally practiced, says David Weiman, a management psychologist in suburban Philadelphia and a psychology professor at Strayer University. He recommends Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman, which provides step-by-step tips for improving one’s ability to overcome obstacles and succeed in tough times, and Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence. The latter book, Weiman says, “seems to suggest that emotional competencies—such as self-awareness or the ability to build bonds, for example—can be learned by anyone who wants to improve in those areas.”
I think most very successful entrepreneurs are obsessive compulsive or suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder. It is very hard to do anything else if you have this type of personality. You need a creative outlet for it in order to thrive.
Similarly, many great entrepreneurs/inventors were disabled. When you suffer from dyslexia, hearing impairment, learning disabilities, etc. you are naturally forced to focus harder and your concentration level exceeds that of most other people. As a result, your brain is exercised more and the senses are sharpened to a much greater level. For example, blind individuals have heightened senses of touch, taste, smell and hearing. Deaf/hearing impaired individuals have heightened senses of sight, touch, taste and smell. You can try to achieve this through transcendental meditation but the results will most likely not be as great. I do encourage people to practice meditation in order to sharpen their focus.
For example, on Seinfeld they joked about people who watched “The English Patient” four times. I watched it eight + times and didn’t get how they found that odd. You have to have an intense personality and very deep concentration level. Most people suffer from ADD in our society and are incapable of focusing on anything for any length of time. It is very challenging to capture their attention bc you have a very short time-frame to do it and it must be very compelling!
Who will champion entrepreneurship in Washington?
So here’s what I don’t understand. If everyone, including the president, believes that supporting innovation and entrepreneurship is the best path forward, why aren’t the policy leaders taking action?
We need to make it easier for immigrants to start companies in the US. The Start-Up Visa movement addresses this issue squarely and yet the bill proposed by Senators Kerry and Lugar six months ago appears to be caught up in the more partisan immigration debate.
Sarbanes-Oxley needs to be reformed. We may have had too little regulation of complex financial instruments like credit default swaps and other derivatives, but we clearly have too much regulation being imposed on the public selling of the securities of $100 million companies that are very simple for investors to understand. Why haven’t Facebook, LinkedIn, Zynga and many others gone public? It’s just too onerous and expensive. You want to unleash innovation? Make it one-third as expensive for small companies to comply with public regulations. There have been numerous proposals in the past to rethink Sarbanes-Oxley, we need to see some form of them come to light.
The amazing thing to me is that none of these ideas – and many others floating around the entrepreneurial community – require big dollars. Instead, they require big leadership. Where is that leadership going to come from? Who will be our champion for entrepreneurship? John McCain played this role in campaign finance reform. Who will step up and be the champion for entrepreneurs?
Other important policy ideas have been put forward by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and others – such as patent reform, increased investment in broadband, increased investment in NIH funding, reforming the FDA approval process.
Entrepreneurs Will Save the World
The real recovery from the “great recession” will come with some major changes that portend good things for entrepreneurs. First, there is near-consensus that the recovery cannot be built on consumption as it has reigned in the last 50 or so years. Resources are too limited, the planet is too fragile and large corporations that supported this consumption too easily become institutions unto themselves that care only for their own future and their own profits and fail in a huge and costly manner.
Instead we should begin to envision and shape the next economy—one that is focused on creating a new solid economic base, is powered by a low-or no carbon energy source, is driven by innovation, transparency and collaborative business models and creates opportunity across the entire spectrum of social-economic reality.
There are many thoughts and ideas out there about what will drive and create this new economy. I believe it will be driven by the following four trends:
1.A resource-constrained environment on a health-challenged planet
2.The creation of “mega-intelligence” through collaborations that create in-depth knowledge and insights in the fields of science and technology
3.A massive amplification of creativity that feeds innovation
4.The rise of entrepreneurial collaboratives
The willingness to exercise our entrepreneurial spirit has never been higher. Whether in the clean-energy economy, social enterprises focused on creating breakthroughs in traditionally underserved communities or as spin-offs and internal “tanks” in the big dog corporations, the fall of the old economy has seen the rise of entrepreneurs.
Polar opposites come together to pave the way to a future that is more vibrant, resilient and flexible. A world where entrepreneurial spirit and self-reliance is augmented and magnified by a connected creativity supported by technology that builds communities that learn, grow and make a living together.
You can see why I think the entrepreneurial future is one where women will thrive! Success in the future will likely be measured more by the quality of your experiences than the 0s after your income bracket. Your net contribution to life will matter more than your net worth! And the inheritances your grandkids will care about are great communities, interesting work and a healthy planet.
How Women Entrepreneurs Will Save our Economy
If you’re following news on the economy, it’s more of the same. Jobs are scarce, the housing market is depressed, and business spending is slow.
This is a sobering reality check for millions of Americans who continue to hope the economy will soon turn around.
What’s to be done?
We must support and encourage entrepreneurship and new entrepreneurial initiatives in women.
Why? Because it’s entrepreneurs who will create the new jobs millions of Americans sorely need.
Three Things for Women Entrepreneurs to Keep in Mind
1. Don’t indulge in delusional thinking.
In this changing economy where unemployment is stuck at 9.6%, it’s a mistake to think that we’re going to return to the way things were anytime soon. And who would want to? Things weren’t all that economically great before the recession began.
Let’s face it. We’re not going to see real estate skyrocket or lost jobs come back overnight. What we are seeing and will continue to see are women entrepreneurs stepping to the plate to create new jobs. This is what will save the U.S. economy. Not the government. Not big business. The U.S. small business sector expanding and creating new jobs will get us out of this recession.
2. Be realistic.
As an entrepreneur myself, I love the concept of dreaming big and going beyond where anyone has gone before. This kind of expansive thinking can sometimes require you to learn new things or even get licensed or certified in a new area of expertise. However, if you’re thinking about starting up a business, it’s more important than ever before to focus on getting up and running as quickly as possible.
For that reason, the one thing I caution against is starting up a new business that is more than two degrees different from anything else you’ve done before in your life or career. That’s because, if you extend beyond two degrees, it is likely that you’ll end up feeling overwhelmed with all that you’ll need to learn and do just to get up-to-speed.
So, stick close to what you know. Capitalize on your existing skills and experience when starting up. This will help you get your business going very quickly and will also save you time and money.
3. Expect more and less from your bank. The Small Business Jobs and Credit Act offers a fresh source of financing for small businesses. Still, it’s extremely difficult for small businesses to get their hands on that cash.
Now, more than ever, you must make sure that, when you ask lenders for money, your business plan is a “cogent, practical document that lays out where the business has been from a historical perspective and where it’s going and why,” according to Christine Reilly, President of CIT Small Business Lending Corporation.
The days when a small business owner could walk into her hometown bank and borrow money to tide over her struggling business are long gone. Nowadays, banks are asking you to front them money by putting up your personal residence as collateral to secure your loan. Expect this and be prepared with a solid business plan.
While the news on the economy may sound bleak, it’s important for women entrepreneurs not to flounder in the passive state of hoping for things to turn around. What is needed the most is creation of new jobs. And that’s where entrepreneurship and new entrepreneurial initiatives come in. If you are a woman entrepreneur, your time has come to create the new jobs that will be so important in reviving our economy.
I love your Ideas.
We had two former venture capitalists in the Senate and House (Mark Warner and Scott Murphy Chris Gibson (R) defeated Scott Murphy (D)), a former high-tech entrepreneur in the Senate (Maria Cantwell) and a former venture capitalist running the Small Business Association (Karen Mills). They probably know what to do to unleash innovation in this country, but they’re just not empowered. Why not cut through the hierarchy of party leadership and have the president create a special Bipartisan Commission on Entrepreneurship – similar to what has been done on September 11th and Deficit Reduction?
When President Clinton was elected in 1992, he convened a televised economic summit, bringing together the best minds on the economy and conducting, in effect, a “national teach-in” for the broader public. Let’s have the president convene an Entrepreneurship Summit – invite top entrepreneurs, VCs, angel investors to sit alongside policy leaders – and broadcast it. Discuss immigration reform, Sarbanes Oxley reform, FDA approval streamlining and all the rest. Imagine the impact that would have and the focus this would provide.
Faced with criticism that he’s not in touch with business, President Obama has had a series of CEO lunches at the White House. When you examine the list of invitees, it is shocking how few are entrepreneurs. I counted two (Jeff Bezos and Howard Schultz) among 28. And none of them are in the business of helping create the small businesses that create jobs. The president’s lunch list needs to change radically and instead invite the leading thinkers in entrepreneurship and innovation to a series of lunches. If accomplishing nothing else, it would force Brad Feld to wear a tie.
When you look at the exciting progress being made in global broadband access, the Human Genome, ubiquitous wireless access and devices, energy innovation and so much more – it is clear that we are living in an extraordinarily unique time, truly a golden age for technology and innovation. If only we could get our policy leaders to take big actions to match their big rhetoric.
Would SOMEONE PLEASE LISTEN AND DO SOMETHING ALREADY????
Thank you. Most highly-educated and hardworking people in America do!