Peter Forint – Professor, Business Advisor, and Electric Vehicle (EV) Evangelist
Is being an entrepreneur a destiny of DNA, or can anyone become an entrepreneur?
That’s the startup environment’s version of the proverbial question, “nature vs. nurture?” Perhaps we can garner some insights from another competitive environment – sports.
Many fans and pundits rave about their favourite player’s incredible talent as a rare ability, a stroke of luck, or a gift of nature. I certainly saw this myself when my kids first started playing baseball, hockey, and soccer. A select few of the young players just seemed to know exactly what to do, and the performance gaps between the “naturals” and everyone else were noticeable to all. But in the following seasons, skills gaps were flipped as some of the forgettable kids became top players, surpassing the previous “naturals”. How could this be that earlier “naturals” were no longer the best?
With these tools “anyone can be an entrepreneur” says serial entrepreneur, educator, author, and TEDx speaker Bernhard Schroeder, whose work I use in my own entrepreneurship courses.
While these trends have certainly tilted the answer of our question toward “nurture”, I believe there are a couple of “nature” caveats. Just like athletes, how coachable is the entrepreneur, and how many times are they willing to fall and get back up until they get it right?
Whichever perspective you believe, one thing is clear, there’s never been a better time to be an entrepreneur!
Wouldn't it be a good idea to create a course?
