Are Successful Entrepreneurs Born Or Made?

The question of whether we entrepreneurs are born or made is still up for serious debate. It might be a bit of both!

Are Entrepreneurs Born?

There is some truth in the statement that an entrepreneur is born - two types of entrepreneurs are born. First, the one who is born into a family that already owns and successfully runs a business. The second type of entrepreneur is the one who comes from a different background, has no requisite resources, has no investors for business, is devoid of investment knowledge- but is brimming with innovative ideas.

It does not always happen that the entrepreneur’s son or daughter becomes an entrepreneur naturally. However, it gets easier for an individual who is born in a business family that already runs a business venture to get into the family business, as entrepreneurship runs in the family. Entrepreneurs require resources like capital, land, labor, and the likes. Generally, It is easier to achieve these since these resources are already available in the family business.

In such cases,?though, the entrepreneur born in a business family shies away from venturing into business start-ups. The sole focus stays on running the family business and carrying forward the brand?name attached to the business for generations to come.

Are Entrepreneurs Made?

History reveals that many entrepreneurs have come up from non-entrepreneurial families and have excelled in their fields. Such names are abundant across time from throughout the world. This might suggest that entrepreneurs are not born but are made as they own some special qualities. They need some training and experience to excel as one successful entrepreneur. . Many people from non-entrepreneurs families start their own business and become entrepreneurs every day.

Many individuals shape themselves to own a business. With a burning desire to be self-employed, they dare to dream big. Such individuals go to any extent to take up risks, design small business plans to give birth to business start-ups.?????????????????

In such cases, entrepreneurs are made. They are positive, confident, proactive people who want to be admired as self-made men or women. Growth doesn’t come overnight, but they grow with time. A vision that they have always wanted to achieve since their childhood takes shape in the form of a startup business development through strategic business planning.

Thus it cannot be declared that entrepreneurs are always “born” - People with strong business acumen and a zeal to make it big acquire some qualities that make them successful entrepreneurs.

How an entrepreneur is made?

INNOVATION

When a new aspirant decides to embark on the entrepreneurial journey, observing the surroundings gives him an understanding of the business environment. Real-life experiences gathered through the journey, maneuvered through many obstacles help them to become an entrepreneur.

The main quality of entrepreneurship is innovation. This trait is not obtained naturally - it crops up from opportunities.?A good sense of innovation helps one survive a business from a crisis. It helps it to stride along and become a leader in its field. Entrepreneurs find opportunities from problems and make innovations to provide solutions.?

EXPERIENCE

Experience makes entrepreneurs overcome business crises and forecast the chances of its development. Complete knowledge and experience in the field is essential for the entrepreneurs to operate their business. An entrepreneur can easily tackle a problem and design a course of action based on past experience.

People can learn and adapt the skills for business. From past experience, one gets an idea or the blueprint of a business. Customers are expected to be present already. Thus with the past employment experience, one directly gets into operating and developing the business. Good communication skills, gained from experience in dealing with people, help to get the business leader potential customers and in due course, help in gaining profit from it. Teamwork and leadership, integrity, and passion are also keys to entrepreneurship which are acquired through training and practice.

KNOWLEDGE

The third quality of entrepreneurship is knowledge. This, one has to acquire in due course from education as none is born with it. Entrepreneurs face various challenges ranging from finance, operation, organization, and laws. Operating a business requires one to understand financial statements. Financial statements, consisting of income statement, cash flow statement and balance sheet, is a tool for entrepreneurs to track their operations as mentioned by Mariotti and Glackin in 2010. The knowledge of financial statements cannot be acquired naturally, it is obtained from extensive studying. The financial ratio analysis is also?needed to be done by an entrepreneur along with understanding financial statements. In order to cooperate with the government, the entrepreneur needs to know the regulations about the taxes and the likes. Thus a lack of financial knowledge may be fatal. Some of the entrepreneurs even gain returns from investing using finance knowledge. The knowledge drives the entrepreneurs to make the right decision for their business and operate better.

The passion to create something new makes one a successful entrepreneur. It might well?be said that an entrepreneur is created through education. The knowledge that one receives through education and experience helps the individual to best utilize new ideas. Education helps individuals discover the skills and brush up on the natural talents that they already possess. It helps them to use those skills in becoming an entrepreneur successfully.

MAN-MANAGEMENT SKILLS

A good sense of dealing with people and proper communication is very important for the success of?a business startup. Language expertise is not inborn. One has to learn it through the course of life. Just as one starts learning languages, one can start learning communication skills at an early age to become an expert in the same. By communicating well, the entrepreneurs might get their potential customers and gain more prospects depending on the customer service. Thus, people from the sales field are generally seen to become successful entrepreneurs since they already know the pulse of their customers. They can sense people’s needs and start their entrepreneurship journey accordingly. The entrepreneurs need to know their products, their business field, their business environment as well as their customers. Communication skills are built up from the accumulated experience. One learns communication skills through the relationships and the society of others. It is a connection between people. Successful entrepreneurs know the people’s pros and cons through communication, and thus can determine their future path of the business.

LEADERSHIP, INTEGRITY, PASSION

Apart from the above-mentioned qualities, more qualities and expertise such as teamwork & leadership, integrity, and passion are also important for the success of a start-up. Teamwork and leadership is an essential ability that is gained from life and is not inborn. It requires the entrepreneur to “address complex problems by utilizing strengths of different group members” and “create a synergy that increases innovation and successful outcomes” (Reimers and Williams, 2009).?A team working closely has a big impact on the business, so the entrepreneur needs to organize his team well. It is the entrepreneur and leader’s task to “communicate and listen, ask questions and summarize, articulate a goal, and build members confidence” (Reimers and Williams, 2009). These tasks like communication are not born, however, they are trained through tasks and group projects. That is why such schools are taught in the business schools and training is given on similar lines.??

In addition to this, for an honest, successful business, one needs to excel in integrity. This is?a personal skill that gets highly influenced by the living environment. The business would not exist long if it cheated its customers. “Integrity is a deal-breaker” (Anderson, 2008). The entrepreneurs need to convince the clients to buy their products or invest in their companies through the method of integrity so that they will gain profit and get funding for their business. Passion and ambition in entrepreneurship make the employment and business experience upgrade into entrepreneurship level. Everyone has passion at different levels, and this passion makes entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. Passion is a personal quality that is acquired from experience. It is a kind of confidence of your business you alight with. Only when the entrepreneur targets his or her goal, he or she has a passion for the business. Thus, Teamwork & Leadership, integrity, and passion are not made but acquired after birth.

Conclusion

History reveals that famous entrepreneurs like Jobs Steve, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet made their businesses enormous in their own ways. These famous successful entrepreneurs were not born with any specially designed inherent body and muscles, but they are groomed and trained through the practice of their business. One can achieve a good sense of entrepreneurship by dedicating himself through practice and could gain excellence. Only by one’s effort to acquire and temper the qualities, will he or she become a successful entrepreneur.

Can you be an entrepreneur?

Though it seems that everyone has it in them to become an entrepreneur, it is only a handful of people who can dare to dream big, make it big, and become successful entrepreneurs. One who is not afraid to take risks. Taking risks is innate for a successful entrepreneur. He or she is not afraid of failure. They focus more on spending enough time on improving their skills. They strive to gain more experience by observing other successful entrepreneurs and endeavors to sharpen the leadership position in a business. The individual aims to achieve even what everyone considers impossible. This passion makes him/her give birth to new ideas and come out as a victorious entrepreneur.

So, if you have it ….just go for it!

As Business Startup Specialist and the founder of Startup in Thailand, Andy Aditya is often hired as a Representative Director?to assist business owners to execute their vision.

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