Your Comments - Part 5 - "Born or Made"

We promised to provide you with some of the feedback being received on our Linkedin Poll, where we asked the question: Are Entrepreneurs Born, or are they Made?

Our Linkedin Poll was launched on December 18, 2011 and your response has been overwhelming!  Thank you to all who contributed to the debate or voted in our poll.

Below are just a few of the comments that were provided. We have generally not edited what you see below. We trust that it being place on this BLOG will allow opportunity for other to join in the discussion.  Enjoy and please ADD your COMMENTS to this POST!

Ian Hope • We are what we make of ourselves. We have the power to reach as high in life as we want, even though most people aren't concsious of that fact. We're not born to be just this, or just that... I've seen the toughest circumstances which resulted in an alcoholic mother raising 7 alcoholic children- were they born to be alcoholics, or were they to a great extent shaped and perhaps limited by their circumstances and what they learned or didn't learn early on? I've seen families with children born into wealth who became remarkable 'underachievers' and kids from the wrong side of the tracks that now own the railroad... I think for the most part we have the opportunity to make our own fate, and are not born into it.  


John Kuypers • Entrepreneurs have an extraordinary need to achieve. The ones I know often get that way because of childhood circumstances. I think all of them want to prove something to someone. It's an ego-based drive that creates many good things for society but not always good things for family and marriages. As a therapist I respect once said to me, there are only two questions in life: What do you want? and, What price are you prepared to pay to get it? Entrepreneurs are prepared to pay a major price. I say, God bless them! 

Tuulikki Juusela • Women everywhere in the world are interested in entrepreneurship and becoming entrepreneurs. According to the statistics of OECD 35 % of all enterprises in the world are headed by women. Entrepreneurs, both male and female, play a significant role in creating wealth and jobs. Firms with less than twenty employees provide a quarter of jobs. A growing number of these small new companies are led by women. Women`s Enterprise Agency in Finland is giving entrepreneurial training courses. They have been designed to help women entrepreneurs acquire useful business know-how and create networking opportunities. These courses cover all areas of a business plan. You can read more http://nyek.fi/doc/Becoming_an_Entrepreneur_GUIDE.pdf

Arlee C Hoecherl • Jim Good Question. Everyone else excellent Response. In my opinion, this is from doing estate files, and Audits, and business coaching.. Seeing the real life self employed. All the education in the world, with out application.. does not provide success. And then on the other hand what is success ? We tend to use a narrow view of success... Sales growth and Physical accumulation of wealth normally networth statements or dollars. I would submit that there are several OTHER measurements of success. For example going out business Or megers, or sales of business to employees , say closing a businesss, that could be successfull, if the owner prevented further bleeding of capital.. The reason I Said made.. is it reflects a Cognitive process and those who exercise judgement, knowledge, in the process of decision making.. On the other hand Yes there are those who are BORN,, I.e. Kids of Millionaires.. But under further examination, the failure rate is fairly high.. (example the Eaton Family in Retail ) . Often those that are born add to thier birth right, some period of apprenticeship. Look at the Donald Trump family... Do you agree, that the trump children had to Apprentice "CUT thier Teeth" ? Very seldom is it only by birth. Automatic success. "Made" to me is learn by doing. As evidanced by what we are told on the Donald Trump Family, Re family members children Apprenticing under the father.