Critical Discussion of 'Entrepreneurs are born not made'

Entrepreneurs are senior management personnel who take on the effective organization and management of land, capital, labor and other production factors with the spirit of adventure and innovation. The quality of entrepreneurs is not innate but it can be acquired through the training and experience which should include four aspects: the first is visionary. It means that you can find opportunities to make money which are not easy for other people to find. The Second is to have the courage and to dare to make a decision. The third is the organizational ability to combine various production factors together of high efficiency. The fourth is a sense of social responsibility. Thus, it could be seen that the quality of the entrepreneurs is a comprehensive quality and it is a comprehensive evaluation of the strategic management capabilities of entrepreneurs. The quality of the entrepreneurs is not born, let alone the corporate leaders would naturally have this quality.

This essay will critical discuss of the statement “Entrepreneurs are born, not made”, and then critical use of relevant explain in discussion and analysis to support and illustrate my opinion “entrepreneurs are made, not born”. At the end, it will be conclusion for the whole report, and give detail reference.

Critical discussion of the statement

The definition of entrepreneur by Cantillon at first was linked together with the “assumption of risk” in economy. After the confirmation of European industrial revolutions for several times, its connotation and significance have been expanding gradually, and entrepreneurs exert tremendous influence in the social and economic levels, which can be said as catalyst for each wave of economic development. In the eyes of common people, the entrepreneurs are the small number of respected elites with high social position.

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Therefore, for a long time, the popular view is that: the entrepreneurs can not be taught or learn well by themselves for the quality is born. Many articles and books also list the innate characteristics of successful entrepreneurs such as pioneering spirit, initiative, and driving force, willingness to take risks, analytical ability and interpersonal skills. In fact, not only these lists are incomplete, but also they lack practical significance for they are based on case studies and based on the study results of some successful entrepreneurs. However, as more and more successful entrepreneurs are emerging, new features are added to the increasingly long list, and some “theoretical workers” who “select” successful entrepreneurs by entrepreneur genetic theory also begin to get into trouble.

Today, the “myth” that “entrepreneurs are born” has been denied by more and more people. Everyone can choose to do pioneering work and become an entrepreneur as the career, but the motivation to make such a choice for everyone is not the same, at least it is not determined by something, certain feature or certain character. Everyone has a great entrepreneurial potential to become an entrepreneur, but also hides the “dark side” of entrepreneurship which plays a hindering role. So, the key is how to tap and give full play to the potential so as to balance the two-sided effect (Hall, and Wailes, 2009). Entrepreneurs are not inherent to own endowment different from ordinary people. Half a cup of water in their view is half-full rather than half-empty and failure for them is just a resting place rather than the quagmire that they could not get out just because they learn to face problems optimistically and positively in the experience of difficulties and setbacks rather than choose negative and pessimism.

In fact, the operation and management of enterprise is very complex system engineering but also long-term or dateless system engineering. Let’s take the management for example. The management of the business is related to strategy development, team building, and system improvement, sorting out of various relationships and execution improvement and so on. Each link contains a number of small details and the omission of any small detail will affect the construction of the entire management system. The greatest difficulty of management is that the systems and rules are developed and implemented by people. If there is the lack of good corporate culture and correct values as guidance, the performers of the rules may become their destroyers.

An excellent brand is the condensation of company values, culture and philosophy. It is the reflection of the enterprise strategy and technology which needs long-term efforts before its establishment. It is not so simple as research, planning and promotion, but it contains an extremely profound spirit of enterprise and company culture and even daily habits of the most basic personnel. Any gorgeous system and plan will become a mere formality and empty talk with a lack of executive force to implement.

As Feng Lun said, “the greatness comes from hard work”. Also, the author Zhang Ping stressed: outstanding entrepreneurs should run the company through the vision of politicians, develop market by strategists’ courage, cultivate personnel by poets’ mind, form corporate culture by philosophers’ depth and implement enterprise infrastructure management with the spirit of fighting courageously at bayonet-point range (James V. Koch, 2008)

Most importantly, a good entrepreneur should have a saintly quality and infant-like learning spirit. In the face of the market environment, customers, staffs, competitors and partners, only those entrepreneurs of high moral character and learning spirit could remain indifferent in front of favours and humiliation, be prepared for danger in times of safety, be dedicated to society, do service to others, become win-win in harmony and make innovations constantly in order to achieve the sustainable development of enterprises. In this sense, good entrepreneurs are never born (Hellriegel, Dn and Slocum Jr, John W, 2001).

No one will be a entrepreneur by birth, they are made through their life. He may be born with some skills which may help him to become a entrepreneur. If someone is born entrepreneur then why should they wait for 16 to 25 yrs to become business men and why are they taking their education (James L. Fisher, 2004). So a person can have the qualities of a entrepreneur by birth but can’t be a entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are made, they are not born”. if the entrepreneurs are born so all the Guajarati population must be holding the entrepreneurial section in India. Because in born means, the whole entrepreneurial activities, skills, ideas, talent everything comes from when the child born. But all the literate people know that no one can become dhirubhai ambani as in born. But yes, if a person has its own mind, intelligence, talent, aim, skills, and also a good learning from observation then with his/her own determination and total dedication can be a “successful entrepreneur”.

Critical use of relevant example in discussion and analysis

Professor Shefsky holds the mentality of empirical study and has interviewed more than 200 entrepreneurs with the most achievement in the world in the last six years to finish the book “Entrepreneurs are made, not born”. Lloyd believes that all people are born with the entrepreneurial qualities and even babies have entrepreneurial qualities. “If you’ve seen the baby climb to the place where they should not climb, you will know that they are not afraid at all.” In the book, for a lot of prejudices and misunderstanding, Lloyd offers examples to refute them. Many people think that “entrepreneurs are born with the sight of predictability”. If you compliment Steven Jobs who is the founder of Apple Computer Inc. in this way, he certainly would say “No”. Steven Jobs did not have the idea to develop a micro-computer that both pupils and businessmen can use so as to change people’s lives before he started the business (Lloyd E. Shefsky, 1996). Not all entrepreneurs are born with the eyesights of predictability. Conversely, a lot of people including Steven Jobs slowly form this insight after understanding the company’s current status and future.

Lloyd himself is a good proof. He is a Jewish-American and his father is an entrepreneur who failed and became lonely later while his mother is a small staff. During Lloyd’s youth period, I believe that very few people would say Lloyd would become an elite entrepreneur under this “born” background coupled with very serious discrimination of America on religious beliefs and race. However, through individual efforts, opportunities favor him and he is quite successful who leads the firm with nearly 100 lawyers to serve a number of global 500 companies (Lloyd E. Shefsky, 1996), similarly, in China, Liu Chuanzhi who is the entrepreneur representative of the first generation in Zhongguancun should have become a scientist. However, “if that was a calm time, Liu Chuanzhi would not become Liu Chuanzhi”.

A report by Ernst and Young has found that out of nearly 700 business owners, most of them became entrepreneurs after a significant stint in the corporate world. When asked about their most important source of learning, the most frequent answer was experience as an employee (33%), followed by higher education (30%).This goes to show that not every entrepreneur is a college dropout, and that higher education is in fact a good investment in one’s future (James V. Koch, 2008). Since startups are responsible for more than a third of all new jobs in the United States, colleges and universities should put more emphasis on properly preparing students for choosing to become entrepreneurs. Thus Entrepreneurs are made, not born

Conclusion

Base on the discussion and analysis, there are relevant theory, concept and example support my opinion “Entrepreneurs are made, not born” Everyone has a great entrepreneurial potential to become an entrepreneur, the quality of entrepreneurs is not innate but it can be acquired through the training and experience, Everyone can choose to do pioneering work and become an entrepreneur as the career. Not all entrepreneurs are born with the eyesights of predictability. For example, conversely, a lot of people including Steven Jobs slowly form this insight after understanding the company’s current status and future. Lloyd is quite successful who leads the firm with nearly 100 lawyers to serve a number of global 500 companies through individual efforts, opportunities favor. Higher education is in fact a good investment in one’s future.