Are Entrepreneurs Made or Born? Can It Be Taught?

 There are certain things that can be quantified, statistically analyzed and best practices can be formed.  However, by definition, entrepreneurs go boldly where no one has gone before.   So sometimes all the stats and data are meaningless.

Entrepreneurs do have certain personality traits.  Not everyone can do it, or is comfortable doing it.

The most important thing an entrepreneur can do:  Discover a problem to solve, then apply a unique way to solve it.  You don’t learn in books.  You learn by actually doing.  Trying and failing.  Trying and failing.  Then, trying and failing again.

If you fear failure, you will fail.

So, my answer is that anyone can create a culture of entrepreneurship.  It starts in the home.  It extends to school. We can teach kids the basics of entrepreneurship-but they will learn more by setting up a lemonade stand than they will from reading a book and listening to a lecture.

If you want your kid to be an entrepreneur, encourage them to try stuff, let them fail.  Encourage them to solve little problems.  They will learn to deal with disappointment, and the nirvana that comes with attempting to solve them.  They’ll become sturdy, and someday they will create or lead something small that will become great.