There’s a deep, philosophical question for you. Are entrepreneurs born or made?

And the answer is… it’s complicated. Depending on who you ask, you’re either born an entrepreneur or you’re not and there’s a mysterious “entrepreneurship gene” that you have to be born with. Some people would hear that answer, say it’s complete nonsense and then assert that absolutely anyone can become an entrepreneur if they wanted to. 

So what’s the answer to this divisive question that could start a thousand arguments with a million people chiming in to give their own opinion? Are you born an entrepreneur or can you be made into an entrepreneur? 

Read on to find out!

Why entrepreneurs are born and not made?

Some people are naturally inclined towards entrepreneurship. From birth, they crave control and independence, desiring to build businesses where they answer only to themselves and their customers. They absolutely could not tolerate being told what to do by a boss so they became the boss instead.  

You might have been born with a talent that you recognized early and realized could generate significant profits. In that case, after you realise it, it would make absolutely zero sense to do anything but go down the entrepreneurship rabbit hole. The only reason, the only reason you would ever get a normal job would be to collect the funds you need to get your business going.  

People say entrepreneurs possess unique qualities that others lack. These qualities are separate from the talent successful entrepreneurs have. A study found that entrepreneurs are born with three qualities that make them suited to becoming a successful entrepreneur from birth. These qualities are: 

• High fluid intelligence means you have strong reasoning skills and can generate many ideas based on new information. You can come up with interesting ideas and solutions easily.
• A very open mind. You maintain an open mind and are adaptable to new information. You can quickly change course if you see that something is wrong and isn’t working out despite being sure of it earlier.
• A decent amount of “agreeableness”. This means that you’re friendly enough that people will like you by default because you’re nice and genuine. People like you, want you to succeed and want to help you as much as they can.

A special talent that they can build a business around, a good enough brain, an open mind and a friendly personality. Yes, entrepreneurs are definitely born. Some people are just built different. 

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Why entrepreneurs are made and not born?

Circumstances can force people into entrepreneurship. Also, some people actually enjoy having a 9-5 job with a boss that tells you exactly what to do every day and a comfortable routine to stick to. Some people really, really want to be entrepreneurs but lack any talent or special qualities. Some of these people try their hand at entrepreneurship and while many fail terribly, some of them become incredible successes. 

While failing is common and incredible successes are rare that doesn’t mean that there’s no hope for you to become an entrepreneur. Starting small because you don’t have exceptional guts or talent while slowly building up your business is perfectly fine and is a healthy way to start a business.

Small businesses that are run proudly are still examples of successful entrepreneurship even if the business doesn’t make a billion dollars everyday. If you have the guts to take a risk and start a business then build it into something that’s enough to support your daily life while making your customers happy, congratulations. You are an entrepreneur. 

And if you built that small business without any talent or special qualities? That’s great too. 

Because if you work on improving yourself, you can improve your business as well. There’s nowhere to go but up!

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How you can become an entrepreneur?

Let’s say you lack talent and you don’t have anything to start a business around. Now, let’s say you don’t have any brains, you don’t have an open mind and you don’t have any friends because you’re almost unapproachable. Let’s say that by all metrics you are totally not suited to become an entrepreneur.

Don’t worry! You can fix all of that to an extent. You must accept that you may not achieve the same level of success as someone with natural entrepreneurial talent. But you definitely can improve.

Let’s say you don’t have an incredible talent like Bill Gates had for tech. That’s completely fine. 

It’s a common misconception that you need to be the greatest ever at your chosen skill to become an entrepreneur. You don’t need to be the absolute best at something to become an entrepreneur. You only need to be competent. 

If you have an interest in starting a tech business that involves something like programming, you can practice day and night till you become at least somewhat competent at it. You can take classes and complete small projects to improve your programming skills until reaching a decent level.

Let’s say you weren’t born with much fluid intelligence and your reasoning ability is terrible. You can slowly work to gain better reasoning ability and better fluid intelligence. For example, you can start reading a lot about many different topics and then brainstorm how you can apply what you read to fix your daily problems. Your fluid intelligence will improve over time. This is because you’re actively working to enhance your reasoning skills.

Let’s say that you don’t have an open mind. You can gradually correct this by slowly realizing that much of the old information previously considered correct was actually wrong. For example, did you know that doctors used to recommend smoking to improve your health? If you listened to that recommendation first and didn’t have an open mind, you wouldn’t have accepted that new research showed smoking was bad for you. Not having an open mind would have literally killed you.

Lastly, let’s say that you’re bad with people and can’t make friends easily. Go outside and talk to people more often. Start exercising more, stand up straighter, buy some better fitting clothes, bathe more often and use a better smelling cologne or perfume. Buy, read and apply the lessons in How to Win Friends and Influence People.  

Start where you are with what you have. Everyone has to start somewhere and everyone can improve. 

Closing 

We hope that you understand that anyone can become an entrepreneur as long as they have the guts to go after their dreams of entrepreneurship and freedom. Some people start off as entrepreneurs by default but others slowly evolve and become entrepreneurs somewhere along the line. Both of those paths are perfectly fine and it doesn’t matter how you start. 

You can be an entrepreneur as long as you have a decent idea and enough will to bring that idea into the real world. Whatever you choose to do, do your best and best of luck!