Are entrepreneurs & change agents born or made?

Are successful entrepreneurs and change agents born or made? This is an important question because it can affect how people see themselves and what they aim for.

Let’s start first with some basic definitions:

Entrepreneur: Entrepreneurship is defined as the act of starting and running your own business or a tendency to be creative and wish to work for yourself in your own ventures.

Change Agent: A change agent is a person from inside or outside an organisation who helps an organisation, or part of an organisation, to transform how it operates. They can be thought of as a catalyst for change, a person who can make changes happen by inspiring and influencing others.

When I look at these definitions, I would classify myself as both an entrepreneur and change agent.

So, was I born like this or made?

There was some talk a while back that there may be an entrepreneur gene of sorts; however, this has died down.

What we do know though, is that to be effective as an entrepreneur or change agent it helps having these capabilities:

High fluid intelligence: Fluid intelligence is the ability to think flexibly and to understand abstract relations
High openness: means being creative and open to new ideas
Moderate agreeableness: Agreeableness is one of the five personality traits of the Big Five personality theory. A person with a high level of agreeableness in a personality test is usually warm, friendly, and tactful. They generally have an optimistic view of human nature and get along well with others.

Passion for what you do is another key factor.

The research shows it’s likely to be a combination of both nature and nurture, where nurture has a much stronger influence than nature.

So here’s the challenge:

Entrepreneurship and change agency are about risk taking, looking at things from different perspectives, questioning and challenging the prevailing norms, selling in new ideas. Risks are a massive part of being an entrepreneur or change agent because there can’t be any success without experimentation and risks.

However, the current education system as we know it, is against entrepreneurship and being a change agent. We are taught to fall in line, comply, conform and do well from a very young age. ‘Don’t fail your exams, or you won’t get into university.’ Don’t take risks at work, or you’ll be fired.’ As children, many of us can grow up fearing risks and failure, and the idea of being an entrepreneur or change agent can be intimidating for many.

Unless, that is, you grow up in a family of entrepreneurs or change agents. For instance, it is far more likely that children who grow up in families with entrepreneurs are much more likely to become entrepreneurs themselves because they understand risk differently -as a challenge, and not as something to fear.

Change agents and entrepreneurs, especially, fail and try again. They seek out mentors to help them, and they have the determination to keep going no matter what. They keep on learning and growing, experimenting and trialling, exploring and evolving. They also know that there is no such thing as a one-man-band in entrepreneurship or change. None of these world class entrepreneurs or change agents got there alone, they know it’s all about collaboration.

One of the best and most vivid examples of someone who was both a highly successful change agent and entrepreneur is David Bowie. He was one of the best going around.

Next week I will dive into the specific characteristics and qualities of world class change agents and entrepreneurs.

Remember, everybody lives by selling something.