Read on-line or download a copy here.

The first point of debate when considering any discussion on entrepreneurship is what exactly constitutes being an entrepreneur. The Collins dictionary definition is “The owner of a business who attempts to make money by risk and initiative” . This implies that entrepreneurs are both creative in terms of generating new initiatives and also risk takers. 

 Bob Reiss, successful entrepreneur and author of Low-Risk, High-Reward: Starting and Growing Your Small Business With Minimal Risk, says: "Entrepreneurship is the recognition and pursuit of opportunity without regard to the resources you currently control, with confidence that you can succeed, with the flexibility to change course as necessary, and with the will to rebound from setbacks." This implies that entrepreneurs are insightful in the recognition of opportunity and also have confidence in their own ability to succeed and the tenacity and resilience to see things through and rebound from failure.  

The above sets out then the personal traits of an entrepreneur the question now is to discuss whether these traits can be acquired by training or need to be inherent in the make up of the individual from the genetics of the lineage of the individual. This kind of question is always a provocative one and does not really have a definitive answer but it is of particular interest to us as the notion of becoming a successful entrepreneur is generally considered to be a good thing and most societies around the world hold successful entrepreneurs in veneration.  

Many subscribe to the view “Entrepreneurs and born not trained”  however, if this statement was to be taken literally it would be to assume that no skills are required to be an entrepreneur as we certainly do not have any skills at birth and those we acquire are by training ! The main premise behind the statement is that  it is really personality that dictates whether an entrepreneur is successful or not and the same discussion has been raised about the development of a persons personality i.e. is it a product of the lineage of the person and as such predetermined at birth or is it due to the experiences of life that shape and mould the personality of an individual. As with many things in the natural world, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. 

 It is true that life does shape us  in many ways and we may indeed learn from others and our own mistakes. However if one analyses the real underlying traits of successful entrepreneurship, it comes down to the attitude towards risk and the ability to rebound from failure to be ready for success. The behaviour that results from these traits can be studied and mimicked however it is against many of our own natural instincts to enter into situations that are risky and to repeat the experience after a failure is even more unnatural to most of us. I would therefore suggest that it is this ability to go against natural instinct that is the true mark of an entrepreneur whether they are successful or not.