Are Entrepreneurs born or are they made?

I really believe that you are born with a set of talents and that your environment and the various experiences you have along the way can either allow those talents to blossom or it can stifle them. One example of that, which is critical to entrepreneurialism, is the propensity for risk or, said more plainly, your willingness to try new things where you may not have the appropriate background or all the answers of how to move ahead.

Case in point is my launching a series of Internet radio shows in January, when I had absolutely no broadcasting background and frankly, no idea of the mechanics of doing such a thing. Yet three weeks later, after securing the former CEO of CBS radio, Nancy Widmann, as my first Solutionz Live! guest, I was on the air. Nancy said after our interview that I was a “natural.” Without taking that risk, how would I have known?

I really do see risk-taking as a critical talent for an entrepreneur. With the new media network, I had to just dive right in and do it. I had no choice but to bootstrap it, as this is not the environment to be raising capital on an untried idea with an untested talent. So three weeks from idea to inception, a new, new thing was birthed—a social broadcasting network!

No one who knows me well is surprised. I’ve been accused of being an idea factory. This time I’ve hit on something that is not only necessary, but I’m having a blast.

On the environment issue, I think that we have all seen examples of an entrepreneur, or what used to be called a “self-made man,” trying to force a child to take over the business, only to find out that the child doesn’t have what it takes. Handing over the legacy is just not enough. I think that those fundamental talents have to be there as a base to build upon. Even with the right environment, you can’t shape people into entrepreneurs if they don’t have those key talents, including risk-taking and of course, leadership skills and some creativity.

Excerpt from Bootstrap Business, coming out August 2009