Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?

This report explores the debate on whether entrepreneurs are born or made. It includes a literature review and critical analysis on the topic, discussing the traits of entrepreneurs, challenges they face, and the context of the topic. The report aims to determine whether entrepreneurship is a natural talent or a skill that can be developed.

Running head: ENTREPRENEURSHIP REPORT
ENTREPRENEURSHIP REPORT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
Entrepreneurship can be described as a procedure with respect to which an individual is
successfully able to convert a particular problem into a problem solving solution and present it to
the general audience in order to earn profits. However, the entrepreneurship is not an easy
process and the business would be required to take considerable risks and the owner would be
required to have considerable skills with respect to the same. Hence, it remains a debate whether
the entrepreneurs are born or whether they are made. The main aim of the report is to present an
argument with respect to the same and present a literature review and critical analysis on the
same.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................4
Entrepreneurship..........................................................................................................................4
Traits of the Entrepreneur............................................................................................................5
Challenges faced by them............................................................................................................7
Context to the topic......................................................................................................................8
Critical Analysis..............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References and Bibliography.........................................................................................................12

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Introduction
The business thereby contributes the main essence of the society and with respect to this,
it can be stated that in the past, there have been many intellectuals like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and
Warren Buffet and others who have started their own enterprise and these enterprises have been
successfully able to become one of the most successful companies of today. Many authors tend
to believe that the entrepreneurs are born successful and hence, with respect to this, it can be
mentioned that many critiques also believe that entrepreneurship skills and other traits can be
developed with time. According to Barringer (2015), entrepreneurs can be defined as those
individuals who have come up with a considerate idea and taken advantage of a situation in the
external environment of the business and with respect to this, the convert this problem into an
opportunity and tend to ensure that this opportunity is advantageous to them in a profitable
manner. Hence, it can be understood from this this that an entrepreneur can be described as an
individual who has started an own company and employed themselves. For this reason, many
critiques tend to believe that the entrepreneurs are not naturally born but are nurtured and made
this way.
Moreover, they are also under the belief that the entrepreneurship is a qualification and
not a destiny and that all entrepreneurs generally have a common trait of characteristics which
tends to make them successful or unsuccessful in the future. If an individual possesses these
qualities then they might be able to become successful entrepreneurs and these qualities
according to Barringer (2015), are not inherent but are instead derived from education and long
term experience. For this reason, the primary aim of the particular report is to critically analyze
whether entrepreneurs are born or made. The report will be reviewing the literature available in

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this domain, which will then be followed by the analysis of the literature and the support of the
argument.
Literature Review
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship can be defined as the procedure of starting a business and an
entrepreneur can be described as an individual who develops a particular business from the
scratch till the time it has grown in to the defined idea. According to Deluxe.com. (2018), a serial
entrepreneur can be defined as an individual who tends to develop multiple businesses.
Moreover, there are a large number of characteristics which are shared by the entrepreneurs like
motivation, creativity, businesses skills, drive, vision, decisiveness, versatility and flexibility.
Inc.com. (2018) states that Entrepreneurship can be described as a development process whereby
an individual seeks to improve its entrepreneurship skills through various training programs,
mentorship and other learning procedures which ensures that an individual can learn the different
aspects and become a successful entrepreneurship.
According to Barringer (2015), the entrepreneur is required to conduct an opportunity
analysis, thereby present a business plan and then be able to acquire the designated resources to
conduct the particular business in hand. In lieu of this, it can be mentioned that an entrepreneur
needs to possess adequate skills which will ensure that they are able to have basic understanding
of the manner in which a business functions and other such domains like finance, marketing,
accounting, strategy and others. In addition to this, according to Entrepreneur.com (2018), the
procedure of entrepreneurship can be stated to be as one whereby an individual processes,

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designs, launching, running of a particularly new business which initially begins very small in
size. The entrepreneurship can be stated to be the willingness and the capability to develop and
manage a business venture along with the different risks associated with it in order to ensure that
there exists a considerable profit in case of the same. However, as agreed by most of the critics
the procedure of entrepreneurship can be defined as the procedure whereby either an individual
or a particular team intends to identify a particular business opportunity in hand and then seeks to
deploy all the necessary resources as available in order to ensure that they are successfully able
to take an advantage of it. However, there are certain conditions which are crucial to abide by
and these conditions are that there needs to be an opportunity or a scenario which needs to be
solved in order to ensure that they will successfully be able to combine their resources.
Secondly the entrepreneurship also ensures that there exists a considerable set of
differences between people so as to ensure that the different skills may be used accordingly in
order to ensure that the business opportunity may be analyzed in a considerable manner.
Moreover, there also needs to exist the presence of a risk. The presence of a risk makes the entire
venture worth taking. Lastly, the entrepreneurship procedure also requires the organization of
different people as well as the resources. Deluxe.com. (2018) states that the exploitation of the
entrepreneurial opportunities may include the development of a business plan, hiring of a human
resources, acquiring financial resources, providing leadership, aversion of risks and taking
responsibility for the failure of the venture.
Traits of the Entrepreneur
According to Deluxe.com. (2018), there are a large number of traits which are required to
be present in an entrepreneur in order to ensure that they are successfully able to engage in the
entrepreneurial activities and ensure long term success. According to Medium.com. (2018) some

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of the traits can be stated to be inbuilt in an individual and moreover, according to Edx.org.
(2018), some of these traits are nurtured and build over the time. The first trait is the trait of
being passionate. According to Theguardian.com. (2018), the first trait which is required to be
present in a particular entrepreneur is that the entrepreneur needs to be passionate in nature. The
passion which is present in an individual can be considered to be an integral trait which makes a
particular individual work hard for the overall goal achievement of the organization. Hence, with
respect to this, it can be mentioned that, it is crucial for an entrepreneur to be very passionate in
nature. Secondly, the trait of work ethics also forms a crucial entrepreneurial trait which needs to
be present in any entrepreneur. According to Piperopoulos (2016), the work ethics are very
crucial in nature and with respect to this, it can be mentioned that, any entrepreneur as present in
the working environment needs to ensure that they have considerable work ethics which goes a
long way in gaining success in the long run of the business. Garyvaynerchuk.com. (2018) states
that closely linked to being passionate in nature is being determined in nature.
Any entrepreneur who wants to attain success in the long run would be required to ensure
that they are determined. This is because, determination goes a long way in ensuring that the
individual intends to achieve the overall goal and that organization becomes successful in the
long run. Moreover, an entrepreneur is required to be creative in nature. This is because, it is
because of this creativity that the organization would be required to ensure that the organization
would be successful in the long run. Once an entrepreneur will be able to come up with the
creative idea, only then the opportunity will be able to find long term success (Deluxe.com.
2018). Additionally, creativity also ensures that the specific idea as adopted by the particular
leader is unique and different from the idea of the other organizations as present in the business
environment. Another trait which is required to be present in the entrepreneur is that the

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entrepreneur must be competitive in nature. Competitiveness is considered to be a good trait
because it influences an individual to perform well and ensure success in the long run. Hence
with respect to this, the competitive nature of the different individuals is considered to be a
crucial trait for an entrepreneur.
With respect to this, it can be mentioned that with competitiveness, the trait of confidence
can be considered to be a good trait which needs to be present in an entrepreneur. The trait of
confidence can be stated to be a crucial trait which helps the individual in undertaking the
different risks which need to be adopted in case of the different scenarios. Confidence can be
stated to be that trait as present in the individual which will ensure that the individual is able to
convince its investors easily and ensure that just the manner in which the entrepreneur is vested
in the idea, in the same way the investors will also be hooked to the idea. Some of these traits are
inborn and the others are developed overtime.
Challenges faced by them
Although the task of entrepreneur appears to be comparatively easier, it is not, the
different entrepreneurs are often faced by a large number of challenges which tends to act as a
barrier on their path to become a successful entrepreneur. The different challenges will be
discussed in the given section. According to Forbes.com. (2018), the first challenge which is
faced by an entrepreneur is the challenge related to hire the right employees. The hiring of the
right kind of employees for the organization can be considered to be a rather difficult task and
with respect to this, it can be mentioned that it becomes rather very difficult for the entrepreneur
to engage in a commitment with the different employees who may have rather different
ideologies. Hence, it can be mentioned that the entrepreneur needs to ensure that they are
successfully able to hire the right kind of employees for the purpose of the firm at large.

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The next kind of a challenge which will be faced by the different entrepreneurs can be
stated to be the challenge of time management. Time can be taken to be a crucial aspect of the
firm and with respect to this, there are a large number of goals which needs to be fulfilled by the
different entrepreneurs and hence, time management often becomes a very critical aspect which
needs to be maintained accordingly. Hence, with respect to this, it can be understood that the
leader is required to manage all the components adequately and ensure success. Another
challenge as faced by the different entrepreneurs can be stated to be the challenge related to that
of the capital available. The business capital is considered to be a crucial aspect of the
organization and any company which needs to engage in considerable growth will be required to
ensure that they can gain the right kind of capital at the right time.
Context to the topic
As analyzed from the previous sections, entrepreneurship can be described to be a
procedure in lieu of which the individual is required to look out for the different problems and
thereby ensure that they are successfully able to convert these problems into opportunities.
According to Baum, Frese and Baron (2014), the entrepreneur needs to possess a large number
of skills, qualities and traits which will then enable the different entrepreneurs to take the right
kind of a decision in the right manner. As discussed in the previous section, these traits comprise
of characteristics like determination, honesty, integrity, hard work, confidence and others.
However, as argued by Entrepreneur.com. (2018), it needs to be understood that not all of these
traits are inbuilt and that many of these traits need to be build overtime by the different
entrepreneurs through the task of training. Hence, in the following section a critical analysis will
be conducted which will help in determining the strength of the argument whether
Entrepreneurship is build or born with.

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Critical Analysis
According to Dees (2017), there has been hardly any discussion on an entrepreneur who
is born with a natural talent and swept with an idea over night by thereby opening a company and
finding long term success. Hence, in a similar manner, one needs to understand that, although
authors like Burns (2016) argues that an entrepreneur is generally born and can only attain
success if he is born with the possession of a certain set of skills, other authors like Schaper et al.
(2014), entrepreneurship is a phenomenon based on which it can be stated that entrepreneurship
is a trait which can be nurtured along the way because of certain traits and characteristics like
hard work, confidence and determination which needs to be build overtime and enhanced in a
manner such that the particular entrepreneur is successfully able to take the right decisions for
the purpose of the organization at large. Drucker (2014) mentions in his paper that there
undoubtedly exists certain set of skills in certain entrepreneurs which presents them with a
competitive advantage and tends to assist them in gaining overall success. Over the time, these
individuals then continue to harness and build their skills which further tends to assist them in
ensuring success and seeing to it that they are able to build a larger venture for themselves.
In his paper, Brenkert (2017), mentioned that as per his research as done on the traits of
leadership and the factors which have an impact on the development of a good entrepreneur, it
could be understood that the heredity has a greater involvement in the personality and the
behavior of the entrepreneur and the different scientists have commented that there exists a
chance for the development of a good entrepreneur through the interaction of the hereditary and
environment which brings about favorable consequences for the entrepreneurship and his
business opportunity which is there in mind. In addition to this, as agreed by Schaltegger,
Lüdeke-Freund and Hansen (2016), some personalities are more favorable for the process of

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entrepreneurship and the risk endearing behavior is very often in built in a person. However, in
the same line of argument. Hagen, Denicolai and Zucchella (2014) states that it can be defined as
a combination of the experiences as gained by the individual over the course of time.
However, contrary to the particular statement, according to Huggins and Thompson
(2015), the interdependence of the entrepreneurship may not have been a trait which an
entrepreneur has been born with but may be defined as a trait which the individual has developed
since a long time or because of certain reasons like the fulfillment of household requirements or
having the freedom to enjoy afternoons and others. Secondly, another reason, why an
entrepreneur may be considered to be a skill which comes in with time instead of being inbuilt
can be stated to be the trait of fulfillment. According to Kirzner (2015), these traits can be stated
to be the traits which a person is not generally born with but instead developed or adopted when
they are older. Moreover, in support of the argument, that the entrepreneurs are made,
Deluxe.com (2018), stated that all studies which are in support of the statement that an
entrepreneur is born usually tend to look at the entrepreneurs as a total group of people and have
not concentrated on the success of those entrepreneurs at large. Hence, these studies are centered
on the fact that the genes have a greater role to play in starting of a business but do not tend to
concentrate on the fact that the business will be successful or not in the long run. Kuratko (2016)
states that the genetics of an individual or the traits which the entrepreneur has been born with do
not tend to determine the success of the business in the long run, but instead it is the real world
experience which an individual has gained over the time.
According to Storey (2016), the entrepreneurship can be taught to an individual and
although it has to be agreed upon that a trait like passion cannot be inflicted but then the different
entrepreneurs can be taught about the general traits of the business and the manner in which the

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individual can build the business and perform the other tasks related to it are taught to them.
According to the study as conducted by professors William Bygrave and Edward Marram at
Babson it was understood that education tends to have a larger influence on the success of the
people as entrepreneurs. This is because education goes a long way in ensuring that the
individual is able to build the personality along seeing to it that the individuals are taught about
the integrities of conducting a business. Although the critiques like Mitra (2013) agrees to it that
the factors like risk taking cannot be taught to an individual, but there exists a considerable
difference between a calculated risk which is generally taken and a reckless risk. When an
individual undergoes training and education, they are taught about the calculated risks and the
manner in which these risks may result in the overall benefit of the particular entrepreneur and
lead to a better opportunity for the different entrepreneurs and may then lead to the success of
their business enterprises. In addition to this, according to Parker (2018), there are other skills as
well which may be relevant to an entrepreneur and may lead to the overall welfare of the venture.
These skills can be considered to be the skills of patience, hard work and opportunity recognition
(Wagner 2017). Hence, it can be stated that the argument of Entrepreneurs are made is being
supported at large.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the given analysis as done on the topic ` Are entrepreneurs born or made`
it could be understood that the given topic has gone under considerable research and in regard to
the same it can be stated that the paper examined the topic with respect to various other journals
and articles as present and presented a thorough review of the same. The third part of the report
presented a critical analysis of the topic and both the arguments were analyses. From the given

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analysis, the argument of entrepreneurs being made has been supported as it is comparatively
stronger and tends to present a stronger positioning.

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References and Bibliography
Barringer, B.R., 2015. Entrepreneurship: Successfully launching new ventures. Pearson
Education India.
Baum, J.R., Frese, M. and Baron, R.A. eds., 2014. The psychology of entrepreneurship.
Psychology Press.
Brenkert, G.G., 2017. Entrepreneurship, ethics, and the good society. In Entrepreneurship (pp.
85-128). Routledge.
Burns, P., 2016. Entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave Macmillan Limited.
Dees, J.G., 2017. 1 The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship. In Case Studies in Social
Entrepreneurship and Sustainability(pp. 34-42). Routledge.
Deluxe.com., 2018. Top 10 challenges faced by entrepreneurs today. [online]. Available at:
https://www.deluxe.com/sbrc/financial/top-10-challenges-faced-entrepreneurs-today-solved
(Retrieved on: 31 Dec. 2018).
Drucker, P., 2014. Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Edx.org., 2018. .Entrepreneurship. [online]. Available at:
https://www.edx.org/learn/entrepreneurship (Retrieved on: 31 Dec. 2018).
Entrepreneur.com ., 2018. Entrepreneurship. [online]. Available at:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228273 (Retrieved on: 31 Dec. 2018).
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https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/308089 (Retrieved on: 31 Dec. 2018).

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Forbes.com., 2018. Are Entrepreneurs born or made ? [online]. Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/freddiedawson/2014/12/25/are-entrepreneurs-born-or-made/
#372e3ce37e4b (Retrieved on: 31 Dec. 2018).
Garyvaynerchuk.com., 2018. Are Entrepreneurs born or made ? [online]. Available at:
https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/the-entrepreneurial-spirit-are-entrepreneurs-born-or-made-2/
(Retrieved on: 31 Dec. 2018).
Hagen, B., Denicolai, S. and Zucchella, A., 2014. International entrepreneurship at the
crossroads between innovation and internationalization. Journal of International
Entrepreneurship, 12(2), pp.111-114.
Huggins, R. and Thompson, P., 2015. Entrepreneurship, innovation and regional growth: a
network theory. Small Business Economics, 45(1), pp.103-128.
Inc.com., 2018. Are Entrepreneurs born or made ? [online]. Available at:
https://www.inc.com/michael-gerber/are-entrepreneurs-born-or-made.html (Retrieved on: 31
Dec. 2018).
Kirzner, I.M., 2015. Competition and entrepreneurship. University of Chicago press.
Kuratko, D.F., 2016. Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage Learning.
Medium.com., 2018. Top 10 traits of a successful entrepreneur. [online]. Available at:
https://medium.com/swlh/10-must-have-traits-of-a-successful-entrepreneur-d46519452b0e
(Retrieved on: 31 Dec. 2018).
Mitra, J., 2013. Entrepreneurship, innovation and regional development: an introduction.
Routledge.

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Parker, S.C., 2018. The economics of entrepreneurship. Cambridge University Press.
Piperopoulos, P.G., 2016. Entrepreneurship, innovation and business clusters. Routledge.
Schaltegger, S., Lüdeke-Freund, F. and Hansen, E.G., 2016. Business models for sustainability:
A co-evolutionary analysis of sustainable entrepreneurship, innovation, and
transformation. Organization & Environment, 29(3), pp.264-289.
Schaper, M.T., Volery, T., Weber, P.C. and Gibson, B., 2014. Entrepreneurship and small
business.
Storey, D.J. ed., 2016. Entrepreneurship and new firm. Routledge.
Theguardian.com., 2018. Are Entrepreneurs born or made ? [online]. Available at:
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made (Retrieved on: 31 Dec. 2018).
Wagner, M. ed., 2017. Entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainability. Routledge.