Are Entrepreneurs Born, Bred or Both?
Northeastern University’s School of Technological Entrepreneurship (STE) recently conducted a survey of entrepreneurs to find out whether most entrepreneurs feel as thought their entrepreneurial impulse was innate or learned. The results showed that almost two-thirds of survey participants indicate that their entrepreneurial spirit was ingrained from birth…in other words, most entrepreneurs just feel that they are fulfilling a natural drive.
One very interesting result that’s relevant to those of us at College Startup is that only 1% of respondends referenced higher-education (college or university) as the major factor in their becoming entrepreneurs. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go to college, because going to college can indeed provide you with the skills you need to succeed. What it does seem to indicate is that most people don’t get motivated to become entrepreneurs from a college education.
According to Paul Zavracky, Dean of Northeastern’s STE, “The survey results indicate a major issue in academia today: institutions of higher education are not adequately preparing students for careers in entrepreneurship.” At College Startup, we tend to agree. However, college does provide a unique opportunity for any individual to choose how to spend his time, and the entrepreneur can maximize his business impulse by using his free time to experiment with a startup business. But to do that, the individual already needs to have the drive, passion and committment.
So what do you think? Have you always had the entrepreneurial drive? Or did you learn it? Did college have anything to do with it?
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I think I’ve always had it although I didn’t really start paying attention to it until my teenage years. I don’t think I knew what that drive was for until then. College did not play a huge roll for me. It sharpened some of my skills, but did not affect my drive in any way.