Are Entrepreneurs Born...?

My visit at Babson yesterday was certainly very inspiring, and one of the questions I was thinking about while riding a cab back to Boston (40 mins / $ 75 trip) was "So are Entrepreneurs Born or Raised?"... I have been asking this question while guest lecturing at Entrepreneurship classes back home at VSE, but also in conferences and my BOOTCAMPs, and the people seem to be really split in halfs (not counting the politicians saying it's "a bit of each")...


Me personally, I have been a supporter of the "Raised" answer, and my visit at Babson seems to be confirming it... Genes can maybe determine how much we are generally risk averse and how much success driven we are (to a certain point), but entrepreneurship cannot be predicted... Entrepreneurship is not about WHO you are, but WHAT you do - it's the actions which determine successful business or failure, it's how you identify and tackle an opportunity, how you form a team, how you believe in the goals...


Anybody can become a great entrepreneur, even though he comes from an underdeveloped environment without the ecosystem (say, Czech Republic?), has no entrepreneurial background or genetical base - he/she just needs to learn about entrepreneurship, and ideally move to a place with the venture ecosystem... Then he can make it...

BTW, would you invest in the startup team on the picture to the left...? Was there any "Born Entrepreneur" there...?