What does it take to become an entrepreneur?
April 14th, 2009 by emma_kateAt Make Your Mark, we’re very interested in what exactly spurs people on to become entrepreneurs. Is it nature or nurture? Are there certain qualities that all or almost all entrepreneurs have in common? And how might these typical features have changed? As this article suggests, some of the assumptions people might have made 25 years ago about the features of a ‘traditional’ entrepreneur-type figure look totally outdated now. (Not that I’m suggesting that ‘typical’ entrepreneurial 35 year old, male, only-child engineering graduates whose fathers owned hardware shops aren’t relevant. If you are reading this and you are an entrepreneurial 35 year old, male, only-child engineering graduate whose father owned a hardware shop: keep up the good work!)
Someone who is also very interested in ‘what makes an entrepreneur’ is Henry Li, President of the Manchester University Enterprise Society. Henry is currently working on his dissertation, on the topic ‘what it takes to become an entrepreneur: challenges and opportunities’. If you’re an entrepreneur and would like to help Henry research this really interesting topic, he would be very grateful if you could complete the following short survey: Part One and Part Two.
Please do forward this to any of your contacts who might be interested in participating in the survey! The purpose of the questionnaire is to assess the values and drives behind successful entrepreneurs in UK. Data will not be published outside the Manchester University School of Education Department and details will not be shared with any third parties. And everyone loves surveys… Or am I just absurdly interested in answering questions about myself? (On a scale of one to ten, my response to that question would be: 12.)
April 15th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Thanks Emma, I have read that article, it is very interesting. From my research so far, I found that most entrepreneurs are either rank the first or second in terms of age in their family among their brothers and sisters.
It would be great if I could reach more entrepreneurs to find out more aspects of their characters and challenges.
April 21st, 2009 at 11:15 am
Nature, nurture, or neither.
Theres some interesting stuff in the article that you link to – the idea that entrepreneurs aren’t gamblers being one. However, research into ‘entrepreneurial traits’ (personality characteristics or demographics that entrepreneurs share) has proved to be pretty fruitless.
His comment that ‘People with below-average intelligence should probably not start businesses’ led me to try and found out exactly who the writer is – much googling later and I now know that William J. Stolze founded, “one of the Rochester area’s most successful entrepreneurial ventures of the last half of the twentieth century.” Good for him and his above average intelligence.