As the pandemic continues to ravage the global economy, a number of individuals have chosen to take the entrepreneurship route to tide themselves over. There are many who would state that the entrepreneurship that we’re seeing isn’t true entrepreneurship.
Similar to the last Great Recession of 2008, many individuals who, unfortunately, found themselves unemployed decided to be “consultants” and actively leverage their existing skill sets to tie themselves over. While many entrepreneurs, in addition to many consultants, would state that such individuals aren’t true entrepreneurs or consultants, one has to wonder if that is a fair assessment.
If we focus specifically on entrepreneurship, the fundamental question that drives the conversation of who can be an entrepreneur is whether or not it is an innate characteristic or whether it can be taught. While this question has always been a much discussed topic, particularly as entrepreneurship has taken flight over the past several decades, it increasingly is an important one as society transitions to a “new normal”.
What do I mean by a “new normal”? While many would argue that it is the pandemic that I’m referring to, I’m talking about deep seated socio-economic changes that have been in play since the late 20th century. Those changes are the increasing automation of processes that were reliant on human labor and its impact on society and the value and need of humans in production.
In the past, when I asked my entrepreneurial friends as to the percentage of individuals who could become entrepreneurs, the typical response I received was somewhere in the ten percentage range. While ten percent appears to be a large percentage, the reality is that it is still a small percentage considering the socio-economic ramifications with regards to maximizing the value of human capital.
If one delves into the ten percent figure, it is one less based on fact and more based on personal observation than anything else. The logic behind the ten percent figure is relatively simple to understand.
If a greater percentage of the population were naturally entrepreneurial then the economy would be dominated, if not run by, entrepreneurs. Organizations and processes would be designed to continually encourage individuals and organizations to try new ideas and concepts versus reinforcing traditions and norms. Not only would more innovation occur through the creation of more businesses via a truly entrepreneurial economy but one wonders if we would be further ahead from a scientific and philosophical perspective as well. Sadly, though, we do not live in a society dominated by entrepreneurship but one that does have entrepreneurship as a significant driving factor.
Why is it that we don’t live in a fully entrepreneurial society? Many have stated that entrepreneurship is something that cannot be taught and for entrepreneurship to work, it is necessary to have individuals to execute on the work required for entrepreneurs to succeed. Let’s break down and assess that statement.
In many respects, the debate concerning whether entrepreneurship can be taught goes back to the classic nature versus nurture debate. Is an individual inherently born with their characteristics or can they learn them?
There are many that would state that there is no debate and that nature is the clear winner. Those individuals who inherently have natural talents usually succeed with their natural talents. Look at actors or athletes who have achieved the pinnacle of success thanks to their natural talents. While this might be true, it is a narrow viewpoint on success and talent.
The current socio-economic system was built to encourage and leverage the natural talent of individuals. Early human society did not have the technological and process advancements to train individuals to learn new skills, particularly since it was very much a subsistence lifestyle. As such, it was critical to identify and leverage individuals with natural talents as quickly as possible to ensure the success of society.
Nowadays, while humanity still leverages the same socio-economic principles, technology and processes are dramatically much more advanced enabling a different way of how we can leverage and develop individual talent.
In many respects, while natural talent does give individuals an advantage, technology and process have eroded that advantage over time. Technology and processes have enabled individuals to acquire more skills easier and faster than at any point in human history.
So what does this mean for entrepreneurship? The answer is two-fold.
The simplest answer is, yes, entrepreneurship can be taught. The fundamental skills of entrepreneurship such as sales, finance, product management and other “functional” skills can most definitely be taught. Teaching said skills is no longer restricted to those who are able to afford a college education but those who have the desire and will to learn new skills. Indeed, desire and will leads us to the second part of the two-fold answer.
It is the desire and will part of the two-fold answer which leads many people to state that entrepreneurship cannot be taught. Many entrepreneurs state that to succeed at entrepreneurship you need a high degree of risk tolerance to succeed. Risk tolerance and the personality traits associated with entrepreneurship, for many individuals, are not skills you can teach.
Personally, I believe individuals who take this line of thinking are confusing individual life experience with personality traits. One of the biggest things that serial entrepreneurs will state is the fact that entrepreneurship is something that you cannot learn in the classroom but one that needs to be experienced. I would fundamentally state that this is something that can be stated for most of life.
Whether it is entrepreneurship or being in a relationship or climbing the corporate ladder, while individuals can read hundreds of books and attend numerous classes on said topics, until an individual does it themselves they won’t fully understand the mindset involved. Entrepreneurship, just like a lot of things in life, is about providing environments to experience and learn about how things are done. Yes, there will be those ambitious entrepreneurs that are willing to risk it all to become entrepreneurs but there are also those who need to take a more structured approach to entrepreneurship and will be just as successful.
Fundamentally, by stating that entrepreneurship is something that cannot be taught and only be done by those who have natural talents is not only doing a disservice to other entrepreneurs but society in general. In many respects, we are limiting technological and societal advancement due to our shortsightedness and our ability to be inclusive.
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