Can entrepreneurship really be taught?

[Bowden]

So I've always had mixed opinions on this particular subject throughout the years. Long story short, I grew up poor and always found ways to make money at a young age. Not many in my age group at the time did the same. Same went for middle school and high school. While I was in high school I was selling online (back in 1997) and worked at a shop that allowed me the opportunity to purchase many items and collections off people. I also started a cell phone accessory business (part time in a flea market) that did well.

Throughout those years I always had friends who wanted to get into business and make money as a teenager. They just never seem to get it. The time I invested into each medium meant money, but they could never digest and understand how it worked. After many hours I decided at a young age I would never try and help a friend to learn business. Most were lazy and wanted money quick, which is shocking because most worked at the local fast food places unless it was baseball season.

So... Do you really think someone can learn to be an entrepreneur, or is it something they learned at a young age or was born with?

I'm not talking about someone reading a book at age 23 and has an eye opening moment. I'm mainly talking about the ones who actually dive in and get down to business. They need contacts? They go and get that shit done. They need to find a distributor? Boom, contacted 20 of them today.

Who knows. In the end maybe I'm just trying to get down to that little vein that maybe every entrepreneur might possess in their body. It's just something that's always been in them..

BTW - This thread brought to you exclusively by Bud Light tonight. Stella Artois said no dice. I have to comply with my sponsor

 

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[Bartez]

It can be hard to learn business when you're not born business man, although it's possible. I was making businesses at age 6 and 9 and that's how it started. Anyway, after reading your post it seems like you treat people in the wrong way, seeing yourself as someone special with this need to show how not average you are. This is just how I feel reading your post, but maybe I'm wrong and you're actually more modest than you seem to be

 

[RogueInnovation]

So... Do you really think someone can learn to be an entrepreneur, or is it something they learned at a young age or was born with?

I feel NOW like an entreprenuer, it was forged.
Quite a painful process but got it done.

I do all that jazzy stuff these days, instantly connecting with people and seeing opportunities.
Its like anything, some have less road blocks, others have a reason to get past them, and the rest just don't care enough to push until they change.

At the start I was just a whinger, who wanted to throw up a webpage and thought entreprenuers were weirdos.


I think some are more focused on biz and others are more "dragged along".
I was dragged along, definately hurts more going that route.
I had very little motivation, fought it the whole way.
But just like being a fighter, if you learn and you take on the tasks everyone else needs to, you'll get there even if your attitude sucks.

Most just quit or stop trying. Never do that.

 

[StartupsRFun]

Personally I feel like its something you are born with. Sure you can teach someone the fundamentals, but it seems like true entrepreneurs are just different, in a way that cant be taught.

 

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[Kyle Tully]

Yes.

 

[Yury]

That's an interesting and important question, do you have to be born with that, or it can be taught, at least sometimes.

Some dudes observed that there's much more (successful) startups coming out of MIT, comparing to many other top universities.
Considering that students at other top universities are by no means dumb or lame, they figured that it all looks like MIT and/or its atmosphere is better at instilling entrepreneurship, therefore it can be taught.

So they came up with a practical step-by-step guide for these looking to create & run a successful startup even without having "an inborn entrepreneurial mindset" etc (for more details: "Disciplined Entrepreneurship: 24 Steps to a Successful Startup" by Bill Aulet, available at Amazon etc).

That being said,
1) no book/course/guru will do you work for you/instead of you, it can just show a direction and explain why it can be done (and that it is done by many other "un-entrepreneurial" entrepreneurs, in this case)
2) looking for some "quick money" meaning "easy money" (thanks to MJ for highlighting the difference in TMF ) and being lazy before building the system (vs building the system properly so you can laze around because you're detached from your system) will take you far... but probably in a wrong direction, so these lads -

Most were lazy and wanted money quick

... are less likely to be taught eh

In short, there's an important difference between "I was not born to be a risk loving upbeat sleek extrovert etc but I hope I can learn to act properly even without that - and I will act based on that knowledge" and "Yo teach me to be an entrepreneur" (implying, tell him/her exactly what to do, and better just do it for her/him).

 

[Rob Riddler]

It can be hard to learn business when you're not born business man, although it's possible. I was making businesses at age 6 and 9 and that's how it started. Anyway, after reading your post it seems like you treat people in the wrong way, seeing yourself as someone special with this need to show how not average you are. This is just how I feel reading your post, but maybe I'm wrong and you're actually more modest than you seem to be

Treats people in the wrong way? You obviously have a lot to learn.

 

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[Formless]

Absolutely.

You're born with a fear of falling and loud noises.

The rest (for the most part) is a product of your environment.

Read 'Beyond Freedom and Dignity' by B.F. Skinner.

Shape a mentality, shape an environment, and allow them to shape your character.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Can entrepreneurship really be taught?

Yes.

Maybe @AndrewNC has an opinion as well.

 

[AndrewNC]

Yes.

Maybe @AndrewNC has an opinion as well.

YES it can. the ONLY thing that separate the 'born entrepreneurs' vs the 'taught' entrepreneurs are the thoughts in our minds - and once you get past that, ANYTHING is possible. Before reading TMF and joining this forum, I had NO entrepreneur mindset, and now, less than 3 years later - it is the only way for me. Quit my job 2 months ago and have my first profitable business under my belt.

It is actually not that much harder for those of us raised with a non-entrepreneur mindset... we just have to take a slightly different path than those that were born knowing that it's all possible. One your mind is right, the rest will follow

3 Things helped me:
1- Making money outside my job for the first time.

2- Seeing others go from starting a business to doing pretty well first hand... It is whole lot different seeing someone in my shoes take off so quickly vs. reading stories about MJ or Vigilante on the forums who hit that level before I joined. Read through all of @JasonR 's thread here https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...cony-and-quit-my-job.49257/page-5#post-372801

3- Rewiring my thought unconscious mind - A 4 day NLP course opened me up to this, then I made friends with a few pretty experienced people who opened up my mind some more. Go find an high quality NLP practitioner to get you past your limiting beliefs.

If you are reading this and don't think you're the type who can make money outside your day job.... This can unravel some of those thoughts in your mind pretty quickly. Go on oDesk.com and create a freelancer profile... Photoshop, Sales Copy, HTML, etc. Apply for freelance jobs for a few days until somebody says yes... Do it for half the price than anyone else. Build what they want, listen to their feedback and make changes accordingly until they are happy with their work and you get paid.

Within the next 4 days, you can essentially: Learn how to market and sell, build a product that the market wants, LISTEN to the market feedback to change the product around them, and make money outside your job. It took me well over a year to figure that out on my own.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

1- Making money outside my job for the first time.

For anyone who feels like that haven't turned a corner in their entrepreneurial passions, I encourage you to make this your focus. Whatever you need to do, just ONCE, feel what it likes to make a few bucks on your own, without a job, without a boss, and without a paycheck. Once you experience this feeling of autonomy and independence, it will help fuel your entrepreneurial process. Process is not always fun-and-games, but the outcomes of that process, seeing the world consume your handiwork, is.

 

[NicoleMarie]

Well, I'm living proof myself. Never was an "entrepreneur at a young age" and "always selling stuff." In fact I was right about to enter the slowlane until BOOM MJ's book. Literally went from -5% to like 30% business knowledge AND core personality changes in 2 months. -not being arrogant-

 

[DeletedUser8]

I think it can. It's all about developing your mental philosophy and like MJ says "unlearning what you've learned" Mahatma Gandhi once said "A man is but a product of his thoughts' what he thinks, that he becomes."

 

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[Gale4rc]

Think about all the different types of people who have created successful companys.

 

[Yeezy]

I believe you can learn anything. Personally I find it a bit strange to believe that you could be 'born with it'.
But maybe it's possible, i'm not too clued up on how the brain would work that way.

But in my opinion, if you put in the time you can learn to be a very successful entrepreneur.

 

[AndrewNC]

Personally I find it a bit strange to believe that you could be 'born with it'.

I personally feel it's what your environment instilled in your unconscious mind growing up. My parents made a good living working jobs and not being entrepreneurs. Hearing "I dont get how people make millions, they are lucky" from as young as I can remember instilled in my mind that thought.

On the flip side, if someone grows up in a family where their parents are entrepreneurs, or if they were exposed to this mindset at a young age - they have the mindset of a 'born' entrepreneur.

Thats just my opinion on it....

 

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[CBilly]

I know it can be taught. I have entrepreneur friends that come from all walks of life.

I know some people who were born into a family of business owners and they kept the tradition alive.

I know some people who watched their parents struggle making ends meet working 2 jobs, and they decided that was never going to be them.

I'm a mix of the two, but I am not a full blown entrepreneur YET.

While I think the environment you grow up in develops (or doesn't) that killer instinct it takes to succeed a lot of the time, you can learn how to create and grow a business on your own if you're dedicated to the process.

 

[twdavis]

Replace "taught" with "learned".....because you have to go thru the STEPS and the PROCESS to really transform....aka a LEARNING process.


A process often experienced alone.

 

[QDF]

I think that it's safe to say that nearly everyone's goals are ultimately the same: freedom and happiness. Being an entrepreneur is one of the only ways to achieve these goals.

So everyone is essentially born with the goal of being an entrepreneur. Some just don't know it (they think a job for 45 years is freedom and happiness), and some are just confused on how to achieve it. Thankfully, TMF is there for some of us to clear things up.

Personally, I feel I was born an entrepreneur. I have always been trying to sell things and make money since I was a kid. But at the same time, I had adapted to the slow lane perception of things. Once I read TMF though (among other books), I was able to just kinda peel back the slowlane exterior that I had accumulated through my life and truly do what I wanted.

I feel like most people are the same way.

 

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[BeingChewsie]

Yes. Yes. Yes. I wasn't born that way.

So what brought about the change? Losing absolutely everything.
and this:
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...ve-a-successful-entrepreneurial-premise.3056/

Changed everything. It is all about beliefs and beliefs can be changed.

Now 7 years after I joined this forum, I don't ever have to go back to a "job".

 

[Chazmania]

Without a doubt yes.

If people can go from "hardened criminal" to "pillar of society", or change religions, or from drug addict to health nut etc, etc...then I think anybody can learn just about anything.

It starts with your thought process and then your actions follow, and then results appear. I also personally subscribe to the "talent is overrated" theory. 10,000 hours of practice (process) will make anyone look like they are "born with it" - just ask @ChickenHawk.

If someone decides to become effective at something, and then devotes the majority of their time and energy to doing it, I think they will have a noticable level of success.

Of course, some people are born with more innate traits that lend themselves to a certain endeavor, but I still believe anyone can learn just about anything, including entrepreneurship.

 

[chrischapman]

Well yeah, no one is born an entrepreneur in the literal sense, like pops out of the womb and is like "damn, i want to build and sell something!"

but it's very much a mindset and attitude towards strategic proactive action taking towards money making activities.

that attitude CAN be instilled from a young age or come about naturally.

a lot of people on this forum probably find that such a statement applies to them - it does to me at least. I've always been hustling, washing cars from about 10 and thinking about money pretty young. I started busking for 8-10 hours a day some days during school holidays from about 12 or 13 until i was 14 and the cute factor wore off. then i got a cafe job (not so entrepreneurial) but simultaneously started a window cleaning business at 15 until I was about 17. it's always been part of my attitude to hustle.

for others, that sort of attitude comes later. I think entrepreneurs CAN be born (form the attitude very young but not at birth obviously) but can also be taught.

you are always learning how to be a better entrepreneur - i think everyone can agree on that at least.

 

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[jilla82]

Its more about change of mindset above anything else.

So yes, anyone can learn it.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Now 7 years after I joined this forum, I don't ever have to go back to a "job".

Sue, so cool to see you here. Do you have a story posted somewhere? I'd love to read it.

 

[GuestUser113]

Unfortunately, the first video is muted due to a copyright infringement.

 

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[GuestUser113]

 

[Bowden]

Some great responses here. Thanks for taking the time to post.

The reason I ask is because I'm reading a book titled Disciplined Entrepreneurship. The author is a MIT Professor and goes into detail about the entrepreneurship lab they have. Students from all walks of life join this class and most end up creating successful small to massive companies in their future. He believes almost anybody can become a successful entrepreneur if they have the right playbook to follow.

It's interesting hearing all the responses from people located all over the world on this forum.

 

[Wuz]

I´ve seen too many successful entrepreneurs with different type of personalities to came to a conclusion that genetics have little to do with you being or not a successfull entrepreneur.

You either find entrepreneurship appealing or not. If you invest your time daily in contact with entrepreneurship, then you have interest in that area.

So no matter how much you suck at it, you still have a chance to be good at it.

The costumer will not ask if you are a good or bad entrepreneur , they only care if you have what they want.

Its true that some entrepreneurs adapt better to certain types of business, and each one of us need to find out what are our best fit.

A extrovert person maybe be able to have a excelent execution in a more "costumer service" oriented business model, while a person with more ambition to attain larger and bigger things may suceed in different business models.


Richard Branson - Donal Trump- Elon Musk

They re tottally different, and still they give to people what they want. And nobody cares if those entrepreneurs born or not with the "entrepreneurial gene".

And i think those entrepreneurs dont care either, since they re to busy creating what people want.

If you find yourself creating than you re an entrepreneur.



P.s:

Entrepreneurship was a long time ago, the only craft with more people executing it .

People would produce and sell what they produce.

Jobs is a thing created "recently".

 

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[Solrac]

Most were lazy and wanted money quick, which is shocking because most worked at the local fast food places unless it was baseball season.

I think theres a mix, I mean there's a gap between wantrepreneur and entrepreneur. Most people are wantrepreneurs, you know they just want what a successful entrepreneur reaps after he sows.
It really is a game changer once you realize that for the reaping what you sow equation you need sowing to be able to reap

Sowing = Reaping
People have to be willing to reap to eventually sow, and that's obvious for us but not for a lot of others.
Most people just want to Reap a Ferrari without sowing the SMART man hours for it (instead of working 9-5 for someone else you discover an area where you can provide value).

I can't really consider MYSELF born entrepreneur, I have a lot of very successful entrepreneurs in my family, so if there's a vein, I have it it just took me 15 years to discover it

But I mean it's like what @(zen*******) said
"if you start to define the world by what do you have to do to get X, it will start to shape its self, accordingly"

If you want to be a successful entrepreneur(X), you will know what you need to do(shape itself accordingly). You will start seeing opportunities once you realize you need to start looking for them. You start thinking numbers more, and all this stuff all plays out. I hope that all makes sense :3

That's my experience at least.

 

[BeingChewsie]

Sue, so cool to see you here. Do you have a story posted somewhere? I'd love to read it.

Hi MJ I do have it scattered around the forum on different threads, but I'm over due on an update which I will get posted on the inside ASAP. Thank you. It is great to be back posting here.

Sue