Whether good entrepreneurs are born or made is a question that's been debated and dissected for years. Can the essential skills entrepreneurs need to survive -- risk-taking, dedication and creativity -- ever truly be taught? Or is it simply like driving a car, which can be learned and eventually mastered with enough time and practice? For some of today's most successful founders, entrepreneurship is a life lesson that never stops teaching. Innate talent plays a role in building up a successful business, but it's not the only deciding factor.
"Genius is 1 percent inspiration, and 99 percent perspiration." - Thomas Edison
Jamal Edwards, the self-made millionaire who launched his YouTube business in 2010, believes hard work is what matters most. "I wholly reject the idea that entrepreneurs are born," he said. "It would be one of the most limiting ideas and it would be a real shame if it was true. To my mind, that we're even still discussing whether an entrepreneur is born or made is sad," he told Forbes magazine.
The startup life
These days more and more millennials are ditching traditional jobs in favour of the startup life. The result can be incredibly beneficial, according to a 2014 study by BNP Paribas. The report found that millenniapreneurs (entrepreneurs born between 1980 and 1995) are more likely to outperform their elders on almost every metric.
"Everyone has ideas. They may be too busy or lack the confidence or technical ability to carry them out. But I want to carry them out. It is a matter of getting up and doing it." - James Dyson
As a result of the sudden increase startup interest, the market has taken notice. Individuals can now find classes, seminars and even one-off workshops about how to bootstrap, run and manage their own company. Sean Mullin, the executive director of the Brookfield Institute, believes combining practical at theoretical is beneficial for individual hoping to launch their own company .
"There's a debate about how much of entrepreneurship you can actually teach in an academic setting. I think that's why a university like Ryerson -- that has a strong academic component as it relates to entrepreneurship and supports it through various programs -- is a real leader in this," he explains. "I think that combination of understanding theoretically what it means to be an entrepreneur but then being given real-life experience to test it out and learn for yourself is actually what you need to support it at that level."
To learn more about innovation and how Brookfield is playing a pivotal role in Canada's tech ecosystem listen to the BusinessCast podcast above. To hear more podcasts like this, hosted by Robert Gold, make sure to visit our official iTunes page.
