Naomi Kokubo
by Naomi Kokubo, editor of Founders Space
This is an age-old question. Nearly every VC out there has an opinion, and unfortunately, most of them are misguided. The majority of VCs believe you are born with it. But in reality, most people learn to become entrepreneurs.
In fact, all evidence points to the fact that you can make a successful entrepreneur with the right mix of education and guidance, and they do not come in any single mold. Graduating from Stanford and being under 20 is no guarantee of success. In fact, first-time entrepreneurs who are 40+ often have a higher rate of success, which makes sense, since they have a wealth of experience to draw upon.
For more details, see the article below. TechCrunch did a nice job answering this question for us. I agree with their conclusions, and I think you will too.
Entrepreneurs start with action through an avenue called an idea for creating a better business to serve others to be paid. It's about motivating and inspiring your passion to produce results. See http://www.rajgavurla.com/businessperformancecoachingadvisor.htm. No one does it alone. Hopefully you can get the help you need. Whether funding, coaching, or in other business areas.
Leaders are made. They practice until they make it (and get lucky!) Some have more insight and luck than others. When it comes to insight, I propose that humans think we spend most of our day operating on “shared reality” with others, but we actually spend more time talking to ourselves in our heads with the Little Bitty Committee that sits inside our heads.
I am introducing to my clients what we (my partner, Sabina Becker- PhD Clinical Psy) call an “ontological” approach to leadership which we call “Cognizant Leadership™”. It is based on the process of “looking inwards” to learn to manage the internal universe of conversations we all have that backfire on us stopping us from moving forward with clarity, enthusiasm, joy, purpose, etc., and which go largely unexamined giving us a sense of alienation, detachment and cynicism. This state of being becomes a nuisance and is a barrier to efficiency and productivity.
We spend 4hr of intensive non-clinical team coaching with our clients for a total of 2 half days (4hrs each day) with a week in between to allow for “processing”. Our process is designed to help others discover the messages we unconsciously operate under and master the process of “being and becoming human” with a new outlook. If you are interested, shoot me an email: [email protected].
Entrepreneurs are not born, they are made. Some people have a natural advantage because of who they are, but like all things in life, if you work hard enough, you can not only make yourself into an entrepreneur, you can excel at it.
Tommy