Entrepreneurs:

1
Entrepreneurs Born or Made?
Laura Wilson-Edwardes Senior Lecturer,
Entrepreneurship Portsmouth Business
School laura.wilson-edwardes_at_port.ac.uk Hot
Topic Presentation Feb 2007
2
The Word Entrepreneur

• The problem with the French is that they dont
  have a word for entrepreneur.
• George W Bush, 2002
• The problem with the word entrepreneur is that it
  is an old French term that has a patchy and
  misunderstood etymology in English
• Laura Wilson-Edwardes, 2003

3
Entrepreneurial Meanings

• My research posits that we attach latent meanings
  to the word entrepreneur that have no basis in
  reality
• Risk-taking in particular has been shown time
  after time not to have an association with
  successful entrepreneurship
• Instead, good entrepreneurs are adept at managing
  and mediating the risks involved
• Likewise, gambling, showmanship, or being a
  champion or leader in society are not
  pre-requisites for entrepreneurial success, but
  our media tend to combine these traits into a
  so-called entrepreneurial personality.

4
Entrepreneurs, Our Heroes?

• There is a universal tale of the lowly born or
  displaced hero, often endowed with special
  talents, who embarks on a moral quest,
  encountering mentors and fighting foes, to return
  with a prize or an elixir to empower us all
• From Virgil, via the Arthurian legends and the
  quest for the holy grail, to Tolkeins trilogy
  and Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, this is a
  powerful format that has strong psychological
  truth
• Many of us argue that entrepreneurs in modern
  society are increasingly cast within this hero
  myth paradigm

5
Entrepreneurial hero examples

• Richard Branson serially develops moral quests
  the kids should hear the music, the grown ups
  should travel in airlines more comfortably and
  recently, appears to be offering the elixir of
  life itself via the storage of stem cells. He
  famously fought the giant BA (although Freddie
  Laker had been there before).
• Anita Roddick was the child of a single mum. Her
  original moral quest was to put face cream into
  small pots, which she turned into a moral quest
  to ban cosmetic testing on animals. Along the
  way, she teamed up with a chemist mentor and
  fought the multinational beauty giants. She is
  now on a new moral quest to publicize the dangers
  of Hepatitis C.

6
An entrepreneurial gene?

• Recent research at Imperial has now suggested the
  existence of an entrepreneurial gene
• The research was based on twin studies which
  have been heavily critiquedMillions of us in the
  UK carry the so-called alcoholic gene, but it is
  circumstances (stress, depression, crisis,
  poverty, violent childhood experiences, curtailed
  education, culture, take your pick!) that drive
  or switch on alcoholism. Its likely to be no
  different for entrepreneurship.
• This type of research, attributing subsequent
  behaviours to genetics, is extremely dangerous
  for individuals and for society
• Could you end up being tested by your bank
  manager before they will let you have a business
  loan? Does Business Link have any rights to
  examine your DNA?

7
So whats the problem?

• Whats wrong with having heroes with big
  personalities who may indeed have some genetic
  disposition (aka special powers)?
• If policy makers, business link advisors,
  mentors, educators and indeed students fall for
  this false narrative, there are real dangers that
  we only seek to support and continue to support
  those whose stories can be easily recast in this
  familiar and comforting way
• Students and others in society may screen
  themselves out of business ownership if they
  cannot easily identify themselves with this
  mythical, endowed hero
• And could this gendered myth be the reason too
  perhaps for our lack of female entrepreneurial
  heroes?

8
And whats the verdict?

• Can we make entrepreneurs through education and
  not stories?
• At PBS, we can and do teach
• Creativity
• Opportunity recognition
• Innovation management
• Business start up, development and growth issues
• Intrapreneurship
• Small business management, and many more issues
  directly relevant to enterprise and
  entrepreneurship
• While we can teach with passion and commitment,
  we cannot teach or inculcate the necessary drive,
  ambition or desire.
• In contrast to the American Dream, the UK dream
  appears to be owning a 3-Bed Semi or appearing on
  reality TV. And that is an issue for our whole
  society.

9
Further Reading

• From a Jungian psychology perspective, this 20th
  Century seminal work on heroes by Joseph
  Campbell, (1949), The Hero with a Thousand Faces,
  is available as a commemorative edition, 2004,
  from Bollingen Books
• A more accessible text is Robert Segal (ed),
  (2000), Hero Myths A Reader, Blackwell
• For some comments on the derivations, media and
  interpretations of entrepreneurs see Galloway, L.
  and Wilson, L. (2003) 'The Use and Abuse of the
  Entrepreneur', Heriot Watt University, Working
  Paper Series, ISSN 1741-9255. Available at
  www.sml.hw.ac.uk/discussion/DP2003-M03.htm
• Read the BBC news story about the entrepreneurial
  gene http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5049288.st
  m