Entrepreneurs Are Born Not Made
Entrepreneurs are born not made Comparing different entrepreneurs in the leisure industry According to a survey by Northeastern University’s School of Technological Entrepreneurship, there isn’t really such a thing as an accidental entrepreneur. Some 62% of entrepreneurs surveyed say they were inspired to start their own companies by their innate drive. Work experience and the success of their peers were cited by only 21% and 16%, respectively, as factors.
In fact, 75% of those surveyed say they launched their first venture by the age of 30. – Black Enterprise; Nov2007, Vol. 38 Issue 4, p18-18, 1p Deborah Meaden is an example of a born entrepreneur who from a very early knew she wanted her own business. At the age of 19 she launched her own glass and ceramics import company supplying market stores like Harvey Nichols. Deborah continued to expand several successful businesses in the leisure and retail sector including a family amusement arcade business.
She is now keen to find new opportunities for investment, having already started with a new market research company and agreed to invest in four businesses alongside the other dragons in series three of Dragon’s Den. Deborah is an example of a born entrepreneur who worked Deborah Meaden Deborah is a born entrepreneur and is always on the lookout for business opportunities to which she can add value or which hold a particular interest to her. At the age of 19, with very little capital she launched her own glass and ceramics import company supplying upmarket stores like Harvey Nichols.
With several successful businesses in the leisure and retail sector under her belt, Deborah decided to take up a position in the family amusement arcade business From a very early age Deborah Meaden knew she wanted her own business. Having left school after O-Levels she studied at business college and following graduation worked as a sales room model in a fashion house for three months before moving to Italy. Sir Richard Branson Sir Richard Branson was born in 1950, and educated at Stowe School, where he established a national magazine called Student at the age of sixteen.
He started a Student Advisory Centre aged 17 to help young people. In 1970 he founded Virgin as a mail order record retailer and shortly thereafter opened a record shop in Oxford Street, London. During 1972 a recording studio was built in Oxfordshire where the first Virgin artist, Mike Oldfield, recorded “Tubular Bells” which was released in 1973. In December 1999 Richard Branson was awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s millennium New Years honours list for “services to entrepreneurship”.
For almost four decades, BLACK ENTERPRISE has profiled entrepreneurs, detailing the events that led to the launch of thousands of ventures. Many of these daring capitalists dreamed of starting their own company as a child, while others were thrust into business ownership for a variety of reasons–be it lack of upward mobility in the corporate workforce or the loss of a job. It begs the question: are entrepreneurs born or created? There are certainly success stories on both sides of the fence, including those who rank among the BE 100s.
According to a survey by Northeastern University’s School of Technological Entrepreneurship, there isn’t really such a thing as an accidental entrepreneur. Some 62% of entrepreneurs surveyed say they were inspired to start their own companies by their innate drive. Work experience and the success of their peers were cited by only 21% and 16%, respectively, as factors. In fact, 75% of those surveyed say they launched their first venture by the age of 30. – Black Enterprise; Nov2007, Vol. 38 Issue 4, p18-18, 1p
