ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

STUDENT DETAILS

Student name: LAM QUOC HUY Student ID number: 31211026374

UNIT AND TUTORIAL DETAILS

Unit name: Academic English Unit number:

Tutorial/Lecture: Individual Final Essay Class day and time:
Lecturer or Tutor name: Ms. Dao Thi Hong Hanh

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS

Title: Individual Final Essay

Length: 1678 words Due date: 10/4/2022 Date submitted: 10/4/2022

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signed.

TOPIC: Are the most successful entrepreneurs born/ made? Critically discuss.

This paper will show a number of reasons why entrepreneurs are made rather than born.

Firstly, education and training play a key role in becoming a successful entrepreneur.
Secondly, experience is a long journey and more imperative than ever before. Finally, risk-

taking is one of the most prominent characteristics of entrepreneurs. The counterargument

suggests that there are some innate components that contribute to inborn entrepreneurs.

However, a response to this is that, in many cases, motivation triumphs over genetic theory.

Firstly, becoming a successful entrepreneur requires building a variety of skill sets that are

gained through education and training rather than being inborn. After learning and trying

new things, they can possibly apply these skills to real-world situations, and once a diverse

skill set is built, it is considered a useful tool that will help entrepreneurs when they have to

deal with difficulties in the future. Warran Buffet, the "Oracle of Omaha," for example, used

his financial knowledge to invest and profit, and he became one of America's wealthiest

men (Joshua Kennon, 2022).Moreover, education and training are not the quickest paths to

success, but they are the safest to engage high earning power and turn dreams into reality.

According to recent Georgetown University research, college graduates earn $1 million

more in their lifetime than non-college graduates (Anthony P. Carnevale, Ban Cheah, and

Andrew R. Hanson, 2015) and a survey by the Pew Research Center stated that the

median annual wage difference between high school and college graduates is roughly

$17,500 (Danielle Kurtzleben, 2014).

Secondly, the most valuable thing about successful entrepreneurs is their years of

experience. Experience can only be measured by time. It is often gained through failures,

and as a result, failure is a key factor in success. Research led by professor Kathryn Shaw

of Stanford Graduate School of Business, looked at data from 2.3 million retail businesses

to evaluate success rates depending on prior experience. It showed that when one

becomes an entrepreneur for the second time, the chances of becoming one another time

keep rising, and entrepreneurs with previous business experience have a high probability of

success (Kathryn L. Shaw and Francine Lafontaine, 2014). Also, entrepreneurs can quickly
handle the key of a problem and forecast the development of their business based on

previous experience. For instance, according to Steve Jobs, innovation always goes hand

in hand with failure, and only by admitting it quickly, can we get on with improving other

innovations. In fact, after the first failure with the Apple III computer, he realized that by

making as many product iterations as needed and gradually improving the product. Then

when the final version came to market, it seemed miles ahead of the competition (Marion

Gazdik, 2017).

Thirdly, one of the most prominent attributes of an entrepreneur is their risk-taking

characteristics, which is not obtained naturally. Previous studies have stated that those who

want to start an enterprise tend to take more risks, and risk-taking is a fundamental element

because, in order to establish a new firm, entrepreneurs must accept the trade-offs of time,

money, and relationships (Tang & Tang, 2007). Additionally, potential entrepreneurs are

more likely to succeed by trying new things and taking risks to open and start a new

business. Also, this is a distinguishing feature between entrepreneurs and managers, since

entrepreneurs must assume the risk of profit or loss (Gürol & Atsan, 2006; Littunen, 2000).

As you might know, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, agreed that "the biggest risk is

not taking any risk." (Steve Tobak, 2011).

On the other hand, entrepreneurs can be born naturally due to genes. According to

research done by Scott Shane (2010), a professor at Case Western Reserve University,

looking at entrepreneurial tendencies, identical twins were shown to have significantly

greater percentages of "shared entrepreneurial tendencies" than fraternal twins. Moreover,

in the case of Sara Blerch, founder of Daffodil Hill Growers, she inherited entrepreneurial

tendencies from her parents, who founded Chainsaws Unlimited in 1978. It has also come

true with Dave Brautigan, chief operations officer of Atlanta Refrigeration Service, who is a

determined, independent extrovert with hard-working traits inherited from his grandfather.
Additionally, it has been proven from other research in molecular genetics conducted by

Scott Shane that there is a strong link between genetic heritability and four core

entrepreneurial qualities, which are the likelihood of starting a business, the ability to

identify new opportunities, the tendency to become self-employed, and extroversion. Each

of which improves the likelihood of becoming an entrepreneur, and those with a genetic

endowment favorable to entrepreneurship are more likely to start enterprises at the right

time (Born Entrepreneurs, Born Leaders: How Your Genes Affect Your Work Life, Scott

Shane, 2010).

However, the response to this is that motivation is something that goes beyond genetics,

and the best motives come from intrinsic factors. For instance, Mark Zuckerberg never

intended to establish Facebook for the purpose of making billions, but simply to connect

people in many different schools (Catherine Clifford, 2018). Elon Musk started Tesla

because electric vehicles were being "killed" by major automobile manufacturers (Lauren

Thomas, 2017). There are thousands of good examples that show successful

entrepreneurs come from poverty, and it is their motivation that helps them the most. A

case in point is Jan Koum, who used to work as a janitor and collect food stamps before

becoming the founder of WhatsApp (Parmy Oslon, 2014). John Paul DeJoria used to live

out of his car and sell shampoo with the hope of one day making it bigger. He also lived as

a homeless man, participating in street gangs for a while before succeeding with Paul

Mitchell, Patron Spirits Company, the House of Blues nightclub chain and many other

businesses (Dennis Romero, 2009). Another good example is Oprah Winfrey, who is known

as the "Queen of All Media". However, before becoming famous with the Oprah Winfrey

Show, she also had a difficult and unstable childhood with a lack of adult provision and

suffered abuse from her family members (Daxton, 2022).

This essay has clearly shown that entrepreneurs can be made by certain factors. The most

convincing arguments given were that gaining skills through education and practicing is

critical to an entrepreneur’s achievement. Experience has also proved that it can improve

entrepreneurship as learning from failures always helps an entrepreneur succeed faster

and risk-taking is an indispensable trait for them. Another view to consider is that genetics

also plays a part in the ability to be an entrepreneur. However, many well-known

businessmen have proven that success comes from their own motivations and efforts rather

than from possessing distinct genes. Therefore, everyone has an equal opportunity to

become a good entrepreneur through hard work.

References

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Clifford, C. (2018, January 18). How Mark Zuckerberg came up with the idea for Facebook.

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Danielle Kurtzleben. (2014, February 11). Study: Income Gap Between Young College and

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JOSHUA KENNON. (2004, January 1). Warren buffet: One of the wealthiest people in

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