Our generation needs an ENTREPRENEURIAL REVOLUTION.
TO : Regis Entreprenership elective students.
Subject : Please continue making comments on our debate Last Tuesday, Sept 20, 2011
We had a debate last Tuesday: "Are Entrepreneurs Born, Made or Simply Lucky?" The question can be further clarified: taking all things equal (and this was highlighted by Jonee) what is the most significant, most important, relevant, direct cause of being an entrepreneur. Lucky - providential, fate, circumstantial, serendipitous. destiny?
Please click the button comment and make your comment and indicate your initials/id #.
Let us a have thread; you can comment on the debate topic, comment on the comment, rebut other argument. etc.
Prof Jorge
TO : Regis Entreprenership elective students.
Subject : Please continue making comments on our debate Last Tuesday, Sept 20, 2011
We had a debate last Tuesday: "Are Entrepreneurs Born, Made or Simply Lucky?" The question can be further clarified: taking all things equal (and this was highlighted by Jonee) what is the most significant, most important, relevant, direct cause of being an entrepreneur. Lucky - providential, fate, circumstantial, serendipitous. destiny?
Please click the button comment and make your comment and indicate your initials/id #.
Let us a have thread; you can comment on the debate topic, comment on the comment, rebut other argument. etc.
Prof Jorge
I think it is a combination of all three. There may be some who can manage with one or two of the three but without innate qualities or personalities (born), perseverance (made), and luck in the equation (lucky), an entrepreneur cannot be a huge success. However, I do not mean that there is a fixed set of qualities that would make a good entrepreneur. Just that the entrepreneurial successes of each individual can be attributed partially to certain innate qualities they have.
ReplyDelete- R100022
Among the 3 factors, the more dominant is that entrepreneurs are made. Both the meek and the mighty can learn entrepreneurial skills to succeed in the market place. You may be born in a poor family, but if you are exposed to an environment where you have to be street smart, you will see opportunities in business, no matter how big or small the enterprise is. Rags to riches stories abound. However, a twist of luck is needed. By luck, it could be that you have, by chance, met individuals who are willing to provide you with the advice, guidance, even capital to start your own business. Luck can also mean perfect timing. The right timing for the right business idea with the right capital ready to be invested.
ReplyDeleteR080230 I.L.
ReplyDeleteI think entrepreneurs are made, being good at it is a desire. I believe that so long as you desire to be one, then you can be an entrepreneur and you can be very good at it.
I think being born in an environment that is conducive to being an entrepreneur and having the means to support your dreams and desires may help you become one but the bottomline is having the desire to do so.
I think entrepreneurs are more of made than they are born. The richest people in the Philippines such as Henry Sy, Gokongwei and Lucio Tan all started from rags and now became the richest in the country. They were entrepreneurs because of experience. They have to work at a young age so that they can provide food for their family. They went through hardships at an early age and because of that their passion to become rich and successful grew.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that they have gone through a lot of challenges and experienced some failures along the way which made them experts in their business. These experiences gave them more wisdom and intelligence to overcome more challenges and problems… and these made them the richest and most successful business tycoons today in the Philippines.
The hardships that they had to endure and their desire for new ideas and continuous learning have made them adept and very wise. Henry Sy once said that he was continuously learning from his customers, suppliers, and employees and the on-the-job research and learnings gave him enough confidence to expand his small shoe mart into a department store chain. His determination made him not give up on extra challenges and did things differently that made him very successful.
Sometimes, a person’s bad experience turns out to be an opportunity to become successful. I heard stories of a lot of entrepreneurs today that had bad experiences as employees that is why they decided to put up their own business which made them millionaires. Lucio Tan himself was an employee - a chemist in a cornstarch manufacturing company before he became a businessman. But the company where he was working closed down when there was a price war in the late 1950s when Gokongwei had put up his own cornstarch company. This made Lucio Tan lose his job and he jokes that Gokongwei was the reason why he lost his job. Gokongwei would reply that if it were not for him, Lucio Tan would not have been one of the richest men in the country today. So Lucio Tan then should be thankful that he lost his job. hehe..
Having said that for me an entrepreneur is made. I don’t believe so much in luck but I believe in divine intervention coupled with determination to succeed, passion to learn and self discipline.
R100125
I believe that entrepreneurs are born and made. But it takes luck to make them very successful. Luck only favors a ready mind. Think of what happened to Isaac Newton when an apple fell on his head. Newton was born intelligent. He was working hard as a scientist and was trying to decode the mystery of the universe. One day, an apple fell on his head... and voila! The Universal Law of Gravitation came about. Had it happened to me, would I have discovered 'gravity'? No. Why? Because my mind is not ready. I wasn't trained (made) to think that way. And I must admit, I was not born as intelligent as Newton. Will I, instead, think of the fallen apple as my lunch? Yes.
ReplyDeleteSame goes to entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs have to have luck to be able to encounter an extremely good opportunity for business. But he also has to have a ready mind. Mind trained to recognize such opportunity and he has to have an IQ high enough to grasp the ideas.
M100048
Please put your initials too.
ReplyDeleteThis is a question that continues as we go on with the course, or even as you make your own self analysis as to whether you will undertake the entrepreneurial journey or not. Is entrepreneurship for everyone? Why are there successful entrepreneurs? Why are you afraid now? Why are you not taking the plunge?
I think, there is an element of luck to business. According to DTI, about 80% to 90% of companies fail. Despite of all the planning, research and marketing, business still fail.
ReplyDeleteFor successful companies, they would always mention that there is luck why they succeed. They where in the right place and right time when they openned their business.
The upside of it, the chances of successful business increase if you still follow a business plan before launching your company. It is still better than having no plan at all. For companies whow didn't plan, failure comes at a big surprise. - R100092 (EEV)
Going into this course, I thought that being an entrepreneur was only a matter of putting up a business. I was wrong.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as the course starts to progress, entrepreneurship involves other factors aside from capital. Introspection is key. Resolve is essential. Motivation is primordial. Humility must be constant. And honesty should be consistent. All these come into play because engaging in entrepreneuralism, as coined by AGSB Professor Jorge Saguinsin, is path were many are called, but few are chosen. Many want to be entrepreneurs, but only a few make it. Many want to be successful in this arena, but only a few make a dent.
With this as the mindset, the question of whether entrepreneurs are born, made, or lucky comes into perspective. Whether an entrepreneur is born, made, or lucky is an important consideration since believing in one of the three choices or believing in all of them determines that path of any would be entrepreneur.
I do not know if there is an empirical study that can settle the issue. There may be psychological profiles which can possibly indicate how and why a person becomes an entrepreneur. Also, lineage cannot be disregarded as well. Indeed, there are second, third, and fourth generation businessmen and entrepreneurs which have become successful.
In the absence of crystal clear data that will settle the issue at hand. I, therefore, turn to what is available to me. I turn to my father.
My father has always been a maverick. He has always been a risk taker. He is the type of person that is willing to take the path less trodden. And he has done this even in business.
My father put up a business 25 years ago, and it is still going strong until now. In spite of the ups and downs of the economy, the turbulent state of the political - legal environment, my father's business has stood firm. He, of course, is not a Henry Sy, an Andrew Gotianun, or a John Gokengwei, but in his own right, he has been successful. Running a surviving and thriving corporation, after all, is indeed a strong indicator of his talent, resolve, and character.
I distinctly remember a few years back when I asked him what it takes to be successful in business. And he said that there are two considerations. First, the overwhelming and unyielding desire to be successful. Second, luck must bless the business. Both go hand in hand; one cannot exist without the other.
Thus, referring now to that answer, I believe that entrepreneurs, the successful ones at that, must be "made" and "fortunate." They're made because in spite of the limitations, challenges, and hardships, they press on, believing that their vision will come true. They're fortunate because they were, to put it simply, at the right place and at the right time. This is far from being quantifiable, but it is the true. Successful entrepreneurs and businessmen do attest that luck does play a factor.
Admittedly, my opinion is derived from vicarious sources. And that's good enough for now. But, what I'm more excited with is the prospect of testing it in this course. Perhaps, this Entrepreneurship class will either prove or disprove that. And whatever the outcome will be, I'll be happy with it, because that will finally be my truth.
By JCB (R090209)