Not This Again

When I was in Business School back in the 1970s there was still some residual discussion of what was known as the Trait Theory of Leadership. The notion was that certain traits, many of them physical, are related to effective leadership. Leaders were thought to be white, male, at least six feet tall, and had good heads of hair (I kid you not). I was feeling pretty good until the hair thing came up….Of course, the only reason that most leaders looked that way was because those were the only traits we would look at to find potential leaders. We learned that real leadership was a set of behaviors. And these behaviors could be learned by almost anyone.
Entrepreneurship went down the same for quite a bit longer than leadership studies. For years we tried to identify the traits of the most successful entrepreneurs. Although no data ever supported any specific traits, it just made sense to people, so this theory stuck around.
Finally, we learned that successful entrepreneurs followed, you guessed it, certain behavior patterns that also predicted their success. They planned, assessed opportunities before jumping into a venture, they secured the right resources at the right time, and they were effective at managing growth. And, yes, they were effective leaders. All of this can be learned.
Now I am the first to admit that certain types of people might be drawn to be leaders or entrepreneurs. However, this is true for a lot of other vocations, such as airline pilots or surgeons. But would you want someone flying you to Los Angeles or cutting open your brain just because they are drawn to these professions?? Of course not! We want them trained and educated. So, too, with leaders and entrepreneurs.
I don’t care why entrepreneurs end up in my classes or in my office. I only know that once they are there it is my job to help give them the knowledge, skills and tools to be successful. What gets them to me is irrelevant. Drive alone will not create the highest potential for success.
But, my fellow academics, at least those who are career academics, seem to be drawn to entrepreneurship by some vicarious need for excitement. I see it every time I go to a national meeting of entrepreneurship educators. Those who have never made a payroll seem drawn to the most hair-raising stories of near entrepreneurial failure like rubber-neckers on the freeway. They are thrilled by entrepreneurs who pursue their vision with reckless abandon.
The latest example seems to be a book titled The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success by a Psychiatrist named John Gartner (featured this week at the National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship). He contends that it is genetics that drives people to become successful entrepreneurs.
You are wrong; dead wrong, Dr. Gartner. Personality may draw folks to become entrepreneurs to some degree, but it is hard work and education that gives them the greatest chance for success.