View #1: People Can Be Taught to be Entrepreneurial
 
Owner: Tracy Thomas
Company: Tracy Thomas PR & Advertising
Phone: (913) 962-1100
Email:

Can a tiger change its stripes? Is it possible for a "suit" who has been downsized to create a cutting-edge business? Can a 50-something (or even 40-something) who has been fired by a cocky GenX boss with a $50 haircut and an iPhone become a successful entrepreneur? I say "yes." We better hope so, because Wal-Mart doesn't need more greeters. We must support a culture where dependent people can morph from worker bees into innovators. Our entire economy depends on it.

I say that change in personality is possible, because dependency is a practice, not an innate way of being. For instance, when nearly 50 percent of all marriages ended in divorce, American women realized-late, but better late than never-that they can only really count on themselves to survive. Women business owners continue to be the leaders in starting new businesses. This situation also produced such women entrepreneurs as Mary Kay Ash (Mary Kay Cosmetics) and Debbie Fields (Mrs. Fields Cookies).

There is a difference between a business owner and an entrepreneur. The entrepreneur sees an unserved niche and creates a product or service to meet it, or takes a known product or service to an innovative level, such as Stan Durwood did with AMC Theatres.

There is also a difference between a "natural" entrepreneur and a "reluctant" one. In my 35 years in advertising, I have seen both types succeed. I have also seen both types fail. Failure is often a result of two things: lack of business expertise and a failure to market properly. I remind would-be entrepreneurs to be realistic. Don't expect to become Bill Gates or Richard Branson.
 
Rock, Paper, Scissors and Spite
The natural entrepreneur is like the natural athlete-born with the DNA to extend and exceed the norms. Reluctant entrepreneurs, however, have determination forced upon them. They must teach themselves to exercise a very unused set of muscles-that is the ability to take risks. For many, this will energize them and generate creative problem solving during those late nights. (All entrepreneurs work longer hours. Get over it.)

I started my ad agency in 1974 when change was forced upon me. Mayor Charles Wheeler abruptly cancelled financing for my job as executive director of the Mayor's Council on the Arts Today, I'm grateful, because the No. 1 sustaining motivator for entrepreneurs is refusal to fail. I gave myself the Scarlett O'Hara and the turnip speech and never looked back.

Manage Your Neuroses
Today there is a wide variety of support and information for want-to-be entrepreneurs, including terrific features available in this magazine. Universities even offer courses on how to become entrepreneurs. I miss what Kansas City women in the '80s enjoyed-a vibrant culture of networking, including Dimensions and Dimensions II. Thank God for Google. I like what DaVinciMethod.com writes about. Be open to change. Have an appetite for risk. Have the ability to analyze. And, manage your neuroses!

Tracy Thomas owns Tracy Thomas PR & Advertising (www.tracythomas.org). She specializes in marketing small businesses with memorable advertising based on brain theory that overcomes inertia.

View #2: Risk Takers Are Born, Not Taught

Owner & President: Dan Fuhrman
Company: Schutte Lumber Company
Phone: (816) 753-6262
Email:

As a business owner in the Kansas City area for a good many years, I have had the opportunity to form relationships with many business people. Some were very adept at business management, some were excellent in sales, but others were innovators who invented products and services that have resulted in the creation of entirely new markets. I think of the latter of the three as being "entrepreneurs."

The question is, "Can people be taught to be true entrepreneurs, or is an individual born with the personality characteristics required for the title?" I think a person has entrepreneurial personality traits and then exploits them when he or she sees an opportunity.

Successful entrepreneurs are cut from a different cloth, so to speak, from the business owner. People like Walt Disney or Howard Hughes had the ability to envision, and then build the business infrastructure to take their ideas to fruition. No one but Disney could see a world-class amusement park being built in the middle of Florida. He had the guts to take charge of his ideas and lead the project forward, managing many of the details himself. Today there are thousands of "business owners" who sell Disney merchandise through their stores, kiosks, and web sites, but there will only be one Walt Disney.

Victor Kiam, who bought the Remington Company because he liked their electric razors, has a definition of entrepreneurs that I agree with. He said, "Entrepreneurs are risk takers, willing to roll the dice with their money or put their reputation on the line in support of an idea or enterprise. They are willing to assume responsibility for the success or failure of a venture and are answerable for all its facets." I would add that entrepreneurs generate innovation and mobilize resources to address inefficiencies in the marketplace. They are the ones who create opportunities, while business owners profit from them later down the line, like Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream or Levi Jeans or the Ford automobile, all of which are profit centers for many businesses today.

One of the many outstanding characteristics of the entrepreneur is a drive to be independent. The entrepreneur wants to be autonomous. They prefer to dominate the situation with a need to be in control and to direct others. They can be a decision-maker whose entire role arises out of his or her alertness to unnoticed opportunities.

I am aware that there are universities that are offering a degree in entrepreneurship, but I am not certain how to teach a person to be comfortable risking everything he owns on an unproven idea or concept. Or, if the classroom were to be full of would-be entrepreneurs, I wonder how a professor would be able to keep order. The ideas that would be flying around the room could be compared to attention deficit disorder in the highest degree.   

I believe you can make people aware of what is required to be an entrepreneur and you can teach people how to run a business successfully, but when it comes to entrepreneurship, to put it bluntly, you either have it or you don't.