Nature or nurture? People often try to claim “___________ is useless, I don’t have the genetics”… and then assume they’ll never have a successful home business or any business.
But when you think about it, nature and nurture are difficult to separate. Identical twins separated at birth who both grow up to be business owners may have both been shoved into a variety of orphanages or foster care homes where it was fend for oneself or die.
They both become business people and it’s assumed to be genetic when in reality, it’s what they learned in the school of hard knocks.
If you want to be an entrepreneur, have a home based business, etc. the tuition for the school of hard knocks is still free though the cost for class activities is chosen by you.
The World Bank’s blog has a good summary of the debate. Here are the highlights:
- A UK study of identical twins claims that genes explain 48% of a person’s propensity to be self-employed.
Another study looks are testosterone levels as a predictor.
- While a couple of other studies, including one from China summarized at the World Bank blog and the study that I panned their conclusions in a post earlier this week, favor the nurture argument over the genetic one.
So what is my take on this debate? While it may be an entertaining academic discussion, there never will be a single answer. It is part nurture, part nature, part culture, part economic policy, and part circumstances. So enough already!!
My part in this is to rant about regulations and taxes, and to try and be a part of the educational movement to improve how we teach and train entrepreneurs. As I argued a while back in response to a Fortune Small Business article, Yes, Entrepreneurship Can, and Is, Being Taught.
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