I was reading an article from Fortune Small Business entitled "Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?" and started thinking about both sides of the question.
Most entrepreneurs and investors seem to think the answer is "no" while most academics and students think the answer is "yes." No surprise there.
However, I would say people are asking the wrong question.
Business can be Taught
When academics respond to the question they talk about the business principles of entrepreneurship, like finance and marketing. Of course you can teach these principles in an academic environment and of course they will make you more likely to succeed at starting and running a company.
When I started my first company I had no idea what the difference between a Balance Sheet and an Income Statement was. While I didn't stay in school long enough to learn that answer (not to mention I was a Theatre major, so I wouldn't have) I would certainly agree that knowledge has made me more successful.
Risk-Taking Cannot be Taught
Yet when you ask an entrepreneur or investor about entrepreneurship, what often comes to mind is "risk," not the fundamentals of business management. If the definition is the ability and willingness to take on risk, that is clearly not something that can be definitively taught. You're born with it or you're not.
So what is Entrepreneurship?
Without citing some lame Wikipedia definition of the word or debating a Webster's definition, I'd rather provide my own version.
If we're asking whether or not you can take someone who does not support risk and teach them to embrace risk, I think that's a long shot. I've seen lots of people try to fake their tolerance for risk while trying to be entrepreneurial and it just doesn't work. You can't teach someone to be OK with not sleeping at night.
Therefore, if you're born to take risks, you can learn how to apply that risk-taking desire into the business world of entrepreneurship. Born entrepreneurs can be taught how to become better businesspeople. But businesspeople cannot be taught how to become entrepreneurs.
What do you guys think?