A Quote by Robert Herjavec
People ask, 'Are entrepreneurs born, or are they made?' I think it's a combination of both.
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Unlike what most people think, entrepreneurs are not special people who know how to do special things that others don't. Entrepreneurs can be made, because we're all born with the potential - that special human quality - to create.
There's an old chestnut that asks whether an entrepreneur is born or made and I think it's a combination of both. You need the talent; without the talent you can't do it.
I think entrepreneurs are born and not created, and so I think you see a lot of similarities among entrepreneurs in different parts of the world. Their backdrop may be very different, but their drive to create a business and to create jobs remains very much the same, whether it's in Silicon Valley or Kandahar or Kabul.
It is all about finding the entrepreneurs who we believe in. Entrepreneurs who have the wherewithal, the enthusiasm, the passion, the expertise, and the network to take early-stage ideas down the path of success. And it's not always obvious, just because someone has years of experience, or fantastic people in their eco-system, or they have fantastic capital. It is the combination of all of those things, with the right attitude. And for us attitude is crucial.
Knowledge is great. Competence is great. But the combination of both encourages people to trust you and increases your powers of enchantment. And in this world, the combination is a breath of fresh air.
Well, when people ask where I'm from, I usually say the Midwest, because that covers both homes, in a way. Obviously I was born in Omaha, but when people say, "Where do you come from," we'll say Milwaukee. I mean Jennifer was certainly born in Milwaukee, and that's where I spent a big chunk of my adult life, so we usually say we came here from Milwaukee. That's usually how it's referenced is we're from Milwaukee, yeah.
I was born wandering between two worlds, one dead, the other powerless to be born, and have made, in a curious way, the worst of both.
The attributes for entrepreneurs cut both ways. You need the ability to ignore inconvenient facts and see the world as it should be and not as it is. This inspires people to take huge leaps of faith. But this blindness to facts can be a liability, too. The characteristics that help entrepreneurs succeed can also lead to their failure.
I was born in England - though both of my parents are American - and there's something about the 'Muppets' where they have this combination of English and American humor.
Whenever I talk to people who founded a company, I often like to ask the prehistory questions 'When did you meet? How long have you been working before you started the company?' A bad answer is, 'We met at a networking event a week ago, and we started a company because we both want to be entrepreneurs.'
Basically if you study entrepreneurs, there is a misnomer: People think that entrepreneurs take risk, and they get rewarded because they take risk. In reality entrepreneurs do everything they can to minimize risk. They are not interested in taking risk. They want free lunches and they go after free lunches.
We think of the Techstars product as not really the accelerator but the network. That's what entrepreneurs should be valuing here. I think it's the most undervalued thing that many entrepreneurs don't get.
The ideal is unnatural naturalness, or natural unnaturalness. I mean it is a combination of both. I mean here is natural instinct and here is control. You are to combine the two in harmony. Not if you have one to the extreme, you'll be very unscientific. If you have another to the extreme, you become, all of a sudden, a mechanical man No longer a human being. It is a successful combination of both. That way it is a process of continuing growth.
I was born on a full moon. Both my children were born on full moons, too. Some people say that's scary. It is what it is, man, I don't be trippin'. I couldn't tell God when I wanted to be born.
Many people look at successful entrepreneurs and think it's easy to get where they are at, but it really isn't. Many entrepreneurs work 16-18 hour days and thus have been able to achieve their high levels of success.
A lot of people ask me, 'Are you born a writer?' And I don't think it's necessarily true. I just think what you either have or you don't is this ability to see something that's complex and worth talking about.
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