There are few hoarier chestnuts in this field than the question "is an entrepreneur born or made?" and like all such age-old questions, there is no clear-cut answer (newsflash: that's why they are age-old questions…). Most commentators, academics and experts tend to come down with a middling response like: "well, it helps to have some innate qualities, but you can also develop a lot of the skills you need" or "entrepreneurs are fashioned by circumstances and their environment, but need a spark of something". Which gets us pretty much nowhere.
What is more interesting, perhaps, is why the question continues to get asked. Usually this is because entrepreneurs (or in this case, social entrepreneurs) are seen as a good thing, creating value, innovation, wealth and employment. So if we could have more of them, it is generally agreed, that would also be a good thing. This leads inexorably to a call for education, support and training for entrepreneurs, and resources follow.
Those in the entrepreneurs are born camp then say this is a waste of valuable time and money, while those in the entrepreneurs are made camp say precisely the opposite. And the question then gets slightly reframed to become "Can you teach entrepreneurship?"
The School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) answer to this has always been a simple one: no, you can't teach it, but you can learn it by doing. So we look for some entrepreneurial traits and characteristics in those coming on our programmes (though it doesn't necessarily follow that they were born with them), and then aim to nurture, develop and grow their entrepreneurial abilities to best serve the social mission they have identified. Key to this process of learning with us is that the social entrepreneurs are "prone to action": entrepreneurship is not a downloadable modular curriculum you study, it is something you have the mindset to do.
In many ways, indeed, the word school in our name is a bit of a misnomer: there are no textbooks, no blackboards, no teacher or lecturer. Instead, practitioners come in and share their experience and knowledge; we have seen for many years that social entrepreneurs respond to their peers, who understand the process they're going through and have faced similar obstacles (and can be honest about what went wrong). You can think about this process in terms of the look before you leap proverb, because actually what SSE does is say:
"It's key that you leap but why don't you hear from some other people who who have already leapt and see how they landed, and then you won't leap in that way that landed them in a puddle. Learn a bit more about where to choose to leap first, then get inspired by (and encouragement from) people around you also leaping. Leap - and then look back and see how that went, and how you might leap differently next time and then look for the next leap that's needed."
Which is not nearly so catchy, I grant you. But you get the drift: the best learning comes from action, both your own and that of other like-minded entrepreneurs.
This is not to say there aren't key areas that need to be covered: every SSE programme covers key areas (legal structures, social impact measurement, the funding and investment spectrum, financial management, people management etc), but there is a big difference between knowing what you need to do and putting it into practice. After all, those piling in resources are not interested in groups of people who know a lot about the theories and concepts of entrepreneurship and can write a good plan; they are interested in those who make change, who do things and produce results. Which comes from confidence, networks, attitude, skills and behaviours at least as much as it does from taught knowledge and information.
So I remain a fervent advocate for social entrepreneurship education, for a process based on action learning and learning-by-doing, and one that is measured by the outcomes of the social entrepreneurs, not their qualifications. A process that mixes the retired doctor with the refugee, the new graduate with the long-term unemployed, the public sector émigré with the career-changing banker. At this stage, the social enterprise movement needs new entrants from all walks of life, and the education and learning available needs to reflect that in how accessible it is and in the way it is delivered.
Not everyone can or should be a social entrepreneur: some rightly abhor risk and fear failure from their starting point. But there are many out there who, regardless of whether you consider them born or made, can be more successful and more effective in achieving their goals with the right support and learning.
Nick Temple is director of policy and communications at the School for Social Entrepreneurs
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