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What Does It Take To Have Entrepreneurship In Your Blood

Is the entrepreneurial spirit something that you inherit or something you gain? Is it something that anyone can have or grow, or is it just for certain people? Can anyone become a successful entrepreneur or not? Those are a series of question that have been on many people’s mouths and minds during the years. Especially when confronted with the idea of starting a small business of their own.

A number of researchers, including Tim Spector and Lynn Cherkas of the Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology at Kings College, London, alongside Scott Shane, professor of entrepreneurial studies at Case Western Reserve University, studied the behavioral and molecular genetics of entrepreneurship by looking at a general pool of people, as well as identical and fraternal twins. They tested the number of businesses a person had started, the length of time someone was self-employed, and other factors such as the desire to run a business. According to inc.com, the findings included the following:

• 37 to 48 percent of the tendency to be an entrepreneur is genetic.
• The tendency to identify new business opportunities is in your genes.
• Self-employment income is heritable, which means that genetics affect not only the tendency to engage in entrepreneurship but also the ability to perform it.
• The tendency to have personality traits such as extroversion, openness, etc., has a genetic component. This suggests that your genes could affect your tendency to be an entrepreneur by influencing the type of personality you develop.

Another study, carried out by researchers from the UK universities of Birmingham and Reading on 17,000 children born in 1970, checking in with them again almost four decades later as they turned 38, found that the youngest children of parents who were not themselves self-employed were almost 50 per cent more likely to become entrepreneurs.

But when a family already had a business, things changed dramatically, the research showed. Last-borns were no more likely to be self-employed than their siblings. They were, in fact, 18% less likely to follow their parents into business – instead it was the first and middle children who had the highest propensity, at 151% and 118% respectively. Moreover, younger siblings were more “exploratory, unconventional and tolerant of risk”.

“Let’s face it – some people were born entrepreneurs stopping at nothing to pursue their passion to innovate and build extraordinary businesses.Failure is just another step in the process to success. Whether big fish – small pond or big fish – big pond – BIG is their goal,” said Randall Taussig.

Now, leaving aside all the researches and contemplation on the subject, if you really want to know if you are cut out to be an entrepreneur, I think you should take Gary Vaynerchuk’s advice:

If you want to know whether you’ve got that entrepreneurial spirit in your blood, here is what you do: You cut out watching your favorite sitcoms at night, you cut out playing more GTA5, you cut out going out for beers, you cut out being on the softball team, you pick a dream, and you attack it.

And if you prefer all that downtime over the upside of building your own business? I honestly think that’s great! That’s totally fine, but you’re not allowed to complain about how much you hate your job, just like I am not allowed to complain about my lack of free time or sleep.

10 Things You Might Not Know About Gary Vaynerchuk

We are thrilled to announce that Gary Vaynerchuk is coming to BRAND MINDS 2020!

BRAND MINDS is The Central and European Business Summit taking place in Bucharest, Romania.

Here are 10 things you might not know about Gary Vaynerchuk

American serial entrepreneur, four-time New York Times bestselling author, speaker and internationally recognized internet personality. First known as a leading wine critic who grew his family’s wine business from $3 million to $60 million, Vaynerchuk is now best known as a digital marketing and social-media pioneer at the helm of New York-based VaynerMedia and VaynerX.  Angel investor or advisor for the likes of Uber, Birchbox, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, he is a regular keynote speaker at global entrepreneurship and technology conferences.

1.No matter the amount of success and money he has at this point he is still working 13-15 hours a day. 

2.  He is into every aspect of his life 100 %, ready to give 51 % of the value to the other person.

3. He tries to figure out what you are going to do, before you do it

4. He’s passionate with the New York Jets. His dream as a child was to become the owner of the New York Jets and it still is.

5. He’s an HR Driven CEO. He is very interested in his employees’ ideas and opinions and their feedback on everyday work.  He uses empathy and tries to understand “why”. 

6. He believes it’s in his DNA to be an entrepreneur. It’s the life he breaths and loves to, every day. 

7. He doesn’t care about others’ opinion on him, as he knows very well who he is. “I put zero weight into anyone’s opinion about me because I know exactly who I am. Can you say the same?”, quotes medium.com

8. He believes that a person’s friends and family can influence their success. “Maybe if you got rid of one friend or spent a lot less time with one friend who’s a real drag and a negative force and added a positive person in your office … If you switched it from 80 days hanging out with your negative friend and one day with your office acquaintance who’s super positive, to four days with your negative friend and 12 with this new person. I’ve physically watched I mentor in my organizations have a totally different life on that thesis……I think that people are keeping very negative people around them and if they aspire to change their situation, it’s imperative to audit the seven to 10 people who are around you,” Vaynerchuk told Business Insider.

9. He is a Judge and Adviser at the Apple’s show ” Planet of the Apps“, alongside Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow, Will I.AM.  More on the program you can read here.

10.  In #AskGaryVee he cuts straight to the heart of the question and what it says about the person asking the question — their motivations, their fundamental assumptions and what their real question should actually be.

Are you a #worldchanger?

Come to BRAND MINDS 2020: Gary Vaynerchuk, Malcolm Gladwell, Martin Lindstrom, Michio Kaku, Tara Westover and host Richard Quest