There’s only one answer to the question, “Is an entrepreneur born or bred?” They are bred, period. The entrepreneurial life can start at any age, but in my view it comes about due to a sense of curiosity and a desire to find solutions. “What would happen if…..?” “Maybe I could…..” Sure you may have parents who leave you on a country road to find your own way home, but you may not. It doesn’t matter. Richard Branson may have found his way home, but we don't know how many other people are out there wandering around!
My own journey started in the wine shop in the basement of a large department store. Prior to that I’d never been exposed to entrepreneurial behaviour – my father was an accountant and my mother worked part-time in a pub. Both of them were conservative and risk-averse.
I took a summer job in the wine shop, aged 18, and quickly became the only person selling behind the counter, while the manager was out-back taking deliveries, or having a smoke.
I became curious about the motivation to buy certain bottles of wine. There is a certain snobbery about wine, so a customer would select something and bring it to the counter. Rather than just ring it up I would ask what they were eating with it. They’d say a BBQ and I’d say that whilst this was a lovely bottle of wine, for another £5.00 they could have a substantially better wine that would compliment the meal even more. I’d say (without any back up from my manager) that if they didn’t like it I would refund the price. Nine times in ten they would go with my recommendation, and when they did they never came back to complain. The truth is that I knew nothing about wine at that stage but just figured a more expensive bottle was going to taste better, so I was on solid ground.
Then an even more curious thing happened. The people who had purchased the more expensive wine would come back and buy more, or even a case, or two cases. Suddenly I wasn’t just a shop assistant, I was their wine merchant, their go-to-guy for advice all things wine. Sometimes they would bring friends in so they could also get advice from their expert. I started to learn more about wine so I could genuinely help people with their choices, but I wasn’t really selling wine any more – I was selling increasing levels of snobbery; appealing to the emotion rather than the logic, the sizzle not the sausage.
I’m absolutely not suggesting that entrepreneurs are out to con people. But they look for opportunities to provide greater satisfaction, which is what I consider I did in the wine shop. And I could add a little charm and flirty behaviour too. To have your own wine merchant, albeit a lanky 18-year old spotty stud, was something to brag to the neighbours about!
Entrepreneurs develop ideas to solve problems and then wrap a business around the solutions they create. To be a successful entrepreneur it’s about the quality of the idea, the novelty of the solution and the energy and experience you bring to the business. Twenty year-olds have energy, sixty year-olds have experience. You can start at any age, from any background and learn your way into this exciting world.
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