Students in the Program for the Gifted and Talented sat in a row of desks on the right side of our fourth grade classroom. While the rest of us completed the standard schoolwork our teacher assigned, the PGT students worked on more challenging projects.
I’d always thought students were chosen for these programs based on test scores and natural ability. But after a conversation with the owner of a local learning center, I discovered that this isn’t always the case. She told me about a student who’d enrolled for help getting into his school’s gifted program.
“His sister’s in it, so his parents want him to be in it, too,” she said. “I think it’s just a way to give him that extra push he needs to challenge himself.”
This concept of a student’s natural versus learned ability got me thinking about an entrepreneur’s ability to excel in business. Are some people born with business savvy, or is this a trait that’s learned through education and experience? I turned to Black Enterprise Senior Vice President/Multimedia Editor-at-Large Alfred Edmond, Jr. {@AlfredEdmondJr} for the answers to my questions:
We usually hear people being described as having natural business acumen, like it’s a gift. Are these people born with certain traits that make them more successful in business than others?
Some people show more natural ability than others when it comes to business acumen and certain complimentary skills. However, that natural ability is a floor—not a ceiling—on that person’s potential in business. Other elements key to business success, arguably the most important ones, can be taught, including persistence, integrity, resilience, a willingness to work hard and the ability to focus on a specific passion or vision. This is why someone of less apparent natural business aptitude (for example, Oprah Winfrey), can outperform people with more obvious business savvy in the long run. It’s not your natural ability alone (your talents, gifts or the hand you’re dealt), but your time and energy investment (your efforts, focus and how you play your hand) that determines outcomes.
Can business savvy be taught? Why/why not?
Business acumen can be taught just like anything else, but not by everyone. It can be learned by everyone, but not taught by everyone. We all have the capacity to learn, even if we don’t always have the desire; we do not all have the capacity to teach. The latter requires a special kind of dedication, generosity and passion. Everyone wants to receive; far fewer are dedicated to imparting skills and knowledge to others on an ongoing basis.
The latter requires you to put self aside so that others will excel and ultimately exceed you. Most people just aren’t ready to do that.
What does it take for a person to become the next Jack Dorsey or Jay-Z?
Why would anyone want to become the next Jack Dorsey or Jay-Z? Trying to be the next anyone goes totally against the point of pursuing excellence, particularly in the fields of business and entrepreneurship. To excel requires an ability to learn from the examples of others and pursue lessons from your own experiences to bring something of unique value to the marketplace—whether it’s a good, service, idea or lifestyle. We each have that ability, regardless of our apparent natural aptitude in business.
Alfred Edmond Jr. is senior vice president/multimedia editor-at-large of Black Enterprise. He is a content leader, brand representative and expert resource for all media platforms under the Black Enterprise brand. Edmond is also responsible for helping to set and enforce quality standards for the editorial content of Black Enterprise‘s major franchises. Edmond appears regularly on television and nationally syndicated radio and is a highly sought-after public speaker and moderator.