{"id":18399,"date":"2021-11-03T15:23:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-03T07:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/friends\/?p=18399"},"modified":"2025-07-25T10:08:53","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T02:08:53","slug":"entrepreneurs-are-the-original-disruptors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/friends\/entrepreneurs-are-the-original-disruptors\/","title":{"rendered":"Entrepreneurs are the original disruptors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Curtin graduates and students mingle on the Curtin Perth campus.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Author | Karen Green<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Entrepreneurs are easy to admire. They\u2019re explorers and creators \u2013 they create new products, services, jobs, and perhaps even new industries. But what is an entrepreneur, and how are they <\/em>created?<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or are they born? It\u2019s a long-time debate. Most definitions agree that an entrepreneur is someone who creates a new business enterprise, and that the process involves considerable risk. It\u2019s also accepted that entrepreneurs have a high level of \u2018fluid intelligence\u2019, which is characterised by mental agility and problem-solving ability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While those traits, together with a measure of gumption, will see new ideas push past the thought-bubble phase, it takes knowledge and resources to transform a good idea into a new product or service. So the notion of natural-born entrepreneurs, who arrive wielding genetic chutzpah that slays every obstruction, is a bit of a myth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take a brainwave …<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dr Vanessa Rauland is smart, spirited and on a mission. But she admits that as an aspiring entrepreneur she often felt out of her depth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout her school years Vanessa was passionate about protecting the environment. Then, as a PhD student in Curtin University\u2019s Sustainability Policy Institute, she had the idea that helping schools to reduce their carbon footprint would also promote environmental sustainability to the next generation of workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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