[經濟廣角]神童企業家的神話

The entrepreneur whiz kid myth
What does the average entrepreneur look like? A 40-year-old cubicle refugee.

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By Ian Mount

(Fortune Small Business) -- Bill Gates. Steve Jobs. FedEx's (FDX, Fortune 500) Fred Smith. The image of the entrepreneur as whiz kid has serious currency in American business lore. But according to a new study from the Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas City think tank that studies entrepreneurship, that image is a myth.

For "The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur," the foundation surveyed 549 company founders. Instead of a dorm-room genius, it found that the typical founder is middle-age -- 40, on average -- when launching a first company. Seventy percent of first-time founders are married; nearly 60% have at least one child.

They're also a study in class mobility: 59% come from lower-middle-class or blue-collar families, and almost half hold advanced degrees.

"The commonly held belief that entrepreneurs are young college students working out of their dorms is simply wrong," says study author Vivek Wadhwa of Duke University's Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization. "People typically come to a stage where they're tired of working for other people. They think, 'I'm 40 and I haven't made it big yet. This is my last chance.' That really spurs the entrepreneurial spirit."

Wadhwa knows from experience: Before entering academia, he founded a technology company -- at age 39.

神童企業家的神話

企業家通常是什麼樣的人？40歲的辦公室逃兵。

作者：Ian Mount

(Fortune Small Business)——比爾•蓋茨（Bill Gates）。史蒂夫•喬布斯（Steve Jobs）。聯邦快遞（FedEx）首席執行官弗裏德•史密斯（Fred Smith）。這些曾爲神童的企業家形象已經廣爲業界接受。但是，根據堪薩斯城的智囊團考夫曼基金會（the Kauffman Foundation）有關創業的最新研究，這個形象是虛構的。

在這項名爲“企業家剖析”的研究中，考夫曼基金會調查了549名公司創始人。結果發現，大多數的企業家在開始創辦第一家公司時都處於中年時期，平均年齡40歲，而不是人們印象中的天才學生。70%的企業家在創辦第一家公司時都已經結婚，60%左右的人至少有一個孩子。

這項研究還調查了社會地位的流動性問題，結果顯示：59%的人出身於中產階級的下層或藍領家庭，幾乎一半的人擁有高等學歷。

杜克大學（Duke University）創業和商業化研究中心的研究人員維維克•瓦德瓦（Vivek Wadhwa）說：“人們通常認爲企業家是在大學寢室裏工作的年輕學生，這種看法是錯誤的。人們經常到某個階段後會厭倦爲別人打工。他們開始想：‘我已40歲了，還沒有什麼大成就。這是我最後的機會了。’事實上，這種想法真正激發了企業家精神。”

瓦德瓦的人生經歷也證是一個印證：他在進入學術界前，成立了一個科技公司——那時他39歲。