enta
COLUMNIST
JOHN HAYLOCK ON PUBLIC PRACTICE
Are entrepreneurs born or created?
New Zealand needs more successful entrepreneurs and much thought has been given to how that may be encouraged. C
an we create entrepreneurs? Is the ability to see a business opportunity and take the risks necessary to exploit it endowed by nature or is it a result of nurture? I had always thought it was nurture. But recently I learnt more about my own family history and it made me question whether genetics has a bigger influence than I thought.
My Haylock ancestors can be traced back eight generations to Edward Haylock who was born in 1687 and lived in the small Essex village of Ashdon. He was a carpenter and commercial property owner (leasing out the land and building occupied by one of the village’s many public houses).
That combination of being self-employed and owning property has since been shared by eight generations of
Haylock men spread over more than 300 years. During that time there have been carpenters, farmers, millers, a brewer (Haylock’s Akaroa Ale was popular in the 1860s) and a pioneer developer of New Zealand farmland. Perhaps something in our shared genes encouraged this strong legacy of enterprise?
To find out more I read Danish writer Lone Frank’s
2012 book My Beautiful Genome. She summarises the
52
NOVEMBER 2013
latest research on how our genes influence our health and behaviour. Among many issues, she discusses the L variant of the MAOA gene, which has been linked with aggression.
This variant is known as the “warrior gene” and is carried by an unusually high proportion of male prison inmates.
Most men who carry the warrior gene are not, however, involved in crime. It seems to influence different people in different ways. Carriers of the MAOA-L gene appear more willing to take risks in general while also being better at assessing their chance of success in high-pressure situations.
That’s useful in battle but
JOHN HAYLOCK ON PUBLIC PRACTICE
Are entrepreneurs born or created?
New Zealand needs more successful entrepreneurs and much thought has been given to how that may be encouraged. C
an we create entrepreneurs? Is the ability to see a business opportunity and take the risks necessary to exploit it endowed by nature or is it a result of nurture? I had always thought it was nurture. But recently I learnt more about my own family history and it made me question whether genetics has a bigger influence than I thought.
My Haylock ancestors can be traced back eight generations to Edward Haylock who was born in 1687 and lived in the small Essex village of Ashdon. He was a carpenter and commercial property owner (leasing out the land and building occupied by one of the village’s many public houses).
That combination of being self-employed and owning property has since been shared by eight generations of
Haylock men spread over more than 300 years. During that time there have been carpenters, farmers, millers, a brewer (Haylock’s Akaroa Ale was popular in the 1860s) and a pioneer developer of New Zealand farmland. Perhaps something in our shared genes encouraged this strong legacy of enterprise?
To find out more I read Danish writer Lone Frank’s
2012 book My Beautiful Genome. She summarises the
52
NOVEMBER 2013
latest research on how our genes influence our health and behaviour. Among many issues, she discusses the L variant of the MAOA gene, which has been linked with aggression.
This variant is known as the “warrior gene” and is carried by an unusually high proportion of male prison inmates.
Most men who carry the warrior gene are not, however, involved in crime. It seems to influence different people in different ways. Carriers of the MAOA-L gene appear more willing to take risks in general while also being better at assessing their chance of success in high-pressure situations.
That’s useful in battle but