

Do dysfunctional families breed entrepreneurs? - fjabre
http://entrepreneur.venturebeat.com/2009/09/23/do-dysfunctional-families-breed-entrepreneurs/

======
embeddedradical
_I’ve found that between a quarter and half of the students I consider 'hard-
core' entrepreneurs/founders (working passionately to found a company,) self-
identified as coming from a less than benign upbringing._

he believes that a quarter of people in a group warrants correlation?

~~~
pmichaud
Whether there's a correlation depends entirely on the proportion you find in
the general population.

------
neilk
I've worked for a child of a dysfunctional family. The company was run like a
dysfunctional family.

On the whole, dysfunctional families are poor preparations for _anything_.
That's why they are called dysfunctional.

The one thing I could maybe agree with -- in a dysfunctional family, sometimes
the children learn to take on responsibility and budgeting at an earlier age.
Maybe they learn to challenge authority. That may be an 'advantage' over some
pampered brat, although a dubious one since it leaves less time and resources
for studying or hacking or other growth opportunities. There are less damaging
ways to learn responsibility.

------
edw519
At the town drunk's funeral, both of his sons were there. One was the
president of the local bank and the other was the new town drunk.

A bystander asked the bank president how he turned out that way.

He responded, "With a father like that, how else could I turn out?"

He asked the same question to the drunk who responded, "With a father like
that, how else could I turn out?"

~~~
dkl
Nice that they turned out so "well", but I think the real measure isn't their
title and this cute story doesn't convey much information about the men. My
father came from a large family, at the head of which was a drunk father. All
but him followed in the footsteps of their father.

However, having said this, I've often thought that extraordinary people (and
you often find the heads of companies are extraordinary) often came from
environments that were extraordinarily harsh. I always thought that if the
harshness of the childhood didn't break them, it would make them super strong
or driven compared to people that had "normal" childhoods.

------
jhancock
I recall sometime around my 2nd or 3rd year in college someone remark that
students go into engineering mostly from "blue collar" families. I never
thought about it before that of course who would want to work so hard at
engineering when you could go to law or b-school instead. Much later, I
recalled when in high school, I was offered a scholarship in dramatic arts
from a top school. I was very certain when I rejected the proposal that
theatre would be a horrible way for me to earn a living. I was 17 at the time,
how was I to know that as an adult people would commonly tell me I remind them
of Tom Hanks and look like Robin Williams?

I'm not sure that being from a tough or financial disadvantaged background
makes one more appropriate or better at being an entrepreneur. However, it may
make it so your apparent options direct you to being an entrepreneur.

Two traits I find commonly lacking in entrepreneurs from tough or financial
disadvantaged background are 1 - discipline and 2 - access to capital. I think
both these attributes are more indicators of entrepreneurial success than
anything else.

~~~
neilk
Your last sentence is phrased as a double negative. Do you mean to say that
entrepreneurs from disadvantaged backgrounds often lack discipline and
capital?

~~~
jhancock
yes, of course. sorry, the above bad sentence structure has been edited/fixed
;)

