Are entrepreneurs born or can they be taught? - By Sarah Treanor, Business reporter, BBC

You have got a great business idea and you think you could make a lot of money from it - what do you do?

Perhaps you set up your own company, dedicate your life to it, and through drive and determination make a fortune.

Or maybe you just forget about your idea, and quietly get back to your salaried day job.

While most of us fear we would be in the latter camp, the entrepreneurs of this world would undoubtedly have a go at the fist option.

But what makes a successful entrepreneur like Richard Branson or Mark Zuckerberg, the people who set up and grow their own profitable companies?

Are entrepreneurs born with the skills they need, or can men and women be trained? Or perhaps, is it all down to a person's early life experience? 

Family background. 

Self-confessed "serial entrepreneur" Luke Johnson, who had led UK restaurant chains including Pizza Express, Strada and Patisserie Valerie, thanks his father.

Luke Johnson

"My father was self-employed and still is, and at 84 is still working," says Mr Johnson.

"Having that role model in the house of someone who didn't want to work for anyone else, and wasn't dependent on an employer, was very helpful.

"I have found over the years, having worked with many entrepreneurs, and having met hundreds of them, that they all have, in their backgrounds, a close family member or friend who is a role model, a self-employed person or boss running their own company."

By contrast, Mr Johnson says starting a company would be a more difficult a proposition for people without any exposure to someone self-employed.

"If you personally come from a background where everyone is in a safe job, with a career which will surely last a lifetime, with a final-salary pension scheme, then the idea of starting out on your own without that security blanket can be very frightening," he says.

Two economics professors, David Blanchflower, of Dartmouth College in the US, formerly of the Bank of England, and Andrew Oswald, from the UK's University of Warwick, also agree that if a parent is self-employed it is a great deal more likely their children will go on to do the same.

(to be continued)