Do You Have the Explorer Gene?

Around a fifth of people carry a gene that makes them more adventurous and open to risk. Making the most of their potential is vital to the growth of entrepreneurship – and the wider economy, says James Sproule. Innovation, entrepreneurship and agility are words and concepts we can all embrace. But translating good thoughts into action has always been challenging. It is working out how these valuable attributes might be encouraged – well beyond the founding of new companies – that will determine our long-term economic success as a society. Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur, just as in the past most people were not explorers. Today while there are no new lands to discover, there are myriad innovations to develop and ideas to explore. Our sustained success economically depends on our ability to encourage those who are willing to challenge preconceptions, to take ideas and apply them in new ways, to ignore or at least adapt convention – to be entrepreneurial and to be explorers.