[wharryman]

Regardless of what is true, what we should believe is that key entrepreneurial factors such as determination and creativity/taste can be learned and improved. If not, you quickly come to build the fallacy that we can never be the genius of a Shakespeare or Einstein, so why even try?[1]

Academically, it would be very interesting to find where the line can be drawn between 'in-born character traits' and 'soft skills.' In reality, you have daily rituals and activities designed to reinforce "disciple"; you have millions of dollars of investment in "leadership" training (of what quality is another conversation); and "morality" training that often takes place on (insert religious day of the week). Euripides will tell you that "Courage may be taught as a child is taught to speak." I do not claim to have extensive knowledge in learning theory, but at least some portion of our prior actions and experiences form the foundation for future actions.

Personally, I would say you train such skills by making a person take one action with the quality you seek, and then build upon that to have them take another. You change a person's environment, give them the tools to lower the 'barrier to entry' cost, and set up a result/reward feedback loop. E.g, basic training.

Final aside: in this conversation, we seem to have muddled the differentiation between the trait of creativity and the act of initiating and producing.

[1] paraphase of http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html