It is hypothesized that entrepreneurs are generalists who are good at a variety of skills, although not necessarily excellent at any one. The hypothesis implies that individuals who go on to become entrepreneurs should have a more generalized human-capital investment strategy. Using data from Stanford Master of Business Administration alumni, it is found that those who end up being entrepreneurs study a more varied curriculum when they are in the program than do those who end up working for others. That result, coupled with other findings on on-the-job training patterns, provides support for the following notions: first, that entrepreneurs are generalists, and second, that they make their skills more general by following a particular investment profile. This view of entrepreneurship is at odds with the intuition of those who believe that entrepreneurs are technical specialists who base their new companies on innovation. The Stanford data and other information from the Current Population Survey and the German Socio-Economic Panel strongly reject this view. To the extent that entrepreneurs are innovators, for the most part they are business innovators. The innovation may be as seemingly minor as recognizing that a particular street corner would be a good location for a dry cleaner. Most entrepreneurs are nontechnical people who form business in nontechnical fields.
