As Bayt.com CEO, do you believe there is some sort of pattern or formula to becoming a successful entrepreneur?

In my experience, the journey to becoming a successful entrepreneur varies greatly per time, region, and industry. I have met highly successful entrepreneurs who were college dropouts and on the other end of the age spectrum those who started their entrepreneurial careers in theirs ands.  Similarly, I have had the privilege of interacting with entrepreneurs who were the first in their families to pursue entrepreneurship and others who showed a long tradition of it.

While I have held the opinion that the only string that ties successful entrepreneurs to each other is their desire, tenacity, and ultimately their success recently I was challenged in this opinion by a Harvard Scholar, Anne Habiby, who helped found the Arabia (a list of the fastest growing private companies in the Middle East). Her extensive research on successful entrepreneurship in the Middle East today found a common thread. The entrepreneurs in Arabia were products of educations in leading global universities who then chose to work for a global leader in their industry prior to bringing that experience back home to start work in a similar industry in the Middle East.