I’ve been tempted to join in the fray. To work with a university and teach entrepreneurial programs. After all, I’ve been a successful entrepreneur (and an unsuccessful one) for more than 4 decades. And, I do believe that entrepreneurial efforts are what keeps this country (and the rest of the world) great. But, I have this nagging problem….
Can entrepreneurs be taught? Or can they only learn by doing? Or is it some innate skill/concept/way of looking at life that is important?
Now, we can teach entrepreneurial skills. And, folks can learn them. But, that does not an entrepreneur make. I have provided counseling and advice to many folks. And, many of them could not be personally helped- at least not with the time and capital they possessed. But, they did ask us to serve and help their organizations, which they did.
These folks had a great idea. Something their customer(s) wanted- desperately. Something they offered at a reasonable price. But, often, the people behind this concept were “employees”. They needed the security of a guaranteed paycheck. They wanted set rules for their benefits. They did not know how to set up and run a company. Oh, we could build the systems for them, we could help them hire the right people, we could (do and did) run their company. But, while the government would classify their entity as a small, entrepreneurial business- these corporate owners were never entrepreneurs.
We can teach them business skills, we can tell them stories about how folks run their businesses, we can help them develop the instincts necessary to run their own firms. But, we can’t teach them to turn the voices off in their heads when something goes awry, when the cash flow is deficient, when they go to sleep at night. We can teach them to “sing a new song”, one that’s hopefully louder than the one that reverberates within.
I know that MBA programs began about 80 years ago. Teaching students what works, what doesn’t, allocate resources, mitigate risk, where rules seem to apply. But, most entrepreneurial programs rely on anecdotes- and we need analytical rules.
Now, I’m a chemical engineer, with education, experience, training in a plethora of other fields. (I chose to be a chemical engineer when I was 8; it is the backdrop behind- and that fashions all my other efforts- but that’s a subject for a different essay.) And, about 100 years ago, there were no chemical engineers. There were a few industrial chemists. The petrochemical industry was akin to the nanotechnology industry is today. A whole expertise developed. Scientific rules. Engineering applications. One of my graduate school professors only had a Master’s degree- which was the terminal degree in 1922, when he started. That’s about where entrepreneurial programs exist nowadays.
And, like my chemical engineering curriculum, which provided (and, thankfully, taught me well) classes in economics, control theory, industrial chemistry, and the like- there were also classes in unit operations, project management and the like. Just as would be needed for entrepreneurs. Including how to pick the right start-up team (since it’s considered that 2/3 of the failures of promising ventures fail due to interpersonal issues among the founders).
We can teach entrepreneurs how to make ventures successful, how to run companies, and how to anticipate when a company is in trouble- and when the venture capitalists plan to eliminate him/her. But, we need role-playing, working with mentors, mini-companies that will enable them to see the real world interactions with new ventures. Because, there’s a great deal of decisions that need to be made on the fly. Where the right and wrong decision is more dependent upon the path that led one there than the destination.
The real question is to how to teach failure? Oh, we can analyze how and why others failed and what are the lessons learned. But, the mental anguish that surrounds that- there’s no replacement for that… yet?
Having been both a successful and unsuccessful entrepreneur would make you more qualified than that.
David @ solar ontario blog recently posted..March Should Have Been a Great Month for Generating Solar Power
I have not a thing to add to that, David!
Roy
Hi Roy. I agree! I think the reason I like being an entrepreneur so much is the necessity to change direction mid stream. And for my aside from my business schooling having a mentor is invaluable.
Patricia O’Flynn recently posted..Escalante is Excellelante
I agree, Trish, that mentors are critical. Thanks for that valuable insight…
Roy
I think entreprenuers are born. Education may help someone who is already motivated, but it’s not going to make them an entreprenuer.
Marie:
I am not sure that I disagree with you. But, here’s a thought. What happens if someone IS born with it. And, his/her parents are worker bees or farmers or teachers. And, don’t value this skill. So, it’s just lying dormant because no opportunity exists to enhance it…
Shouldn’t someone try to bring that to the surface?
I am still torn.
Roy
Roy, this is a brilliant post! My greatest insight, understanding and learning have come on the heels of failure. I was planning on writing about this very topic next week within the following context.
As a teenager, I took downhill ski lessons – but there’s a progression. You must first learn the snowplow, then parallel skiing, followed by “bump skiing” and “downhill steep” skiing.
The names don’t really matter but the progression does. I’ll never forget what my instructor told me when I was getting frustrated learning bump skiing because I wasn’t skiing as much as I was actually falling down the hill.
He said to me, “If you’re not falling down – you’re not learning.” His point was that learning curves are steep and new by definition. Expertise is not automatic and it MUST accompany “failure.” I put failure in quotes because it’s not really failure unless you give up – if you don’t give up and keep moving forward it’s actually learning.
Regardless, you’d be a great instructor! Now I gotta go tweet this post….
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That’s a great comment, Tor.
And, makes the point directly. I look forward to your post next week on failure/success.
I also appreciate your vote of confidence…
Roy
To move from employee mentality to entrepreneur means, at some point, taking the reins. It means creating a vision and then effectively sharing it and inspiring other team members to jump on board and bring their skills to the party as part of the success formula. It means believing in yourself, investing in your idea and taking risk. We can be a passenger on the ride to starting our own business by hiring lots of great experts but at some point, if we don’t take the wheel our business will run out of gas because ultimately, the entrepreneur’s inspiration and passion is the energy that keeps it all going…and that doesn’t come from the sidelines in life.
Tambre Leighn/coaching by tambre recently posted..Spin the Wheel ~ Part 2
Touche, Tambre!
I now await YOUR post on this subject matter 🙂
Roy
Hmmm…. many thoughts…. You hit the nail on the head with saying that teaching skills alone does not an entrepreneur make. Some folks aren’t as cut out for it as others. Also I see alot of people get fired up when starting out but lack the stick-to-it to do it. Of course funding is an issue. Sometimes one gives up and has to go back to making a living somehow if the venture isn’t taking off. Perhaps lack of planning plays a big part in that and other areas of getting things off the ground. And there’s an element of psychology. How does one cope with rejection? Do they feel “entitled” to suceed and bail when they don’t get what they “deserve”? Guess this all comes from people I’ve seen fail over the years. Sometimes repeatedly so. Starting the same businesses over and over and failing in the same ways….. Ok, enough rambling…
Carolina HeartStrings recently posted..IT’S AZAELA TIME IN THE CAROLINAS!
Not rambling at all, Alessa. Actually, they are all great thoughts- and amplify the post dramatically.
Thanks!
Roy
Good thoughts. I don’t disagree. One thing I find though, is that there is a difference between an entrepreneur and a small business owner. I find that entrepreneurs are willing to take more risks for greater rewards than small business owners. It’s possible to teach the lessons of becoming small business owners but, perhaps not the innate characteristics of an entrepreneur.
Nicole Bandes recently posted..Story Friday – The Old Way Works Fine
Nicole, your comments help bring the points across- thanks. I’m really with you on the “perhaps” part- that’s the bridge I need to build to insure that my teaching would accommplish its mission.
Roy
You are right that the only way to teach how to be a business person is to make a person into a business person. Then while they are doing it give them skills. I would suggest skills like meditation, rounds with Tony Robbins and some quiet time with Tom Edison on the ways to look at failure. You already know all this. Go do it. When you are finished, you will be glad to know that all you spent your life time to learn was passed on to those who wanted to know.
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See, Ann, what you said is absolutely true. But, those skills render them great businessfolks- and not entrepreneurs. The desire to grow that concept into multimillion dollar corporations, to hire multiple staff and grow their abilities, to duplicate the first “store” or “factory” into multiple units… then they are business folks. I have not taught them the skills to change their mindset, to future an enterprise- and I would have failed in the stated mission (even if I did train a plethora of skilled businessfolks).
Roy
Roy – anything can be taught. But I believe that what we call entrepreneurship and business are slightly different. The guy in the souk or the market is an entrepreneur bringing goods to the people who want to buy. I have met amazing business people and entrepreneurs in the markets of India, China and Europe. And they understand something my grandfather understood when he ran his butchery and corner dairy during the second world war and after – give people what they need and want a the price they can afford to pay and you will have a thriving business. Think of others needs to meet your needs.
Roberta Budvietas recently posted..Using V.R.I.O. to find your Competitive Advantage
The folks in the souk that I met in the Middle East, Roberta, are generally not entrepreneurs. They are shopkeepers, great bargainers, interesting people, but not entrepreneurs. Most have no desire to forge an enterprise, to become other than what they are- shopkeepers.
Those folks can easily be taught skills to grow their business, to make a larger profit, to negotiate better. But, they will not become entrepreneurs without a change in mindset. And, that is the key component that I am unsure can be taught…
Roy
Entrepreneur, business owner and marketer are really one of the same. Any title you give yourself it all depends on your innerself, the drive within and how you apply it. I think you bring up really good points Roy. Even the best of the best companies like yours can show, train and even run their operations but the person that started the venture has to have the vision and purpose.
As for teaching failure? We can share our own personal experiences, especially since we have been ‘in it’ for so long. But the true lessons come from picking ourselves up and go through our own failures to learn, improve and succeed.
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Lynn, I could not possibly disagree with you more on this comment.
A business owner could be entrepreneur. But, it is not necessarily an entrepreneur. Someone who buys a franchise from OneClick Cleaners or Lance’s could become an entrepreneur- but he/she may only be interested in making money. Unless that person hires folks, has plans for expanding locations, growing to multi-million dollar sales, they are not entrepreneurs. They clearly are business owners- either successful or not, but never an entrepreneur.
Most marketers work for corporations or other entities. And, if one is a marketer that sells booklets or products made by another- and operates by themselves, they, too, are not entrepreneurs. Unless and until they expand this sideline business to develop their own products, hire employees, etc., they won’t be entrepreneurs. Joel Sugarman was an entrepreneur- one who built his sideline marketing business into en entrepreneurial effort. Most don’t.
Roy
I see your points on this one, Roy; however, entrepreneur is defined as anyone who seeks a profit in a business of their own. Dictionary.com defines entrepreneur as “a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.” I consider myself to be an entrepreneur and fit this definition to a tee. I am learning the ways of being my own establishment, owner, financier, marketer, admin, ad campaign manager, and list goes on. As far as teaching someone like me how to fail — it’s called trial and error; some even call it “feedback.” I work with other successful entrepreneurs to help me successful as well. Perhaps taking a “ready, aim, GO” approach. (why can’t I use the arrows to navigate to the text I want to correct in your comment box in previous lines? or select text to copy and paste?)
I think you mistake the Dictionary.com “definition”, PeggyLee. I refuse to let political correctness and the dumbing down of America to let us cheapen the concept of an entrepreneur. Dictionary.com (per your quote)clearly states the term enterprise and risk. Doing something on the side entails little, if any, real risk. Every choice is a “risk”, but the risk for starting a new enterprise, hiring individuals, entails the potential gain.
Buying a lottery ticket is a risk (in my mind, a foolhardy one)- but the risk is too small to affect one’s life, unless the lightning does strike and one’s life is changed…
Roy
Where did you get the stats of entrepreneurs ages? It’s a good chart, and really interesting since I didn’t realize I was in the majority.
Christine Kelly recently posted..Bucks County Attorneys
The Kaufmann Institute did those studies, Christine.
And, thanks so much for visiting and commenting on my blog.
Roy