In on our economy today, being entrepreneurs is now a trendy approach to land a good job, and be in charge of your own fate. Governments even acknowledge that entrepreneurship is a solution to high unemployment. It seems entrepreneurs are to lead the way to a better future. But are our young people ready to take on such a big task as starting a company? Do they have the knowledge and skills necessary for entrepreneurship?
Students, who got a degree in business management like an M.B.A or B.B.A, expected to secure a worthy position in an excellent corporation. Today, these degrees are considered unfavorable as those with college degrees are finding it difficult to land a job. They are now being replaced by entrepreneurial studies degrees. The later degree is targeted at those who aim to start a new company to achieve success in the business world.
To be a good entrepreneur one must be able to create a “system”. You need to find the answers to every how, what, why, where, and when question. Nothing about running and growing a business is black and white; there is no one solution to every problem, and the answer is often not obvious. An artifact of our youths being trained by the school system, they believe that reading books and articles is the way to find solutions to every question formulated in the mind. If it were that easy, we would see more business successes than just the handful of start-ups like Google, Facebook, and eBay. Our youth are used to answering questions instead of being the ones devising the questions.
Second, is acquiring soft skills. Success doesn’t only rely on knowledge but rather on how to anticipate the needs, behaviors and reactions of people. In the end, every product is used by people and every buyer is a person. For example, earning the trust from a customer is not merely bombarding the customer with facts and details, but rather how you respond immediately to their needs, and as well as, how you interact and convey information to them. Ask yourself, where are our young people learning these soft skills?
Third, in starting a new business, it will never thrive when only one person does all the work. There are only 24 hours in a day. One person can only produce so much in those 24 hours. The unfortunate truth is school is mostly about individualized work, not about team work. A successful business requires a team, a good team that will help one another to reach one common goal. Building an effective team is not something taught in school.
Lastly, the school system works well for what it does, which is to pass on the wealth of human knowledge to the next generation. The issue with entrepreneurship is knowledge isn’t enough for success. Facts and information are only one piece to the puzzle.
We may ask ourselves why the economy of one country succeeds so much and the economy of other countries does not, knowing that they have similar resources. It always boils down to culture. If we want to have a realm of successful entrepreneurs, we need to understand what makes a good entrepreneur. Successful entrepreneurs are never good followers; they are independent, free thinkers. They questions the rules, they question why things need to be the way they are. Imagine a classroom of 30 children with one teacher, if you were a teacher, could you handle a classroom full of future entrepreneurs?
