Educating the Entrepreneur

One of the cliches heard when people talk about falling standards of education is that curricula are often too limiting and do not inculcate the "entrepreneurial spirit" in students. Argument against such a broad and ill-defined concept as "entrepreneurship" is difficult enough when people cite the fact that some of the more successful entrepreneurs were either school dropouts or did not have much schooling to begin with. Today, an article in the Guardian cites a discussion in which Richard Branson argued that many businessmen in the United Kingdom are over-educated.

There's a point in the discussion about what the merits or conventional education are today and whether it is possible for all to be entrepreneurs in any society. It seems to me that the argument that many mistake is that the failure to sit through classes and attain certification does not in itself demonstrate intelligence nor business capability. And that is a totally different argument from whether education by itself is useful or not. I think that Richard Branson has a point in questioning what the value of MBA education is but I do not see that he claims that these programmes are not useful. Instead, he demonstrates the understanding that these programs are not designed or even capable of instilling the so-called entrepreneurial spirit. To conclude, it is significant that he concedes to the fact that he is probably an outlier and therefore schooling is still the best shot for most people.