Four reasons why we teach entrepreneurship
Professor David Falzani MBE
Honorary Professor, Haydn Green Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HGI) and President of the Sainsbury Management Fellowship, explains that the skills associated with entrepreneurship can be taught.
Because we can
It’s quite possible, of course that some people are more naturally cut out for entrepreneurship than others. Yet the reality is that the talents most readily associated with an entrepreneur – a capacity to articulate propositions, frame prospects, minimise risk, maximise opportunities, solve problems and so on – can be taught.
Employment is no longer a world of certainties
Encouraging people to be more demanding of themselves is central to entrepreneurship education. As a would-be entrepreneur, you need to set expectations, take a proactive approach and be commercial in your thinking.
Why? Because the cosy conceit of “jobs for life” was condemned to the dustbin of history long before COVID-19 came along.
The “new moral contract” that characterises modern-day employment has little room for long-term guarantees. Today, amid arguably unprecedented change, it may be that there’s only one person who can genuinely determine how you earn a living: you.
The potential rewards are varied and significant
Research indicates that entrepreneurs tend to have more fun in their careers. They’re also more likely to be engaged in work for which they have a true passion.
My own entrepreneurship professor once told me that, unlike his peers in blue-chips and consultancies, he never missed his children’s sports days. That was many years ago, and nothing has changed since. Being your own boss can still provide the kind of work-life balance that’s rarely available in employment.
Entrepreneurship can also pay very handsomely. The most substantial financial rewards normally come through a capital gain and exit. Sure, there are risks – but that’s what having faith in your own abilities is all about.
Entrepreneurs are vital to the economy
Even before Covid-19, employers were still struggling to deliver jobs growth in the wake of the credit crunch. Meanwhile, global competition between nations and cultures– in effect, a worldwide battle for wealth – rages on.
As history has repeatedly shown, it’s entrepreneurial thinking that fuels progress and keeps the economy ticking over.
