Entrepreneurs

Where does this special breed come from? I wonder…

I had a beer with a couple young turks from my alma mater (Carnegie Mellon University) and, on one hand, I was so pleased to see the recent support for entrepreneurial activity; yet, on the other hand, was disappointed to learn that the core education has not evolved to include any emphasis on business formation…

Education at CMU is still very much focused on skills, getting a student ready for a job…as opposed to grooming someone to start a business. I think that’s a real tragedy when there lies so much raw talent to cultivate?

Why, I ask?

We make a big deal about small business formation in this country but we don’t do much to facilitate this in higher education…Somehow, some select students find the drive to start something. Imagine if there were some basic courses in the curriculum that discussed how businesses get started, get funded, succeed…

As we sipped our beer, I joked with these two young men about coming back to school to teach a course on sales. Daniel Pink says “To sell is human”…and I agree. Why is freshman writing more important than basic sales skills?

I applaud these two ambitious, starry-eyed entrepreneurs! They are starting companies with fresh ideas and have taken the initiative to step outside their comfort zone and sell their ideas. Beautiful!

This country depends on innovation and new business formation. Let’s do a better job to nurture this.