I am heading off to Anaheim, CA to the annual meeting of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE), which is the leading organization for those of us who teach entrepreneurship. This year I will be installed as President-elect of USASBE. These are, to say the least, interesting times for the world of entrepreneurship.
Over the past year I have written about the challenges entrepreneurs face in these difficult times. While there are still many opportunities that can be exploited in the marketplace, it will require entrepreneurs to be nimble and prudent, patient and humble.
So how should those of us in education approach the task of preparing today and tomorrow’s entrepreneurs?
Realism. There is a trend in teaching entrepreneurship to interject more experiential learning. This is a very unforgiving economy right now. In the past, we saw countless entrepreneurs who seemed to be able to succeed in spite of themselves. In a recession like this one, there is little room for error and not as much luck floating around. We need to prepare our students well to hit the ground running. The more we can build experience into what we do in our entrepreneurship programs the better. Our students must have a high degree of competence the day they walk across the stage at graduation and become alumni.
Ethics. There is a growing backlash against the arrogance and gluttony of business leaders. In preparing the business leaders who will most likely lead us out of this mess, we need to help them understand their responsibility as stewards of the resources they have been given to work within their ventures. But, I believe that they have an even bigger responsibility. We need them to become stewards of the free market system. Market capitalism as we know it is under intense scrutiny due to the foibles of so many business leaders. We have to regain the people’s trust in free markets. We must train not only competent entrepreneurs, but good entrepreneurs.
Inspire. If past patterns hold true, we can expect more students looking to entrepreneurship as a career path. They look at the job market and see very little opportunity, so they turn to us to find their own way in the economy. We will no longer have only self-motivated, highly driven aspiring entrepreneurs in our classrooms. We will have many more who are reluctant entrepreneurs. More than in the past we will have to inspire our students that there are opportunities and that they do have what it takes to be successful.
I look forward to reconnecting this week with my USASBE friends and colleagues as we tackle the challenges we face in preparing our students to help lead us out of these difficult times.