Sramana Mitra offers a stinging criticism of how many business schools teach entrepreneurship in her column at Forbes.
Many business schools are only willing to teach their students about high growth, high potential businesses that can scale to tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues. Those who may want to embrace students whose aspirations may be less lofty are dismissed by these academics as wasting their education. I have called this approach, “entrepreneurship on steroids.”
My entrepreneurship courses are always taught from an inclusive perspective. I have had alums who have created larger, high growth ventures. I have also had alums who have bootstrapped their way to what fits their own definition of success. As long as they employ sound business practices, stay true to their values and priorities, and strive for success however they define it, I am equally proud of all of them.
She rightly points out that many professors teach entrepreneurship from a narrow perspective because that is all they know. She offers the example of Robert Hacker of Florida International University. “Hacker comes from a finance background, and when you are a hammer, of course,
everything looks like a nail,” says Mitra.
I also believe that too many who are teaching entrepreneurship have never made a payroll. Maybe if they had to white-knuckle it from payday to payday for a few months like most start-up entrepreneurs they may appreciate that even modest entrepreneurial ventures require knowledge and skills that we can offer in business schools.
Mitra has labeled those of us who teach entrepreneurship with a bootstrapping bent “neo-entrepreneurship”. She says we “appreciate the practical success factors of young entrepreneurs. Perhaps it is necessity that drives their curriculum design, as access to venture capital or even angel investors is elusive.”
I have never seen myself as part of any movement. I am a pragmatist. I see dozens and dozens of young aspiring entrepreneurs come through our program each year and want to prepare them as best I can for the world they will be facing when they launch their businesses.
I find that readers respond very well to “Neo-entrepreneurship” posts that present your personal weaknesses, failings and the gaps in your individual information relatively than those posts the place you come across as figuring out every thing there is to know on a topic. People are attracted to humility and are extra possible to answer it than a post written in a tone of somebody who would possibly harshly reply to their comments.