Many people believe that an MBA degree is essential for a successful entrepreneurship. However, when these MBA graduates try to apply the knowledge they have learned to actual starting a business, they find out that not only it does not help, but makes lots of mistakes – the real practice are completely different from the school.
In fact, the basic knowledge of accounting and financial training in business schools are not for “entrepreneurship” but for “management”. Therefore, there is an optimistic assumption of abundant resources without errors. That is, in accordance with the logic which everything is calculable and the results should be correct.
But the entrepreneurial reality and the numbers are not stable and predictable. Many experts and professors know how to make do from 1 to 2, but when you ask them how to start from 0 to 1, may do not know how to answer, or the answer and is far from the fact.
Entrepreneurship has lots of difficulties, entrepreneurs must have passionate hearts and ready to embark on the hardships that many people do not dare to venture. Each successful entrepreneur has his or her own path. Academics are generally not optimistic about entrepreneurship, because academic research tends to generalize some elements of success then tries to replicate and to expect the same results. When we see successful people companies doing some smart measures, they inquire about how they do it with the hope to be inspired. Well, in the reality of the business world there is always inspiration, but not necessarily ready for replicate. Because success does not follow a routine, each successful story carries its unique background, conditions, opportunities and other factors to work together and to create the successful stories as we know.
We certainly can look out to entrepreneurial success and fine worth and values for ourselves, but the success can not be copied, even if you copy all the right things. This is the uncertainty of entrepreneurship, each entrepreneurial success story is unique, if you want to find a successful formula it’s doom to fail. But, we do find entrepreneurs all have some special personality traits which leading them to success.
Some people learn English and become teachers throughout their lives, but for one, like Jack Ma, established an empire; some sell bread and turn it into a billion-dollar franchise business, but some lost money and forced to close down. All these have something to do with the personality traits, and less relevant to what professional, what preparation, resources and other factors are. It does not matter if you can write a perfect business plan. The most important thing is to Start running it, learning and fixing by doing it.
Therefore, when choosing to invest in early start-ups, the founders’ team is more important than the products or services. Get the right people, they will do the right thing; not the right people, even if the project is beautiful and the market is large, abundant in resources, there will be problems. The MBA education and knowledge is useful when the business is on the track in later stages, then the experts and consultants are needed to help the team reach higher achievement.
From 0 to 1 entrepreneurial talent is very rare and it’s not something can be cultivated in higher education. Only the people who have been through the market experience, frustration experience, ridiculed experience and rejection experience and still hold on to the hope, courageously step into hardship and fence off fear, become the last to laugh.
We should give entrepreneurs more encouragement, because they chose to take a less traveled road which most people dare not take. Cheers to all entrepreneurs!
