I am an architect and a young entrepreneur. It’s fairly obvious that
most of the world’s great entrepreneurs had issues with their early
education. Why is this the case? Akosu Paul
This is a very good question, and one that I am often asked by
students around the world as they weigh continuing their studies
against starting up their own ventures and diving into the world of
business. In addition, many also want to know how I was able to start
my own career while I was a young student struggling with my
schoolwork, and how I eventually got people to take me seriously as
an entrepreneur.
Looking back, I believe that the qualities that make for a great
entrepreneur -- such as boundless energy, a curious nature and,
sometimes, an obstinate streak -- are not often attributes
demonstrated by top students in the classroom. So it should not be
very surprising that many of the world’s great entrepreneurs and
business leaders had difficulties with formal education.
Often, their frustration in the classroom was a result of impatience:
The greats were eager to get out and build their businesses, which
pushed them to drop out of high school or forgo college in order to
follow their dreams. For instance, Walt Disney famously dropped out
of school at age 16 to found his animation company, while the great
American tycoons of the late 19th century -- Andrew Carnegie,
Cornelius Vanderbilt and Thomas Edison -- had little or no formal
education before they set out to seek their fortunes. Some
entrepreneurs, including Carnegie and Henry Ford, the 20th century
industrialist, came from impoverished backgrounds and did not have
the support at home to start -- let alone complete -- their formal
educations. Rather, they set up businesses to make ends meet and
eventually flourished.
More recently, the retail entrepreneurs Philip Green and John
Caudwell made their fortunes in the U.K. after leaving high school
and building businesses at young ages. And in the tech industry,
Steve Jobs of Apple, Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Inc., and
Oracle’s Larry Ellison all dropped out of college to create their
companies, and they all reaped the rewards of getting an early start.
One thing that entrepreneurs have in common is a talent for seeing
things differently. This allows them to identify important gaps in
markets or the need for new sectors to serve specific customer
demands. But this ability often leads budding entrepreneurs to rebel
against the conformity that is common in traditional education.
I was no exception, and I have written in previous columns that I was
not great at school. I constantly pushed against rules and authority,
and I liked to challenge the way that things were “always” done. My
curiosity often got me into trouble with teachers.
But it was not just my attitude that was different -- I had dyslexia.
When I was a young student, this learning disability was poorly
researched and was often mistaken for laziness or a poor ability to
learn. At school I was thought to be slow, and indeed I struggled to
keep up. I initially channeled my youthful energy into sport, then after
an injury, I got into early business ventures, which failed to take off.
But my learning disability has never been a setback it actually
gave me a great advantage in business, since I have been able to
bring a different perspective to problems and challenges, which often
enables me to see solutions more clearly. For example, I have always
hated jargon, and I am confused by long and wordy drafts of plans.
So in Virgin’s early days, I would ask simple questions that others
did not. Over the years, asking the simple questions and striving to
answer them have become some of Virgin’s most important
characteristics.
When I was a young student, my restlessness and curiosity prompted
me to set up Student magazine when I was just 15. Running the
magazine actually served as an entrepreneurial education - I learned
to effectively build a team, sell advertising, create content and market
a product. I was my own boss and never needed to ask permission to
try new things, and if I got things wrong, I did not have to fear the
wrath of a superior. After all, a willingness to try new things and fail
is important to becoming an entrepreneur, yet making mistakes flies
against the expectations of traditional schooling.
So in many ways, my education has been my career. For almost 50
years, Virgin’s varied collection of businesses and nonprofits means
that I have studied and come to understand many sectors - aviation,
banking, media, hospitality and the fitness industry, to name a few.
More recently, my career has also given me interesting new
perspectives on many significant issues such as climate change,
conflict resolution and global health care.
In the end, solutions to big problems such as these won’t come from
doing school reports, but by getting out there, asking questions,
seeing things differently and finding the answers ourselves.
most of the world’s great entrepreneurs had issues with their early
education. Why is this the case?
This is a very good question, and one that I am often asked by
students around the world as they weigh continuing their studies
against starting up their own ventures and diving into the world of
business. In addition, many also want to know how I was able to start
my own career while I was a young student struggling with my
schoolwork, and how I eventually got people to take me seriously as
an entrepreneur.
Looking back, I believe that the qualities that make for a great
entrepreneur -- such as boundless energy, a curious nature and,
sometimes, an obstinate streak -- are not often attributes
demonstrated by top students in the classroom. So it should not be
very surprising that many of the world’s great entrepreneurs and
business leaders had difficulties with formal education.
Often, their frustration in the classroom was a result of impatience:
The greats were eager to get out and build their businesses, which
pushed them to drop out of high school or forgo college in order to
follow their dreams. For instance, Walt Disney famously dropped out
of school at age 16 to found his animation company, while the great
American tycoons of the late 19th century -- Andrew Carnegie,
Cornelius Vanderbilt and Thomas Edison -- had little or no formal
education before they set out to seek their fortunes. Some
entrepreneurs, including Carnegie and Henry Ford, the 20th century
industrialist, came from impoverished backgrounds and did not have
the support at home to start -- let alone complete -- their formal
educations. Rather, they set up businesses to make ends meet and
eventually flourished.
More recently, the retail entrepreneurs Philip Green and John
Caudwell made their fortunes in the U.K. after leaving high school
and building businesses at young ages. And in the tech industry,
Steve Jobs of Apple, Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Inc., and
Oracle’s Larry Ellison all dropped out of college to create their
companies, and they all reaped the rewards of getting an early start.
One thing that entrepreneurs have in common is a talent for seeing
things differently. This allows them to identify important gaps in
markets or the need for new sectors to serve specific customer
demands. But this ability often leads budding entrepreneurs to rebel
against the conformity that is common in traditional education.
I was no exception, and I have written in previous columns that I was
not great at school. I constantly pushed against rules and authority,
and I liked to challenge the way that things were “always” done. My
curiosity often got me into trouble with teachers.
But it was not just my attitude that was different -- I had dyslexia.
When I was a young student, this learning disability was poorly
researched and was often mistaken for laziness or a poor ability to
learn. At school I was thought to be slow, and indeed I struggled to
keep up. I initially channeled my youthful energy into sport, then after
an injury, I got into early business ventures, which failed to take off.
But my learning disability has never been a setback
gave me a great advantage in business, since I have been able to
bring a different perspective to problems and challenges, which often
enables me to see solutions more clearly. For example, I have always
hated jargon, and I am confused by long and wordy drafts of plans.
So in Virgin’s early days, I would ask simple questions that others
did not. Over the years, asking the simple questions and striving to
answer them have become some of Virgin’s most important
characteristics.
When I was a young student, my restlessness and curiosity prompted
me to set up Student magazine when I was just 15. Running the
magazine actually served as an entrepreneurial education - I learned
to effectively build a team, sell advertising, create content and market
a product. I was my own boss and never needed to ask permission to
try new things, and if I got things wrong, I did not have to fear the
wrath of a superior. After all, a willingness to try new things and fail
is important to becoming an entrepreneur, yet making mistakes flies
against the expectations of traditional schooling.
So in many ways, my education has been my career. For almost 50
years, Virgin’s varied collection of businesses and nonprofits means
that I have studied and come to understand many sectors - aviation,
banking, media, hospitality and the fitness industry, to name a few.
More recently, my career has also given me interesting new
perspectives on many significant issues such as climate change,
conflict resolution and global health care.
In the end, solutions to big problems such as these won’t come from
doing school reports, but by getting out there, asking questions,
seeing things differently and finding the answers ourselves.
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