"It has been my observation that the talent to envision and create a new and dynamic enterprise cannot be taught."
What You Can't Teach
What You Can’t Teach
I read recently that Yale University, a place that I was never in danger of going to, began a program to retain students who have come up with entrepreneurial ideas who have been defecting for Silicon Valley. Simply, that is where the money is not to mention the venture spirit. Good luck to Yale, but I think their effort will be largely in vain.
It has been my observation that the talent to envision and create a new and dynamic enterprise cannot be taught. In fact, most of the really great entrepreneurs that I know, with notable exceptions, have been lousy students. The discipline that it takes to be a good student and essentially regurgitate information to a professor is largely antithetical to being an entrepreneur. It all comes down to thinking in or out of the box. Further, the more prestigious the university the more wound up the student body tends to be and the less likely it is that they will excel in the world of creative thought. And yes, there are notable exceptions.
On a similar note, every year a list is published of the top trial lawyers in the United States. On that list their Alma Mater is listed, and like entrepreneurs, there are very few Ivy Leaguers among them. The top school perennially is the University of Texas. Like business, I don’t think this is an aberration. Creative minds are more likely to grow in the wide open spaces of Texas than in the Ivy choked halls of Harvard, Princeton, or Yale.
And that leads to the point that even in the Age of the Internet, place is important. The trial lawyers are best in Texas and the money for venture companies is in California and is not moving to Yale, Harvard, or anywhere else cold any time soon. That is not to say that you New Englanders reading this should be discouraged, and unless your company is something new and cutting edge as opposed to, say, something traditional like a restaurant or auto shop, you shouldn’t even care. On the other hand if you do have a new technology or something green, consider a plane ticket to San Jose is my suggestion.
Posted by Herb Kay on Thursday, August 07, 2008
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