Should we be encouraging entrepreneurship?

[FishBowl]

Inafishbowl.com founder and entrepreneur Toby Reid recently posted on the business reality website an opinion piece entitled 'Should we be encouraging entrepreneurship?'.

The article brings up some interesting points and some perhaps controversial curve-balls in terms of what we, as a collective 'public', seem to think we should be doing and what would, in fact, be beneficial to the individuals who are expected, by some, to be the saviours of the British economy.

Should we, therefore, be encouraging entrepreneurship? Or is the encouragement we give turning potential entrepreneurs into 'lemmings' - each blindly stepping out into the unknown and finding nothing below their feet but a huge drop? Can we support entrepreneurs, and will LEPs help with this?

I'd be interested to hear your opinions.

[borisfowler]

I think entrepreneurship needs to be encouraged and taught from a young age. Even though not everyone will grow up and start businesses, the principles that can be taken away from it will serve everyone good. Entrepreneurs are good at making things happen for themselves and taking accountability for their education. If we taught all kids to have this kind of responsibility and it was expected from everyone, wouldn't we be in a good position?

[FishBowl]

How do you think entrepreneurship could be taught? Would you have a new class designed to address business in schools?

What do you think of Young Enterprise?

[Peter Picnic]

Entrepreneurship is being taught in school but the best way to learn is still by starting up as soon as possible. There are some lessons that can only be learned this way. So start young and start with a low risk business. Darwin's theory works when it comes to entrepreneurship as well, the most adaptable and persistent ones will come out tops in the end.

[borisfowler]

Entrepreneurs cannot be taught per se, but we can teach principles of entrepreneurship in classes. For example, teaching students to take accountability of their education and figure things out for themselves is important. Also, instead of making kids write papers for the sake of writing, have them do a project where they are actually doing something and then have them write about what they did and the importance of it.

To learn more visit Boris's Blog or About CrayonstoDiplomas.com

[Peter Picnic]

I agree that entrepreneurship cannot be taught. They will teach you how to run a business in school but we all know that being an entrepreneur is not so much a science than an art, at least in the initial stage. When you get to a certain amount of revenue, the game changes.

Being an entrepreneur requires you to have a certain degree of boldness and imagination and also the gift of foresight to be able to come out tops. So I would suggest massive reading, attending classes on entrepreneurship and applying what you learn as soon as possible.

Best,
Jeremy
peterpicnic.blogspot.com