Hi
I was reading my Sunday newspaper when a supplement fell out. It was extolling the virtues of studying for an MBA at one on the UK's so-called 'Business Schools'. One of the features was entitled 'Six reasons to do an MBA', one of which was 'To become an Entrepreneur'.
I couldn't stop laughing.
The person in question (I won't name him, he's suffered enough) had worked in asset management in the City for six years and "had plenty of ideas
but needed an MBA to execute them" (huge laugh) so after a year at a business school he joined four scientists whose technology creates clean drinking water using material inspired by the African fogstand beetle. He became the financial officer in their social enterprise (aka someone else's money) and somehow thought this made him an entrepreneur. 'Fraid not Ben (almost gave him away then) that's called a job.
I bet he didn't hear about the fogstand beetle at business school. I'm sure that wasn't one of his "plenty of ideas".
It reminded me of a great article by Luke Johnson entitled "Fake entrepreneurs are
like grandads trying to boogie" (Sunday Times, May 20, 2018) in which he says that the largest group of fake capitalists are those relying on government connections and contracts, all of them rent seeking" whereas a real entrepreneur "lives and breathes thanks to the combined efforts of each member of its tiny workforce - if they don't strain every sinew the company fails and they have to find new jobs - and possesses raw hunger, a fierce motivation to succeed, no guaranteed salary and
nowhere to hide if it all falls apart.
But what the MBA supplement revealed was the enormous ignorance journalists, most of the public (and certainly politicians and fake business owners) have about what we do as entrepreneurs, why we do it and why, without the nearly 5 million owner-managed businesses in the UK,
our economy would be even worse than the politicians and bankers and trying to make it right now.
Entrepreneurial and owner-managed business are the lifeblood of the economy. But it is the entrepreneurs and owners who make them (and I don't know of any who went to business school to learn how, although there must
be a few). The one's who give up offices, perks, well paid, secure, pensionable employment to follow the dream of building their own business, becoming their own boss, creating their own lifestyle and fulfilling their purpose. Who suffer temporal and financial hardship (at least to begin with), who learn that failure is the precursor of success, who never really 'switch off' and who'd do it all again if it all falls apart.
And who never think that going to a business school to do an MBA might be a good start.
At least it made me laugh.
To your success
Noel Guilford