Entrepreneurials

With a comment like that, many people would say I probably did not do well in school because only school drop-outs "have a go" at the school system.

Not so in my case. I spent almost all my school time in the top classes. And even so, I had a disdain for the system. Never bothered "studying" as I felt it a waste of time. Could not understand why we had to learn complex algebra and math such as differentiation instead of what was nicknamed "Veggie Math" because the kids with low maths scores did it - it's proper name was Maths In Society and delt with math we use daily - adding and subtracting in money exchanges, figuring out the area of a wall for painting, and so on.

English. I always wondered how a teacher could grade my OPINION as good or bad. If I thought a book was a bad example of something then my OPINION was just as valid as someone who thought it was a good example. Just as valid, only contrary.

WHY was I forced to study Modern History for two years? WHY was my single test (and its score) based on that two years worth of "learning" something to determine whether I could go to university to study science?

WHY did I need a science degree to be a pilot or a ranger? HOW did having a degree translate to being able to perform a physical task better?

WHY did my school claim to "bring out the individual" only to enforce strict uniform codes and behaviour rules. They say one thing and then do everything in their power to stiffle the individual.

Do you recall this... |x|

How many times have you used that in your life after school?

My Answer: Zero.

When I went to school, you could leave in Year 10 (15 to 16 year old) and go do an apprenticeship somewhere. These days you have to go all the way through before you can start an apprenticeship. As apprenticeships are usually things to do with the hands - mechanic, carpenter, etc. - why is the extra two years of school needed?

Kids are labelled with ADD and that other one ADHA (?). And I say those "disorders" are not. It is a symptom of poor teaching. Obviously those kids who are labeled are totally bored - otherwise they would be sitting and paying attention. (Would also help if parents stop feeding sugar to their kids all day and night long.)

The system is flawed and faulty and actually slows a kids learning. Memorising is not learning. It is memorising. Learning is understanding. School is all about memorising.

Most of us don't need to do any more school than primary school. Once we learn some basic reading and writing we are fine. Memorising math formulas is a waste of time. I recall none of the one's I had to memorise. But if I need one I go to a book - or search online - and have it in a jiffy. So why was I forced to learn it?

Besides these... the system really is geared up to produce good little worker bees. Hey, it's a communist education system anyway. So what do we expect. A society of independent thinkers and people would be a dangerous thing and hard to control.

Dennis, let me ask you this... do you find, the more you are out of the system, the more disdain you have for the system, and the more flawed you see the system?

Do you also wonder how/why those in the system cannot see it - because it seems so obvious?

And do you find it hard to converse with those inured in the system as they seem to be from some oddball reality?

Anyone else feel like answering these final question please chime in...

Michael Ross

P.S. Erik... sorry if this makes you doubt again.

with about 10% of what you said. The other 90% is right up the alley.

The education establishment is trained by a bunch of elitist who only teach teachers how to teach. The ivory tower educators seem to be entrenched on both sides of the big pond.

The revolt against this has resulted in a popular book, "Everything I needed to know, I learned in kindergarten". The author must have been from that era when they didn't wait until first grade to teach the alphabet.

His point is that he learned his basic skills (Readin', 'rightin', and 'rithmetic) early on. After that, he could read up on what he needed.

My disagreement is with your objection to history and science. As Edmund Burke put it, "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it!" We are seeing that lived out in the US every month lately.

As for science, the more we know ofthe mechanics and laws of the universe, the more we can understand of the world around us.

I only completed 3 years of college, but I still apply much of what I learned in conducting my business. Entrepreneurs need more education as they are more likely to wear a multitude of hats in their business.

But, I also sold advertising for the campus newspaper, so that has even more "real-world" application to my home-based business.

Dennis Bevers

dno
> I wouldn't bet against Boyd. The more I read
> this board the more impressed I am with
> people like Boyd, Micheal Ross, Dien,
> Gordon, Don Alm and many others. All great
> thinkers and nice people too!
> Sincerely,
> Steve Ski

WELL, I can not believe what i just read!!! Who are you to tell me, that i'm not allowed to be, or should not be an entrepreneur? Being entrepreneural does not JUST APPLY TO THE BUSINESS scene. I find your comments somewhat problematic and dare i say 'shallow'. I find it also interesting how you position education, teachers and children for that matter.

I had a fair idea of what being entrepreneurial was, i was just looking for others views. I guess that's what you've given me, your view. I suppose you could say that teaching is my CORE business. Yes i am working for the government, BUT the reason why i decided to become a teacher was not so i can say i work for someone like the government, (frankly i think the government has a lot to answer for educational wise) it was to work for children, and the satisfaction that their learning brings me.

Why can't i be an entrepreneur in this profession? Truth is, i know next year when i am teaching in my first class I WILL BE AN ENTREPRENEUR. As you stated Doing those things - organizing, managing and assuming the risk of a business or enterprise - makes someone an entrepreneur (whether they claim it or not). That's what teaching is all about, organising and managing both mine, and the children's learning. It is also about taking risks in the classroom, and it is this type of behaviour that will make ME a better teacher.

I challenge you to think of entrepreneurs in a new light after you have read this. Of course you could just sit back and say that this woman has completely no idea, but one must wonder how entrepreneurial you would be if you were to take on this somewhat simplistic and naive view.

Megan

Megan,

You left out one component. The entrepreneur is also taking the financial risk. As much as you want to consider yourself an entrepreneur, you are not taking the finacial risk of operating a business or depending on your abilities to produce profits or income to meet your needs.

An employee by definition cannot be an entrepreneur unless you are allowed to change the meaning of the word in every dictionary published.

My Funk and Wagnalls dictionary only offers one definition for entrepreneur - n. One who undertakes to start and conduct a business or enterprise.

It has nothing to do with it being a government position, it has to do with your status as an employee. The guaranteed salary and benefits you derive from a job negates your claim of taking risks, as you are not risking any capital or your weekly pay.

If you were to make your living as a private teacher or tutor, then you could say you are operating an enterprise. The franchisees of Sylvan Learning Centers qualify by definition.

Maybe you can get those people who add new words to the dictionaries each year to consider your educational entreprenerialship as a secondary definition, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Not just my opinion, but the dictionary's as well.

Dennis Bevers


My risk taking enterprise that has kept me self-employed for 19 years!

I feel so-o-o much better now!

In elementary school, I parroted what I'd learned at home. Very little was new, and it took all of 5 or ten minutes to learn. And 3 to 4 months to regurgitate over and over and over . . .

In high school as a freshman, I took swimming classes. Mind you, I can't swim a lick! (I can jelly-fish float.) But I got an A in swimming.

How, you ask? I took showers!

In college, I got back a paper (English) that had a 'D' erased, and an A- written over the top of the erasure. What happened, you ask?

I attended a luncheon that was held to acknowledge all the scholarship students. (Just a few days prior to the luncheon, I'd completed the paper and handed it in.) The English teacher was there, and saw me.

Voila! One 'A' coming up.

Schools (and teachers) aim at the middle. Few, if any, are equipped to handle those who are very smart (cerebrally), and those whose talents are expressed in ways other than memorization and regurgitation.

I'm a certified teacher. I have a degree in Mathematics (Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) Mathematics. Yet, I'm engaged in something that provokes many people to ask "Why are you here?" I quit teaching just toward the end of the school year, when the bus company - MY GOD! THE G-DD-MNED BUS COMPANY! - got the district to change the starting and ending times of the school day. (Sheesh! If God had only known what the schools would require, He'd have made kids (and teachers!) differently.

Few people accept that 'braindead' activity that pays the bills while I come to grips with my damned 'reluctant entrepreneur' is all I want. I refuse to think at the level of compensation I'm receiving. ('cept as is necessary to ensure that I don't go home in a body bag, or that we don't have a sequel to 9-11)

I say reluctant entrepreneur because I never thought of myself as a risk-taker, yet, anymore, I look back - both years back and to the recent (as in yesterday) past, and realize that that's all I've ever been. I can and HAVE said "To hell with it" to jobs that leech at my essential self-recognition, self-acceptance, and self-reliance, and yes - self-satisfaction that what I'm doing has merit if only to my being able to sustain myself - that characterizes the entrepreneur. 'Cept I didn't have the vision to create the substitute, self sufficient activity that would sustain me. Nor did I ever get encouragement to just 'go for it.' So, I just 'effing' quit!

I never realized that that gnawing feeling in my gut was my entrepreneur wanting to express. Never did I Identify with a group of people who take that essential 'dissatisfaction' with the routine as signals to themselves that they can do it on their own. I was brought up in the "get a good job" school of thought.

Sigh.

I've forgotten which post I'm responding to!

That's ok. This is SOW, where I can touch bases with sanity . . .

Marye

> My disagreement is with your objection to
> history and science. As Edmund Burke put it,
> "Those who don't know history are
> destined to repeat it!" We are seeing
> that lived out in the US every month lately.

> As for science, the more we know ofthe
> mechanics and laws of the universe, the more
> we can understand of the world around us.

In my school, Modern History meant WWI, League of Nations, WWII, Korean War. To study Ancient History I would have had to take on another module of Modern History - dropping one of my other subjects - and thus get one module of Ancient History which ONLY covered Greece in the time of the Spartans.

I never said history was not important. Just that I was forced to study it in preparation for entrance to university to study science. (I have learned more history since leaving school than I ever learned at school. I actually like the subject.)

Science? Love science. Physics and Biology - both deal with how things work. That's why I chose to do a science degree.

But even this had flawed logic. As I said... why was a science degree needed to be a pilot? Heck, I went and got my license privately. So much for a degree.

As I was also studying teaching... the mind boggles more so. Why study university level science to teach highschool science? And why do three years of that higher level science - getting higher and higher?

My friend is a "Fed." Aussie version of an FBI agent. His "training" was 12 weeks. To become a statey in my state - our police our divided by state and not locale - requires six months at the academy PLUS one year studying science at university. That's 18 months of tertiary education - six of it at the police academy - so they can pull someone up for speeding and whatnot. Go figure.

That's what my beef is... more and more "positions" require higher and higher qualifications which do not add to the performance of the task.

I've seen jobs require a diploma of science. Thing is... those who get the job - and thus have the diploma - needed to be taught everything about the job because the tasks of the job were not taught during the diploma. I have seen unqualified people doing those same tasks - as a fill-in when the diploma holder was unable for a variety of reasons.

Anyway. Better stop now. Before I get carried away. :o)

Michael Ross

Hi John,

That's an interesting perspective - becoming an entrepreneur because there's less risk...

I think it's certainly true for some people - that entrepreneurship actually decreases their risk. And perhaps it's more and more true as the years go by....

Once upon a time a corporate job was one you had for life. Well, until you hit retirement age and got your retirement gift watch for all those decades you put in. (I was just listening to the Bob Newhart sketch about this from the 1960s - it's hilarious.) :)

However, those times seem to be long gone. Now, you can be out of a job any time one of those "higher up" deems it necessary to do some cost-cutting.

In such an environment, perhaps it is safer to take your own future into your own hands, rather than trust the whim of any new manager that might come in.

One thing I've also noticed about many successful serial entrepreneurs (those who have successfully started multiple businesses) is that they take active steps to reduce their risk of a venture.

Many people go into a business opportunity thinking only of the upside - perhaps this is our human tendency towards optimism. Many successful serial entrepreneurs also look at the downside - how much could they lose if the business venture flops? And - how can they reduce the risk of that happening?

In his recent post, Boyd mentioned the movie "Heist" - and how Gene Hackman had a Plan A, a Plan B, if that didn't work there was a Plan C, and if that didn't work even a Plan D. Eventually, it was Plan D that worked! I haven't seen the Heist, but that's entrepreneurial thinking (though from the title of the movie it sounds like he's not applying it to entrepreneurship!).

I think you ALWAYS need a Plan B... and a Plan C and D are even better!

I agree that with this kind of thinking, your risks are reduced!

- Dien Rice


The business or money-making idea you need could be right here...

Hi Megan,

Here's my personal take on what makes a person an entrepreneur....

To me, the essence of being an entrepreneur is to be willing to take your own future in your hands. You're not going to rely on a steady paycheck from a boss, but you're ready and willing to go out into the big world yourself and support yourself from it.

Just think - a child is someone who is completely dependent on his or her parents. He/she relies on parents to provide everything - shelter, food, and so on. Without parents to take care of a young child, he/she would probably die.

The opposite of that is to take care of yourself, to be your own boss, and take complete responsibility for your successes and failures. To take complete responsibility for your own means of living, day to day and week to week.

I see the majority of people as being in-between the two. For many, the company or job they work in is like a "substitute-parent" - if you do what the boss tells you, they'll pay you your weekly check. If you don't do what you're told, you're out. So you do what the boss tells you - just like you used to obey your parents. You've made yourself dependent on your job.

Entrepreneurs are the only truly independent ones, in my opinion. They've taken their own future into their own hands. By finding opportunities and using what they know to survive, they provide their own means of support. They're not relying on having to do what some boss tells them to.

Sometimes I see entrepreneurship as "urban survival skills". Just like someone can learn where to look for food and water in a jungle to survive, entrepreneurs know how to find opportunities in the "urban jungle" to survive.

Perhaps mine is a "romanticized" view of entrepreneurship - but I think there's a lot of truth to it.

Well, that's my view - you asked for it. :)

- Dien Rice


Start a business with little money!

> I think it's certainly true for some people
> - that entrepreneurship actually decreases
> their risk. And perhaps it's more and more
> true as the years go by....

I found an excellent way to reduce risk in my business. I changed from my first distributor to my second after nearly 10 years in this industry. I sell as an independent agent, with K & B handling all the credit, billing, sales taxes, and debt collections.

In the case of non-payment, I only loose the commissions I was advanced, while K & B pays the supplier, shipping costs, and taxes. My earnings go back to Zero while their profits on the order go negative.

That's more than fair in my book. And I can certainly live with that level of risk.

I'm sure my company isn't the only one that operates like that.

Dennis Bevers




Increased income with reduced risk!