Can you study Entrepreneurship? Or is it something you just have to do to learn it?
by Louis Janse van Rensburg on 26/11/10 at 1:03 pm
5 comments
Entrepreneurship is like golf: You can read the books, speak to the pros, get the right equipment, practice on the driving range until you are blue in the face – the only way you truly master the game is by getting on the course and playing. Over and over again.
True, in South Africa we are blessed with the quality of educational offerings around Entrepreneurship.
Increasingly scholars are exposed to the subject: Entrepreneurship from a primary school level, right through to high school. And believe me the quality of the content being taught is on the up.
Step out of school into the tertiary environment, there is an abundance of educational institutions either offering Entrepreneurship as a degree or integrating entrepreneurship within their current programmes.
Tertiary educational institutions that stand-out for me include (no particular order of preference):
- GIBS Full-time Entrepreneurship MBA
- University of Pretoria
- University of South Africa
- UCT Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) at the Graduate School of Business (GSB)
- University of Johannesburg
- WITS Business School (WBS)
All of these schools offer an academically stimulating environment, with often a good balance between theory and practice.
But the one thing we cannot escape is that in order to truly master being an entrepreneur, you’ll need to get cracking and start some businesses.
To paraphrase Gary Player’s pearl of wisdom: “The more I practice, the luckier I get.” Good advice for budding entrepreneurs no doubt.
Louis is one of those lucky people where his job is his hobby. He's the Joburg manager at digital marketing agency World Wide Creative and a contributor of The Heavy Chef Project. Louis runs his own blog as well where he writes about digital planning, research, business development and anything else online that catches his eye. Oh yes, Louis also happens to have a Masters Degree in Entrepreneurship from the University of Pretoria. You can find Louis on Twitter at @Louis_JvR View more articles by Louis Janse van Rensburg.
Tags: academic, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship in South Africa, South African Entrepreneur
Todays digital marketing digest - Spunje
Nov 26th, 2010
[...] Can you study Entrepreneurship? Or is it something you just have … He’s the Joburg manager at digital marketing agency World Wide Creative and a contributor of The Heavy Chef Project. Louis runs his own blog as well where he writes about digital planning, research, business development and anything … [...]
Andrew
Nov 26th, 2010
The Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship is worth mentioning. They “support aspiring entrepreneurs by offering practical business skills and access to; coaches to offer guidance, mentors to share their experiences and financing opportunities to enable businesses to grow.”
What is the Greatest Challenge for an Entrepreneur? | Ideate
Nov 29th, 2010
[...] For entrepreneurs, staying determined is one of the greatest challenges. While those around you may be saying “what if it doesn’t work?” and “get a real job” it can be tough to keep going, particularly in the early days. [...]
Philip
Dec 9th, 2010
Cape Peninsula University of Technology offer a great Entrepreneur course
Carl Muller
Feb 24th, 2012
The biggest charcteristic of an entrepreneur is achievement motivation. David C McClelland from Harvard did 40 years research and then developed a program to build this into your life. Tested in 55 countries and it works.
We have this program accreditted at Services Seta after testing it thoroughly.
We had many people that started projects or that went out and found jobs. They just couldn’t sit at home after doing our program.
We started a company that will train employees and a foundation that has trained 253 people the last 3 years.
Where they tested this program overseas 33 % more jobs were created.