Is
education at all necessary for entrepreneurial excellence?
Many famous
entrepreneurs have had very limited formal education and in many instances have
dropped out of the educational system only to prosper.
Famous
examples of people who did not survive the educational system for a variety of
reasons include Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs and Dhirubhai Ambani,
all synonyms of successful entrepreneurship.
Below are “the
five minds” described by Horward Gardner that are necessary for leadership.
They are
Disciplined, Synthesizing, Creating, Respectful and Ethical minds.
Disciplined Mind
A
disciplined mind is acquired through years spent in scholarship, a craft or
profession, which he estimates take a decade to master. The disciplined mind
that emerges from consistent work done to develop a skill sets and a knowledge
base necessitates education and training.
Those
without one or more disciplines will not succeed in a workplace; will be
restricted to menial tasks.
Synthesizing Mind
Those
without the ability to synthesize will suffer from information overload and
inability to make judicious decisions – personal and professional.
Gardner says
synthesis is identifying the jobs that need to be done and the people available
to do those jobs. Synthesis is the identification of priorities and the way
forward, balancing past visions with future aspirations. Synthesis enables one
to examine new ideas in the light of one’s knowledge base.
Creating Mind
Those
without creating capacity will be replaced by the competition driven. According to Gardner, creating mind is more a
function of the leader than of the manager. Entrepreneurs are generally
bestowed with a strong sense of creativity, the ability to innovate and think
out of the box.
Respectful mind
Those who
cannot respect will not win the respect of others. Gardner describes the fourth
mind respectful as the ability to avoid
stereotyping, accept people for who and what they are; to empathize and make
common cause with them and be worthy of their trust.
The importance
of the ability to empathize with others cannot be underscored and is among the
most important qualities in leadership and entrepreneurship. It links well with
an important form of intelligence that
has gained credence today as a measure of success – emotional intelligence.
Ethical Mind
The fifth mind “ethical” understands well its
role as a worker and as a citizen it understands duties and obligations and is
able to perceive its role through the eyes of others. Leaders and entrepreneurs
must be mindful of these ethical values in establishing their enterprise. Those
without a sense of personal and professional ethics will yield a world devoid
of decent people.
While
domain knowledge is a must for one’s enterprise to succeed, the disciplined
mind being thus important; synthesis, creativity, respect and ethics all are
important too. Of these five minds, however, it is the creative mind that is
perhaps most crucial for the entrepreneur; the ability to engage in bold,
innovative and unconventional thinking being a definite advantage.
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