Three Reasons Why Lousy Students Make Great Entrepreneurs

I was asked by a local leadership group to speak to an assembly of high schoolers who are interested in entrepreneurship. When I asked them about what aspect of entrepreneurship they would like me to speak about, they said, “whatever you think would interest high schoolers.”

Honestly, I was a lousy high school student and always struggled with traditional education. Then it hit me! Most the entrepreneurs I know were lousy students, and it got me to thinking, “Why?” Well, I came up with three behaviors that may infuriate teachers and result in scholastic failure, but turbo charge entrepreneurship and thrill investors.

Teacher says, “Student doesn’t follow directions.” In entrepreneurship this is called “disruptive,” and it is the common trait of all successful entrepreneurs. Disruption is at the core of all entrepreneurship, in fact, this is what an entrepreneur does—disrupts the status quo. An entrepreneur looks at what is and says, “I can make it better/cheaper/faster!” As a result, disrupts the market.

Teacher says, “Student takes shortcuts” In entrepreneurship, this is called, “a hack” and it is essential to creating an MVP (minimal viable product). Most entrepreneurs do not have the time or the money to make a perfect product, so they use hacks to save time and money. The cool thing is many times these hacks lead to innovation and can make the product even better/faster/cheaper.

Teacher says, “Student needs to pay attention in class” In entrepreneurship, daydreaming is called, “ideation.” “Visionary” entrepreneurs are paying attention, just not necessarily to what everyone else is paying attention. For entrepreneurs, the present is boring and they compensate by spending their mind time actively envisioning a more exciting future.

Many teachers are frustrated by disruptive, shortcut taking, dreamers who are not paying attention to their carefully prepared lesson. I get that, but perhaps traditional education is not the best education for everyone. Perhaps education is ready for an entrepreneur to disrupt the status quo and create a better/faster/cheaper way to inspire individual learning.

Have anything to add? I would love to read your comments.