Something about the Global Entrepreneurship Congress

Carla and I attended two weeks ago the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Milan. It has been a powerful and exciting experience, because we waited a long to finally meet directly someone of the KaufmanFoundation, that we consider one of the best international institutions involved and aimed to entrepreneurship education at different levels.

What we saw exceeded our expectations, because we attended very helpful sessions; we heard very high profiles speeches and perspectives; we had the chance to meet Ms Wendy Torrance, director of Entrepreneurship at the Foundation, that has been so kind to listen to Carla and me about our work on training entrepreneurial attitudes in Italy. Thanks a lot Wendy!

In the exhibition area we also met Henrik Scheel, founder and CEO of Startup Experience, the great course that brings in the world the Silicon Valley entrepreneurship culture. We already knew him thanks to LinkedIn but to meet him in person it has been a lovely experience and we found very interesting talking with him about the importance of mindset. Because we share the same vision: the entrepreneurial attitudes are the very basis, non just if you want to open a new business but, more generally, if you want to change your life or the world around you.

So we would like to share the TedTalk that Henrik hold in Sacramento in 2012, because we consider it very illuminating. And we hope to start collaborating in the next future to empower Italy with a more entrepreneurial mindset!

Entrepreneurial attitudes and education

On the old question - entrepreneurs are born or made? - economists and cognitive psychologists have contributed over the past two decades, claiming that the “entrepreneurship gene” does not exist and that the attitudes of behavior that lead to entrepreneurial thinking are, in fact, influenced by exogenous factors.

They therefore speaks of the importance of the family, the society in which a person is born and the schools that he/she attended and, later, the models that he/she meets in the course of his/her lives or that are, in some way, proposed.

It is however necessary to give a further clarification saying that, in reality, at birth everyone has a business potential. This can be seen in children; in fact, any parent face every day their stubbornness, their enthusiasm, their desire to learn and to do, their inclination towards new worlds, new adventures, their imagination, their curiosity and their desire to experiment. These are behavioral attitudes typical of the entrepreneurial mindset. What happens then, growing up?

In high school, many times we find guys and girls with very poor motivation, disenchanted by life, from the future, who do not chase their dreams but only more tranquility and serenity. The only possible explanation is that the entire educational system (meaning, with this term, inside and outside schools) tifle these attitudes instead of cultivating them. By doing so, it damage both individuals and the society.

Actually, we should accompany the new generations towards their personal entrepreneurial style, letting them know what they want in order to get to grow in a more conscious and sharp way to achieve their goals. Only in this way they will be more satisfied and happier, because they will have built something that closely represents their values, their beliefs.

There are a lot of tools to do it. We only have to use them.

Something is changing in entrepreneurship education

“Enterprise for All is about motivating young people to learn and excel in their education and to see the relevance of their studies. Enterprise is more than the creation of entrepreneurs, it is about a can-do and positive attitude and equipping people with the confidence to develop a career and vocational interests. Enterprise therefore supports the development of a wide range of work and professional skills and capabilities, including resilience, risk taking, creativity and innovation, as well as a self-belief that starting a business is a viable career choice and one of the most exciting and challenging things a person will ever do”.

These are the opening sentences of the document “Entrprise for All” of Lord David Young, the “czar of advisers” to the UK Prime Minister on small business and enterprise. It is the third report after “Make Business Your Business” published in May 2012 and “Growing Your Business” in May 2013.

Carla and I think that there isn't a better way that the one used by Lord Young to clearly describe what is at the moment one of the most important challenge in education and culture: to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.

Lord David Young

It is a huge challenge, we know. Because it involves not just individuals but the entire society, how this attitude is perceived, what are the main role models, the idea of success (so often confused with fame). For decades, in Europe entrepreneurs have been seen as devils: they were taken for exploiters, leaded only by greed and personal interests, without any benefit for the community. Yes, they are not all angels, we know. As in every aspect of life, there are the goods and the bads. We have to choose the good examples, non the bad ones. We would like to talk (and to spread) about the positive attitudes of entrepreneurial mindset.

Luckily, we are not alone in this attempt. There are a lot of people that enjoy to share what it means; for example Martin Zwilling with this article on some key mentality attributes he believes an entrepreneur should have: Do you have the mentality to be an entrepreneur?. Few days ago, on the Wall Street Journal, Ruth Simon wrote a very interesting article about what is changing in entrepreneurship education in the U.S. (here you find it). Dawn Bowlus, director of the University of Iowa's Jacobson Institute for Youth Entrepreneurship, declared to the journalist: “We are trying to influence the conversation so that entrepreneurship is not all about writing a business plan”.

As you see, something is moving. And we are proud to be part of this movement!