Why doesn’t a school teach you how to run a business at a young age.

School teaches kids many life skills. It teaches them how to count, read and write.

But school doesn’t teach them how to run a business. It is assumed that they will somehow just “know” those skills.

Many kids dream of starting their own business during their teens and in the digital age this is easier to achieve than ever before. According to the influential GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) and the Harvard Business Review people are starting businesses at younger and younger ages.

Enterprise should be encouraged as much as possible. Enterprise is, after all, the lifeblood of our countries’ economies. Yet as a society we still rely on young people learning businesses stewardship through trial and error.

It is hardly surprising that so many promising new businesses fail.

5 Comments
 

Problem is who would teach them how to run a business? Most teachers become teachers because they have no interest in running a business, or can't run a business.

Most of the time, running a small business is just not about being completely dumb and having some discipline. Don't over-expand, don't spend more than you make, show up, do good work, don't be an idiot when dealing with customers.

Regular school now is archaic, due to both sides of equation. School doesn't teach relevant things, and parents don't contribute as much to education as they should. School should probably teach more things that are relevant, such as coding or money management, but how many teachers know how to do that themselves. Re-training and/or reprogramming of teaching degree requirements would have to occur.

 

Because school is for only for studying and writing exams and passing the exams and this is happening from decades and it will continue , it also depends on parents, most of parents will not encourage their children to start a business at very young age.

 
Best Response

As a business owner, most of what you need to know you acquire along the way. It's not a "do this or do that" kind of thing. However, there are certainly things you learn in college (or even high school) that help. Critical thinking skills are important. Multi tasking (especially for small business) is important (so managing a hectic schedule with classes, clubs, sports, homework, service, etc.) to teach you how to get organized and get things done. Learning how to manage a project is important as much of business is getting stuff out there and managing it along the way. Of course basic accounting and finance helps so you learn how to budget, assess investments (does it make sense to invest in more employees, advertising, manufacturing, etc.)

To summarize, while in school you develop certain skills. They may not be specifically related to running a business but they help. Owning and operating a business is about taking a certain amount of risk while creating value for others (customers, employees, partners). It's about having confidence and solving problems. It's about understanding client issues on a deep level. No one can really teach you those things as they are skills acquired over time.

 

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