When it comes to succeeding in business, which is more important: education or experience? -- Regina M.
Regina, have you seen the television show, Fear Factor? If you haven’t seen it you’ve
probably heard about it. Fear Factor is the show where they put contestants through all sorts of
pseudo-death defying feats like bungee jumping off a bridge over a pool of crocodiles and driving
a car through a wall of fire (you know, the stuff we did for fun in high school). The contestant who
overcomes their personal fear factor wins the cash and prizes (usually at the cost of their dignity,
but I digress).
The highlight of Fear Factor is the eating competition. That’s when contestants are invited to
partake of all sorts of culinary fare. Yummy stuff like monkey brains, all manner of live bugs and
spiders, moose intestines, old fruitcake (the horror!), and my personal favorite, live giant worms.
At this point the competition becomes not so much who can overcome their fear factor, but who
has the lowest gag reflex.
Your question makes me feel a little like those contestants, Regina, because no matter how I
answer I am opening a can of giant worms that I will undoubtedly be forced to eat later. My
highly educated peers will argue that education is much more important than experience, while
my highly experienced peers will argue that experience is more important. Either way, it’s worms
ala carte for me.
Oh well, I’ve eaten more than my share of crow over the years. How much worse can worms
be?
It’s important to understand that the success of an entrepreneur is not measured by how
much education he or she has or how many years of experience are under his or her belt. An
entrepreneur’s success is measured by achievements, not words on a resume.
By definition, an entrepreneur is a risk-taking businessperson: someone who sets up and
finances new commercial enterprises to make a profit. Entrepreneurs start businesses. The
smart ones then hire MBAs to run them.
Let’s start with education. Is a Bachelor’s degree or better required to succeed in business?
Of course not. An MBA from Harvard might give you a leg up in a job interview, but it certainly
doesn’t guarantee that you will succeed in business. Nor does it automatically mean that you will
be a better business person than someone who didn’t finish high school. Knowledge is a good
thing - if you know what to do with it.
Perhaps it is the academic environment itself that turns mere mortal nerds into budding
entrepreneurs. The late ‘90s proved that college students with no experience beyond organizing
a frat keg party could start businesses that would exceed all expectations. Many would argue
that the key to success for most of these ventures was that the founders (or the VC financing
them) were smart enough to know that while they had an abundance of education, they needed
experienced managers to really run the show.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin were college students when they started the company that would
become Google. They were smart enough to bring in Eric Schmidt to be chairman and CEO when the business took off. Schmidt was the former CEO of Novell and CTO of Sun Microsystems. A PhD, Schmidt is a man of education and experience.
Jerry Yang and David Filo were candidates in Electrical Engineering at Stanford when they
started YAHOO (Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle) in 1994. They brought in Tim Koogle
from Motorola to run things shortly thereafter and now the company is led by Terry Semel, who
previously spent 24 years running Warner Bros.
Now on to experience. Is experience a prerequisite of business success? Again, not at all.
Many experienced entrepreneurs gained their experience in failed businesses, so experience
does not instantly translate to success.
So, when it comes to succeeding in business, which is more important: education or
experience? While neither is as helpful as a rich relative, here’s the answer that will hopefully
help me avoid those worms: Both education and experience can play a large part in business
success. The more important question is can you succeed in business without one or the other,
or even without both? And the answer to that one is: yes. Can I get ketchup with those worms?
Many successful businesses were started by first time entrepreneurs who never went to
college. Natural talent, ambition, drive, determination, and good old dumb luck have fueled many
success entrepreneurs, myself included. I don’t have a degree (I drove past a college once. It
looked hard, so I kept going). Would a degree have helped make my business trek easier?
Perhaps. Then again, I know people with advanced degrees who are flipping burgers at
McDonalds. It’s good experience, I suppose.
A combination of education and experience (and a variety of other things) is the best recipe
for success. As the old saying goes, “There is no better education than that which comes from
experience.”
In the end, it really doesn’t matter how much education, experience, talent, luck or money you
have. It’s what you do with it that matters.
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