Teaching Entrepreneurship: Lesson #1 | Myth Buster
In the last post, I talked about the teaching method we use to teach Entrepreneurship. In this post, we put it to action. Without any further ado, let’s get down to business.
If you don’t live inside a cave, you must have noticed that the startup wave has picked up in India. There are so many startup events, accelerators, incubators, investors and entrepreneurs you get to see these days. I won’t comment on the credibility of all of them. But one thing is certain. People in India, especially the youth, have a strong entrepreneurial desire. The reasons might be different for each one of us. Living life on our own terms, sharing our passion with the world, having a decent bank balance, etc. But we do have entrepreneurial aspirations.
Chances are that you also have entrepreneurial aspirations. Since you are reading this, I would like to assume that.
But I think you will agree with me that taking that first step is the most difficult. Going from zero to one and actually starting that business is the most difficult part. Or at least as it seems. Why is that?
I’ll tell you why. It is because we like to make excuses. We will watch motivational lectures, we will read entrepreneur biographies, we will read startup advice on blogs but we will keep ignoring everything we read or hear. Our eyes look for that one thing in there that is not exactly fitting our situation so that we can use it as an excuse.
“I knew I can’t do it. I never went to a good college like Harvard.”
“I knew I can’t do it. I don’t have enough time on my hands.”
And I can go on with a long list of excuses. But you get the idea.
This is the EXACTLY the part where this course video will help you. It lists out the most common excuses we give ourselves as to why we can’t or haven’t started a business. So here we have them, the six most common excuses we give ourselves to not start a business:
- I am neither a genius nor a university dropout.
- I can’t handle a business because it is complicated and it is only meant for MBAs from famed colleges.
- I am not a born talent.
- It is very risky.
- I don’t have that path breaking idea yet.
- I don’t have a lot of money.
There are many people who never start a business by giving themselves one or more of these excuses. In the course video shown above, we tell you exactly why neither of these factors can stop you from becoming a successful entrepreneur. If Jack Ma, Steve Jobs, Dhirubhai Ambani and Narayana Murthy can do it, you can do it too!
I am not under estimating the challenges you face. I know it is difficult. But all I am saying is that it can be done. And once you start a business, share your passion with the world, create a significant positive impact, and earn a decent amount of money from it — there is nothing more satisfying and fulfilling.
Don’t wait for the right moment to come. Your time is now!
Share this article with anyone (school student or not) for whom you have high expectations. If you used this course video and article to teach a school student about the different myths of Entrepreneurship, please comment your experiences below. I would love to hear any ideas, suggestions or business plans you have.
I have also created a small Kahoot quiz which you can take or host for your classroom once you have watched the above video. Click on this link to access the quiz — https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=5ba4bd41-6ba2-4bfe-bd29-b4fbf17aeafb.
In the next post, we will share our experiences from the Entrepreneurship boot camp that we are conducting with girl students in collaboration with the awesome folks at Jaadu Ki Nagri, Teach for India.
Stay tuned! :)
