Unexpected Lessons from a 12-month Entrepreneurship Masters Degree

It’s graduation. Having killed my business, I’m preparing to re-enter the workforce. But, all is well! Here’s what happened.

A year ago I arrived in Seattle to be a student again. At the age of 35, it was three years since I quit my highflying legal career in the finance world. Having worked at an early stage social enterprise, then built and “paused” my first business project, I was onto my second business venture and desperate to make it work.

I was asked more than a few times, “Why don’t you just work on your actual business instead of going to a university to study how to do business?”

The simple, and most truthful, answer at that point was probably that I craved structure and community.

What I mean by structure: I needed to learn some basic frameworks to navigate through this strange world of entrepreneurship so I could stop banging my head into the wall.

And what I mean by community: I needed to belong to something as my insecurities had built up to an intolerable level.

What I Did Expect

So let’s quickly go through the expected. Structure and frameworks. Expected and delivered.

From ideation to competitive strategy, business plan creation to leadership skills. Accounting, finance, marketing and legal stuff, the essentials covered.

But in all honesty, with all the online e-courses available these days and distant learning options from traditional academic institutions, physically “going to school” to obtain such hard skills and knowledge only has one advantage over doing it digitally: human interactions.

What I Did Not Expect

The unexpected lessons were all from the people. Peers who were stuck together in and outside of the classroom over a 12-month span, having an insider view of each other’s ups and downs in business and in life, forming partnerships and splitting up. That was gold.

And then there were the people outside of the program. Guest speakers and mentors, potential partners (or helpers) in the wider student community, players in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The community from which I expected to gain support and reassurance from, actually cracked me open and tore me apart, in the best way possible. Awakening, checked. Transformation, checked. Totally unexpected lessons, checked. So here are a few things I learned.

1. Know your aptitude.

I hate to bring up the old cliche of whether entrepreneurs are born or made, but like everything else, there are certain aptitudes that make one a “better” candidate for a certain role.

Just as, for instance, drawing from my experience in the legal profession I would say that diligence and attention to details are basic aptitudes for someone considering that career choice. These aptitudes do not necessarily make you better than someone else in general, simply better fit for a particular job.

So far, these are the most on-point personality traits for entrepreneurs I have come across. Courtesy to Terry Drayton who was a guest speaker to our class.

• Unrelenting optimism
• Resilience
• Quick decision making
• Open learning
• Not being an asshole

I only qualify for one of the above. These traits are important, because this is the job description of a startup founder (which is a very narrow interpretation of entrepreneur but we will get to that later):

• Creating vision
• Recruiting people
• Raising funds

I got this from listening to, observing, and working with lots of different people in the past year, most of whom would identify themselves as entrepreneurs.

Since other people are like mirrors to us, being in a community like this accelerated the process of me taking a no-filter reflection on who I really am. It was brutal. But it was also time to be completely honest and identify which is the path with least resistance (and most joy!) There is no shame in working with one’s natural strengths and positioning oneself under the best light to thrive.

2. Only you can define what kind of entrepreneur you want to be.

This brings me to the next big learning: what is an entrepreneur anyway? You can read more about it here, but this quote from Chelsea Fagan, Founder of The Financial Diet, covers it pretty much:

“There is this omnipresent cultural idea of what (and who) an entrepreneur is, reinforced by a sort of arms race made necessary by the loftiness of venture capitalism, as well as the tendency of startup leaders to think themselves prophets…

…Lauren and I have never felt this desire, never considered waking up at 5 a.m. to tackle projects or beat competitors, never aspired to a life where the growth of our company was more important than the growth of our personal happiness. And this has meant redefining entrepreneur for ourselves and actively deciding that there is no one personality type we must aspire to or path we must follow for us to take pride in what we do.”

While there is no universal definition on what being an entrepreneur means, if we can at least agree that entrepreneurs are generally innovative people, then it doesn’t make sense to not disrupt the concept of entrepreneurship while you’re at it.

Make it work for you.

You do not have to raise money if you don’t need it for what you are trying to achieve. You can grow at your own pace. You can stand by some fundamental non-monetary values that you choose to define you and your business. You can choose to ignore the latest fads and trends.

Everything changes, especially in the world of entrepreneurship; only one thing stays constant: you are stuck with you.

3. Prioritise growing you over growing the company.

Because you are stuck with you, that is the most important asset you need to work on, and ensure it is growing at a healthy rate.

Looking at myself and others in the cohort one year from when we started, I learned that first impressions are always deceiving, what someone has achieved so far is way less important than the growth potential him/her demonstrates, and most importantly, life is a marathon not a sprint.

Your business plan can be pivoted many folds, the company is merely a legal entity incorporated and can be dissolved with a few documents, a brand or product can be created then re-designed then retired then revived. It is important not to forget that while all that is going on at the business level, you are also building your personal CV along the way.

“Entrepreneurship is a career path — typically with iterations between established companies, your own startups, and the startups of others.”

— Professor Benjamin Hallen

Having worked at established companies, my own startup, and the startups of others, I cannot agree more with this quote from my professor in our last class together.

Invest in yourself. The structure and process, subject matter expertise, project scale, and professionalism from a big corporate experience are invaluable learnings. The art of hustling, networking and marketing, quick-learning and multi-tasking, ability to deliver high performance outside of one’s comfort zone, are amongst the best training you can get from working at a startup.

“Be a “T-shaped” person — combine areas of depth with broad knowledge; you will see more opportunities and life will be richer.”

— Professor Benjamin Hallen

The blind pursuit of being a founder or CEO, if driven by ego, may not benefit anyone including oneself. There is a time and place, an idea and a team, a market or a combination of all these factors, where you are the best person to found a startup. In other instances, take on other roles where you can best add value and grow.

So what did I learn about being an entrepreneur?

It is to know yourself so well that you can make conscious choices to be fully engaged in work that you both enjoy and are good at; build courage to embark on a path less travelled and challenge the status quo for a better way of life.

It is a lifelong learning, re-iteration, and pursuit.

Did you know that you can clap👏up to 50 times (?!) — it would really make a big difference for me, thank you! :) Check out more articles from me here.