Five things you need to do if you wanna be an entrepreneur

First published at Hijacked on 27 November 2015.

In October 2015, the Office of the Chief Scientist released a report on entrepreneurship in Australia, which said that the higher education system isn’t doing enough to encourage entrepreneurial values within students. That being said, Chief Executive of BlueChilli, Seb Eckersley-Maslin, reckons that putting sole responsibility on education institutions is unfair. And Roy Wybrow, senior business and entrepreneurship lecturer at James Cook University (JCU) Cairns, agrees. He reckons “individuals need to step up as well”.

Indeed, as a student, one of your goals should be to master self-directed learning to ensure lifelong learning. Interested? Here are five things you need to do if you want to do entrepreneurship right.

Learn entrepreneurship philosophy first

While business is all about being practical, you’re probably better served if you learn some philosophical principles to guide your venture. As Alain De Botton and the School of Life show, it’s about turning the unhappiest moments into the best ideas. But Roy cautions that any solution must be meaningful and valued by the affected people.

“It’s finding a problem and being able to get the right solution for that problem that meets value for the people you’re going to sell it to,” he says. In other words, it’s no good finding a problem that nobody recognises needs solving.

Enrol in entrepreneurship subjects

Even if you’re not studying a business degree, it’s definitely worth enrolling in an entrepreneurship subject as an elective — it could prove crucial for when you launch your technological marvel later in life. Roy believes these subjects can provide you with a safe environment to practise, understand and build confidence in entrepreneurship.

“It’s about building a concept and then testing it with customers before pouring more resources into the product,” he says. “That way, the risks are minimised.”

Roy cites JCU’s Strategic Entrepreneurship subject as an example of students developing a concept and then pitching it to investors external to the university. “If your product fails, then it costs you nothing but pride,” he says.

Read the full article at Hijacked.