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Small Business Q&A: Achievements Outweigh Education and Experience

Q: When it comes to succeeding in business, which do you think

is more important: education or experience?

-- Regina M.

A: 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

actor, 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

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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.

Here's to your success.

Tim Knox, Founder

For more information on starting your own online business visit

http://www.dropshipwholesale.net, the website for online

entrepreneurs.

About the Author

Tim Knox as the president and CEO of two successful technology

companies: B2Secure Inc., a Web-based hiring management software

company; and Digital Graphiti Inc., a software development company.

Tim is also the founder of dropshipwholesale.net, an ebusiness

dedicated to the success of online entrepreneurs.

http://www.dropshipwholesale.net

http://www.smallbusinessqa.com