entreneurship experience or education
TRANSCRIPT
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ................................................................................................................................. i
1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Overview ............................................................................................................ 1
1.2 Current Situation on Entrepreneurship .............................................................. 3
1.3 General Public Opinion ...................................................................................... 6
2.0 Literature Review on the Importance of Education vs. Experience in Successful
Entrepreneurship ...................................................................................................... 8
2.1 Findings from Articles ....................................................................................... 8
2.2 Reality of Successful Entrepreneurship ........................................................... 14
3.0 Personal Opinions .................................................................................................... 19
4.0 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 22
References .......................................................................................................................... 24
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Abstract
Malaysia is in the process of developing a vibrant entrepreneurial environment in Malaysia
to support the small and medium industries. In order to achieve this aim, promotion of
entrepreneurship activities has been plenty and varied. Entrepreneurial skills are developed
among those who are already in business, about to retire and still undergoing secondary
and tertiary education. Growth in new business formation has been significant over the
years but failure of these business ventures has also been remarkably high. There has been
issues that stressed the important of entrepreneurship education to those embarking in this
sector yet there has been a lot of successful entrepreneurial activities among those who
have no academic qualification and relying on guts and instincts alone. This paper presentsan argument on which is more important: education or experience, to become a successful
entrepreneur. The current situation and what people think about this issue are presented,
supported by facts from previous researches.
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1.0 Introduction
1.1 Overview
Entrepreneurship has been recognized as being a fundamental importance
for the economy (Bruyat and Julien, 2000) due to its considerable macro-
and micro-level effects (Henry et al, 2003). Entrepreneurship gives rise to
new ideas, creating new enterprises and jobs, and nurturing the economy as
a whole (Hisrich and OCinneide, 1985). However, the concept of
entrepreneurship is wide.
Shane and Venkataraman (2000) argued that entrepreneurship and
opportunity exploitation do not necessarily imply the creation of new firms
but can also take place in existing organizations. In the organization,
entrepreneurship is known as intrapreneurship, which emphasizes on the
entrepreneurial process (carrying out new combinations) and
innovativeness (Guth and Ginsberg, 1990). Intrapreneurship is defined as
entrepreneurship within an existing organization, referring to emergent
intentions and behaviours that deviate from customary way of doing
business, which leads to not only new business venture but also other
innovative activities (Antoncic and Hisrich, 2004).
The term entrepreneurship becomes more complicated when it is
related to other terms such as enterprising behaviour and small business
management. Gibb and Nelson (1996) proposed the definitions of the three
by saying that entrepreneurship is the functional management skills and
abilities required to start, manage and develop a small business while small
business management was concerned with the personal capability of the
individual or individuals at the helm of the business. Enterprising behaviour
refers to the development of learning skills to enable learning to be
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personalized, applied to the workplace and continued beyond the education
or training programme, with the participant firmly in control of the process.
The argument of this paper: which is more important, education or
experience, in making a successful entrepreneur? This argument is based onthe definition or interpretation of what an entrepreneur is. Thus, an
entrepreneur in the context of this paper is an individual who perform
entrepreneurship, has entrepreneurial behaviors and a small business
manager as defined by Gibb and Nelson (1998) but not specifically relating
to intrapreneurship as defined by Antoncic and Hisrich (2004).
There are still considerable uncertainties that entrepreneurs are born
or made. This leads to comments whether or not entrepreneurship can be
taught (Fiet, 2000 in Henry et al. 2005). It also leads to comments whether
education is important in determining the success of entrepreneurs or not.
The focus of this paper is to present the current situation ion
entrepreneurship, to show whether entrepreneurs are running business
based on experience or by education. This can be done by looking at the
profiles of some successful entrepreneurs in this country. Some general
public opinion was gathered through an unstructured interview with 15
Malaysians from all walks of life.
Facts from literatures were also gathered to support the argument of
element more important to make a successful entrepreneur. These
literatures were collected from journals that presented findings from their
studies. Lastly, my personal opinion on this matter is also included in this
paper.
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1.2 Current Situation on Entrepreneurship
The argument of which one is the determining factor of a successful
entrepreneur, whether education or experience, is a hard one to answer
because the current situation on entrepreneurship shows that there are
successful entrepreneurs who made it based on experience alone, without
high education and there are others who ace entrepreneurship ventures due
to education.
An article from College Startup (www.college-startup.com) argued
that college education is definitely important but there are people out there
who became successful entrepreneurs without having any college degree.
There people are described in Table 1 below.
http://www.college-startup.com/http://www.college-startup.com/http://www.college-startup.com/http://www.college-startup.com/ -
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Table 1: Successful Entrepreneurs without any college degrees
No Name Description
1 Mary Kay Ash Founder of Mary Kay Inc, a cosmetic business which
is a global brand, with half a million people selling
her cosmetics. She didnt have a college education
2 Richard Branson A school dropout at 16 and started his first successfulbusiness venture, Student Magazine. He is the owner
of the Virgin Brand and its 360 companies
3 Gabriel Coco
Chanel
An orphan and trained as a seamstress. Her perfume,
Chanel No. 5 made her famous
4 Simon Cowell Started in a mailroom for a music publishing
company. Now, he is an artist and repertoire (A&R),
executive for Sony BMG in UK, a television producer
and judge for major television talent, including
American Idol
5 Michael Dell Dropped out of college at age 19, started his PCs
Limited which later was renamed Dell Inc., now the
most profitable PC manufacturer in the world. The
Michael and Susan Dell Foundation offered a $50
million grant to the University of Texas, Austin to be
used for childrens health and education
6 Walt Disney Dropped out of high school at 16. He is the most
influential animator, Disney. The Walt Disney
Company has an annual revenue of $30 billion
7 Henry Ford At 16, Ford left home to apprentice as a machinist. He
started Ford Motor Company to manufacture
automobiles.8 Bill Gates Ranked as the richest man from 1995-2006. He is a
college dropout but the initiator of Microsoft
Corporation
Another website (http://skorcareer.com.my) presented 10 great
Malaysia entrepreneurs as shown in Table 2. These people are a mix of
educated entrepreneurs and uneducated entrepreneurs, all successful in their
endeavors.
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Table 2: 10 Great Malaysian Entrepreneurs
No Name Description
1 Loh Boon Siew
(Boon Siew Honda)
The late Boon Siew is responsible to start the
dealership of Honda motorcycles in Penang. He is
often known as Mr. Honda. He had virtually no
education. He started as a mechanic and slowly moveupwards with determination
2 Robert Kuok (Kuok
Group)
He is a successful and rich Malaysian tycoon, linked
to sugar business as well as other wide industries
including hospitality, energy, logistics and
manufacturing. He is the product of good education
and family wealth.
3 Tony Fernandes
(Air Asia)
The man behind Air Asia. With RM1, he bought a
defunct carrier, along with over RM40 million in
debts and created the most successful budget airline
company. He is an educated entrepreneur.
4 Syed Mokhtar al-
Bukhary (MMC)
A humble entrepreneur, the richest Malay and
bumiputra in Malaysia. As a kid, he had difficulties
doing school revision due to inadequate house
facilities and small space
5 Lim Goh Tong
(Genting)
A classic rag-to-riches story, a migrant from China
and came here as a youth. He did not speak English
and can only communicate in Chinese and Malay.
6 Maznah Hamid
(Securiforce)
She is not highly educated but is the proud owner of
Securiforce, one of the formidable security companies
in Malaysia. She and her husband started the company
from an almost bankrupt company, hold multiple tasksand persevered to her success today
7 Ananda Krishnan
(Astro)
An MBA from Harvard University and a Degree from
Melbourne University. He is the smartest
entrepreneur. He is worth more than $7 billion.
8 Azman Hashim
(Ambank)
He had good academic background in accounting
field. He almost died due to a horrible car accident but
that did not stop him. He moved his career along the
corporate path and responsible to transform Ambank
(Arab Malaysian Bank) into one of the largest
financial institutions in the country
9 Steven Sim (Secret
Recipe)
Dato Steven Sim is a modern entrepreneur, who
established the popular Secret Recipe Caf, which is
one of the most successful homegrown franchises. He
did not have any professional training in baking.
10 Mustapha Kamal
(MK Land)
The co-founder of MK Land (an associate company of
Emkay Group), which started small and eventually
became one of the property icons in Malaysia.
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These scenarios among the successful entrepreneurs of the world
and Malaysia cannot decide which aspect - education or experience is
more important in making a successful entrepreneur. These evidences
showed that both education and experience have a significant contributionto making the person as a successful entrepreneur.
1.3 General Public Opinion
The general public opinions about the argument of this paper were alsosought from 15 Malaysians from all walks of life. The question was posed
to them: Which is more important to make a successful entrepreneur
education or experience? This interview was carried out in Kota Kinabalu
and the responses were mixed.
Five of the respondents stated that experience is more important and
proceeded to give some examples such as Bill Gates, Lim Boon Siew and
their personal friends who are uneducated successful entrepreneurs. They
commented on the enterprising spirits of the migrants (Filipino, Bengals,
Pakistanis, etc) here in Sabah who showed their success in business
although their education level is low or mediocre.
Three respondents emphasized the importance of education,
especially entrepreneurial training to ensure success in their endeavors.
They reasoned that the government is spending millions of ringgit in
entrepreneurial training at all levels because of the realization that
education is an important ingredient of entrepreneurship.
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The other seven respondents gave a mixed response. They stated
that both education and experience are important to become a successful
entrepreneur. They stressed that entrepreneurs need experience to ensure he
has resilience and know-how to do business whereas education gives them
the expertise to carry out business tasks. Among these seven respondents,they stated that experience is a must whereas education is an important
addition, which can be done later.
These public opinions still cannot come to a definite conclusion on
which is more important.
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2.0 Literature Review on the Importance of Education vs. Experience inSuccessful Entrepreneurship
2.1 Findings from Articles
Entrepreneurs are people who have entrepreneurial traits, not just business
acumens (Heinonen and Poikkijoki, 2006). The importance of education in
making a successful entrepreneur can be determined through evidences
from past researches that show the transference of entrepreneurship
knowledge and skills to learners. Thus, the first part of this literature deals
with evidences from researches indicating the possibility of education in
training people to become entrepreneurs.
Gorman et al (1997) stated that there is an increasing number of
empirical research conducted and reporting findings that there
entrepreneurship can be taught, or if not taught, at least developed by
entrepreneurship education. This implies that the making of a successful
entrepreneur is possible through education but not a definite possibility.
However, the teaching of entrepreneurship is an enigma as Jack and
Anderson (1998) stated that actual entrepreneurial process involves both
arts and science. The science part involves the business and management
functional skills, which appears to be teachable using a conventional
pedagogical approach. However, the art part which relates to the creative
and innovative attributes of entrepreneurship does not appear to be
teachable in the same way. Saee (1996) commented that some individualsare naturally talented, whilst others must work hard to achieve similar ends.
He suggests that a curriculum cannot create an entrepreneur, rather it can
only demonstrate the process involved in being successful. The individual
will always be responsible for their own success.
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Figure 1 below shows the entrepreneurial process encompassing
behaviours, skills and attitudes (Shook et al, 2003). The elements in the
entrepreneurial process indicate the validity of Jack and Anderson (1998),
Saee (1996), Shepherd and Douglas (1996), Miller (1987) and Boussoura
and Deakins (1998) arguments that some elements are indeed teachablewhile others are inherent to the person, which may be or may not be
transferable. The possibility of these elements being taught and assimilated
as learned behaviours of the individual lies with the individual itself. It also
implies that not all educated individuals will end up being a successful
entrepreneur.
Figure 1: The entrepreneurial process: behaviours, skills and attributes
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Gibb (1993) describes an enterprising person as being pioneering,
adventurous, daring, go ahead, progressive, opportunist and ambitious.
Figure 2 below illustrates a person displaying a set of behaviours,
associated skills and personal attributes. Hartshorn and Hannon (2005)
suggest that students must have to some extent, a degree of enterprise thatcan be developed through learning. The challenge for educators is how to
do so.
Figure 2:
Outcomes of enterprise education creating enterprise environment
context (Hartshorn and Hannon, 2005)
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Behaviours acting independently, actively seeking to achieve goals,
flexibly responding to challenges, coping with and enjoying uncertainty,
taking risky actions in uncertain environments, persuading others,
commitments to make things happen, opportunity seeking, solving
problems/conflicts
Skills problem solving, creativity, persuasiveness, planning, negotiating,
decision taking
Attributesself-confident, autonomous, achievement orientated, versatile,
dynamic, resourceful (adapted from Gibb, 1993).
If these behaviours, skills and attributes can be taught, then
education has a greater importance in creating successful entrepreneurship.
Shepherd and Douglas (1996) suggest that it is important to teach
entrepreneurship as a science and an art. They conceded that the spirit of
entrepreneurship is not endemic in every person or may require awakening
and enhancing. Therefore, business education should teach not only the
various business disciplines but also the essence of entrepreneurship. They
commented that a lot of education and training initiatives to create
entrepreneurs have focused mainly on the science part of entrepreneurship,
which is selective, analytical, sequential and fixed but there has been large
neglect on delivering the art side of entrepreneurship.
Miller (1987) argued that not all aspects of entrepreneurship can be
taught and that educators cannot create entrepreneurs or produce foolproof,
step-by-step recipes for entrepreneurial success. What educators can do,
according to Miller (1987) are to provide an understanding of the rigorous
analytical techniques required to set-up a new business and an appreciation
of the limitation of those techniques. He claims that many of the
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entrepreneurial characteristics, such as self-confidence, persistence and
high energy levels, cannot be wholly acquired in the classroom.
Boussoura and Deakins (1998) presented their studies on the
development of high technology small firms and suggested thatentrepreneurs learn, not through structured teaching, but through experience
and trial and error. They studied 23 technology-based entrepreneurs who
had started out in non-technical ventures and demonstrated that this type of
start-up can in fact act as a nursery for these individuals in the
development of their technology based businesses. These preparation and
nursery stage were deemed important for the entrepreneurial creative
process.
Another aspect of the argument of which has more importance
education or experience leads to findings about the importance of
previous experience to build entrepreneurial behaviours.
Rae (2005) explored the concept of mid-career entrepreneurship and
the learning needs and characteristics of mid-career entrepreneurs. The
need to train mid-career people aging 35 and above was necessary as the
lifespan increases and people are now working after the age of retirement.
Therefore, a transition of career to entrepreneurship-based career became a
potential choice among these people. The study showed that most people by
mid-career, have acquired extensive skills, knowledge and experience
through immersion within their industry. Rae (2005) presented the
argument that these provide a rich resource of capabilities and expertise on
which to draw it, but it may also restrict their entrepreneurial outlook unless
they are able to reframe or unlearn less useful aspects of their prior
learning for entrepreneurship.
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Gibb (1991) explained that people from career backgrounds in large
and complex industrial, public sector and uniformed services often have
highly developed skills, yet find transferring these to the life world of the
small firm, which requires flexible, opportunistic and innovative rather than
systematic behaviour, to be a difficult transition. However, Rae (2005)stressed that people in mid-career are in the optimum position to identify
and develop opportunity by using their experience, skills, networks and
energy to create and build business ventures. The ability to identify or
create and use opportunity from contextual experience can be learned from
entrepreneurial learning.
Rae (2005) suggests that entrepreneurial learning should include a
balance of practical theories with techniques and methods which can be
readily applied. The practical theories include practical investigation of
opportunities by using the tools provided and by market research, social
inquiry and interaction, innovation and planning (Rae, 2005).
Reviews from these literatures cannot definitely determine which
element is more important in creating a successful entrepreneur. However,
these findings suggest some key points which are presented below.
(1) Education can make successful entrepreneurs but not all as there areaspects of entrepreneurs that are teachable and others that are endemic
to the individual. The chance of creating successful entrepreneurs
from education and training lies with the individual himself.
(2) Experience can boost a persons potential as entrepreneur but how theperson reframes or unlearn his experience to suit the entrepreneurial
requirement is depending on the person. An individual who can
unlearn and utilizes his experiences has a high chance of becoming a
successful entrepreneur.
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These findings imply that entrepreneurship success is not
determined by education or experience although these aspects are important
determinants of success. The deciding factor is the individual himself.
2.2 Reality of Successful Entrepreneurship
Morrison (2000) proposed that the process of entrepreneurship initiation
has its foundations in person and intuition, and society and culture. It is not
a simple economic function but represents a composite of material and
immaterial, pragmatism and idealism. Morrison (2000) stresses that the key
to initiating the process of entrepreneurship lies within the individualmembers of society and the degree to which a spirit of enterprise exists, or
can be initiated.
Vernon-Wortzel and Wortzel (1997) stated that the initiation of
entrepreneurship must consider culture because it determines the attitudes
of individuals towards entrepreneurial endeavors. Timmons (1994)
elaborated the importance of an entrepreneurial culture. He said, a culture
that prizes entrepreneurship, an imperative to educate our population so that
our entrepreneurial potential is second to none, and a government that
generously supports pure and applied science, fosters entrepreneurship with
enlightened policies, and enables schools to produce the best educated
students in the world.
Morrison (2000) further commented that the role of family,
immediate and extended, is recognized as having the potential to make a
positive contribution towards entrepreneurial behaviour through the
provision of inter-generational role models and as tangible and intangible
support providers.
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Morrison (2000) also describe the profile of a successful
entrepreneur one who is intelligent and analytical, is an effective risk
manager and networker, possesses a strong set of moral, social and business
ethics, exhibits a basic traders instinct and is dedicated to life-long learning
in its many forms.
Berglund and Johansson (2007) explained that effective
entrepreneurs are more likely than others to systematically plan and
monitor network activities as well as to undertake actions towards
increasing their network density and diversity. Entrepreneurs are involved
in planning or starting firms and must engage in a continuous process of
appraising prospects for success. Entrepreneurs are extremely efficient and
flexible at delivering a product or service.
Gurol and Atsan (2006) stated that there are five characteristics
describing a successful entrepreneur and these are:
(a)Risk taking propensity(b)Tolerance for ambiguity(c)Locus of control(d)Need for achievement(e) Innovativeness(f) Self-confidence
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Chen at al (2005) suggests that entrepreneurs should have the
following traits:
(a)Self-efficacy an individuals cognitive estimates of his or her own(Wood and Bandura, 1989).
(b)Independenceneeded to bring in new ideas and undertake risks
(c)Achievement motivation individuals with the strong need to achieveoften find their way to entrepreneurship and succeed than others
(Carsrud and Johnson, 1989; McClelland, 1965)
(d)Risk-taking entrepreneurs are undertakers of innovation and venturebusiness and must have the courage to forward venture (Caird, 1988)
(e)The capability to endure the uncertain circumstances entrepreneursshould have enough confidence and endurance in the uncertain
circumstances
(f) The ability to seize business opportunities from the complicated market this differentiate an entrepreneur and common employees (Caird,
1988)
(g)Interdisciplinary knowledge and multi-function working background entrepreneurial activities require comprehensive qualities
(h)The ability to learn from failures
Although these facts reveal that a successful entrepreneur is the
product of the person and his intuition, society and culture also play their
importance in creating one. Hynes (1996) stated that there is argument that
enterprise culture is developed naturally, but the changing environmental
conditions necessitates that we cannot solely rely on this passing on of
knowledge, and there is a need to provide intervention to promote the
entrepreneurial culture. Education, according to Hynes (1996) can be
viewed as an important intervention. This was supported by other
researchers (Weber, 1980; Collins and Moore, 1964) who suggested that
entrepreneurial role can be culturally and experientially acquired with
education and training.
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The role of education in creating a successful entrepreneur cannot be
denied. However, literatures pointed that not all entrepreneurial learning or
not all kind of education will lead to the creation of a successful
entrepreneur. A study conducted by Kolveried and Moen (1997) indicated
that graduates with an entrepreneurship major are more likely to start newbusinesses and have stronger entrepreneurial intention than other graduates.
This means that simply a higher education level does not guarantee
entrepreneurial behaviours, much more success in entrepreneurship.
Education in this sense means, entrepreneurship education and training,
which can significantly provide a better chance of success for potential
entrepreneurs.
Hansemark (1998) suggests that there is a specific learning
discourse that can effectively produce successful entrepreneurs. He
suggests those superior pedagogical models, problem-based learning (PBL)
and action learning (AL) should be used in entrepreneurial education. AL
(Revans, 1982) means learning by doing and these actions with some risk,
to be used on problems with no solutions fixed in advance. PBL (Baud and
Feletti, 1991) means that the real world situations are the starting point for
problem solving that the individual is responsible for personal own learning
and that learning occurs in a group setting.
McMullan and Long (1987) suggest that instructional methodology
is not well suited to aspiring entrepreneurs. They argued that in order to
provide effective entrepreneurial education, students should deal with
ambiguity and complexity. They must learn how to find problems as well as
how to design solutions and should have substantial hands-on experience
working with small firm sector.
Hansemark (1998) explains that the fundamental purpose of the
entrepreneurship program is to develop abilities, knowledge, skills,
attitudes and personal attributes important for the entrepreneurial activity.
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Abilities include a person can see possibilities, create reliable business
plans, build personal networks, create financial resources, create an
organization to implement the business idea, and implement it on the
market, and to make a good choice in startup timing and choice of location.
Development of knowledge includes the aspects of marketing,
business law, business economics and how to create financial resources.
Skills development includes creativity, planning, oral presentation and
argumentation, decision making, and interpersonal skills. The goal for the
programme also includes learning about the cultures, norms, values and
attitudes, in which the entrepreneur works, for example positive attitudes
for new development and renewal. In addition, entrepreneurship
programme should also develop the participants psychological
characteristics, need for achievement and locus of control (Hansemark,
1998).
Jack and Anderson (1999) highlighted another important point on
the aspect of education and its contribution to making a successful
entrepreneur. They stated that entrepreneurship is both science and art.
Some aspects of entrepreneurship cannot be taught and it is fundamentally
experiential. Gibb (1993) suggests that this can be overcome by having
students work in small business, thus learning by doing. Students who work
as entrepreneurs will encounter the risks and ambiguity of the unstructured
situation experienced by most entrepreneurs. True entrepreneurial learning
should encompass both concept and procedure, so that people are
encouraged to use their own initiative to secure their economic future
(Bridge et al, 1998).
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3.0 Personal Opinions
The question, which is more important education or experience?to become a
successful entrepreneur, is a difficult one to answer. In my personal opinion, themaking of a successful entrepreneur requires both elements education and
experience. However, in determining which comes first, education or experience, I
am in favour of experience. However, going though an education program that
promotes entrepreneurship is also an experience so in this sense, the experience
gathered from the education efforts provides the person with the behaviours, skills,
attitudes, and personal attributes to make a successful entrepreneur.
It is my personal belief that entrepreneurial spirit comes from experience
which is provided by the culture and world view of the individual. Characteristics
that build entrepreneurial spirits such as risk taking, opportunist, fearless,
manipulator, daring and so on are developed through life experiences. Specifically,
past experience in relation to work plays a significant role to create an interest in
entrepreneurship. This was commented by Mohd Salleh (1992) whose study
revealed that the influence of different types of work experience on business
students entrepreneurial tendency in higher education. His research revealed that
majority of students who had not permanent full time job experience after their
secondary education were less enterprising compared to those with greater number
of permanent full-time job, especially among those having full-time jobs in small
business organizations. Thus, this suggests the importance of certain type of work
experience in creating an enterprising individual.
This implies that not all experience lead to success in entrepreneurship. Avery experience person who has work in conglomerate companies, dealing with
complex business dealings or working at executive level for a long time in the
public service might fail at entrepreneurship. This means not all experiences lead to
successful entrepreneurial endeavors but rather, specific experiences which
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promote the behaviours, skills, attitudes and personal traits of a successful
entrepreneur are what count the most.
It could also come from education as going through the process of education
itself presents experience that can mould these characteristics in a person.However, I believe that a person lacking in entrepreneurial spirit might find it hard
to survive as an entrepreneur. Nonetheless, education can help strengthen the
entrepreneurial elements of a person, which contribute to becoming a successful
entrepreneur.
Thus, in my opinion, experience is more important in making a successful
entrepreneur. This experience however does not refer to the general experience but
rather, experience that supports the development of an entrepreneurial person.
Thus, a person who is a pensioner, having worked for more than 30 years could be
regarded as a highly experienced person but does not guarantee his success as an
entrepreneur. However, if his work and personal experience (which is reflected by
the culture where he lives) played a significant role in developing his enterprising
behaviours, skills, attitude and personal trait, then he will surely be successful.
These are portrayed in the successful entrepreneurs of the world and in Malaysia.
Their experiences from work or personal background mould them to have certain
characteristics needed to succeed in entrepreneurial endeavors.
Nevertheless, I would also say that education is an important learning
experience to make a successful entrepreneur. In Malaysia, as in other nations,
building and developing an entrepreneurial culture has become inevitable to create
more entrepreneurs. Students in primary, secondary and tertiary education are now
educated or given the learning experience with intention to assimilate
entrepreneurial traits and values. This is education, yet at the same time, it spells
out an intentional learning experience.
I also agree with the literatures which highlighted that the content as well as
the delivery method of entrepreneurial education and training must be taken into
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consideration. Experiential learning, action learning and problem-based learning all
but integrate education and experience. In other words, experience becomes the
teacher. We cannot simply blame entrepreneurship major students who failed as
entrepreneurs after their training or reluctance and failure of participants who
attended entrepreneurship training because the training itself did not consider thesignificance of right content and methods of delivery.
As a personal experience, I have attended some entrepreneurial training
workshops which seemed to be teaching or imparting skills of entrepreneurs such
as development of business plans, revelations of entrepreneurial traits and
characteristics, information about entrepreneurship supports in Malaysia,
information about potential opportunity and business ventures in Malaysia but
delivery? Participants sit down to listen to lecture; they do hypothetical business
plans, without actually leaving the training premises; case studies not related to
their context and interests were used; among other things. I believe with such
approaches, entrepreneurs were not made, simply given the hope that they might
survive the demanding world of business and if they do fail, it is understandable.
Therefore, in my opinion, experience is the best teacher that makes a
successful entrepreneur but education itself is a learning experience which, when
the content and delivery can promote and develop the persons behaviours, skills,
attitudes and personal attributes required by enterprising activities, then education
is also important.
Which comes first? It depends. If the person is educated in entrepreneurship
and this becomes a learning experience for him, then education comes first; on a
condition that the education serves as a learning experience. Experience comes
first, if it also promotes entrepreneurial acumens. When this did not happen, then
experience has to be supported by education and it is up to the individual to
reframe and unlearn in order to pick up the right ingredients for successful
entrepreneurship.
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4.0 Conclusion
The question, which is more important and which comes first experience or
education, is crucial to answer because the Malaysia government is currentlypursuing a concerted effort to promote entrepreneurship among the population
especially the Bumiputeras, which is seen as lagging behind the rest of the
population. This is gleaned from the Ninth Malaysia Plan whereby, 80,000
participants will undergo entrepreneurship training and another 102,000 will be
given coaching and advice services. Until 30th November 2005, Tabung Ekonomi
Kumpulan Usaha Niaga (TEKUN) has provides loans to 104,202 small business
enterprises which amounted to RM495,165,500. Most recently, the government
through the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Development (MECD) had
announced plan to establish the Entrepreneur Development Board (Majlis
Pembangunan UsahawanMPU) in all major towns throughout the country. These
are governments effort in creating more new entrepreneurs in the country.
The slowdown of economy, the rising of unemployment and the ever-
turbulent job market have all but led to the rationale of creating more
entrepreneurs. Lessons learnt from the economic recession in 1996-8 showed that
entrepreneurial activities from the small and medium industries enabled the
country to withstand pressures from economic recession. Malaysia was not hard hit
by recession, as experienced by neighboring countries at that time.
These recent changes necessitated the move toward entrepreneurs or self-
employment, which will have an increasingly important element of economic
growth and development (Hynes, 1996). To ensure sustainable increase in self-employment, it is critical that Malaysia has in place, the correct infrastructure to
facilitate this development. One critical aspect of this infrastructure is the creation
of an enterprise culture which will encourage and entice individuals to take the risk
of starting a business (Haynes, 1996).
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However, the country cannot rely on building the number of entrepreneurs
alone. We need successful business ventures with sustainability, resilience and
ability to embrace the changes as they come. In short, successful entrepreneurs are
called for. Thus, it becomes important to identify which is more important and
why. Education, training and development are human capital developmentactivities which have become costlier but crucial to develop quality knowledge
workers for the country.
Thus, if experience and education are important to create successful
entrepreneurs, then the question now is what kind of experience? What kind of
education? This paper has illuminated some clues to these questions. Nevertheless,
continuous and further researches are imperative to answer these questions.
In conclusion, there is still a valid argument among scholars, practitioners
and the public on which aspect is more important: experience or education.
However, this paper has highlighted that both are important. It is not a question of
which is more important education or experience. What is more important is
whether the experience and/or education were able to mould the person to have
entrepreneurship behaviours, skills, attitudes and personal traits. Whichever
develops the individuals enterprising acumens is considered as the superior one or
the more important one. Nevertheless, both are important to the development of a
persons entrepreneurial characteristics.
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