Entrepreneurship and Education

From the start of my life, I have been told " If you want to progress in your life you should study". After getting a bachelors in engineering and masters in business, I wonder if this is true or if there is any correlation between Success and Education or Entrepreneurship and Education.

I am very inspired by stories of these four great men 1) Dhirubhai Ambani 2) Bill Gates 3) Steve Jobs 4) Laxmi Mittal. Common thing in these four is that none of them have education above their bachelor’s degree. In fact, three of them left their education when they started their business which made them great. Laxmi Mittal's son, Aditiya who is one of the backbones of Mittal Steel and who pioneered the deal between Arcelor and Mittal has just a bachelor’s degree and not a MBA when in fact he can go to best school in the globe for his MBA and have no constrains either of money or skills.

This leads me to the conclusion that Education and Entrepreneurship are not correlated. But then one question comes to my mind, why do these guys hire graduates from top notch schools to run their businesses or to lead the technical developments in their companies. Answer lies in the fact that educations makes an individual aware of the opportunities one have and the risks that needs to be taken to achieve a particular endeavor. These guys take the advantage of these skills of their employees and with their uncanny risk taking abilities take and manage these risks. Somebody can ask, can’t their employees, who have these skills do the same and be as great as these guys are? Well, the answer is no because education sometimes curtails risk taking abilities. To be as great as these guys first thing that one need is the ability to take uncanny amount of risks. Just imagine ourselves in the position of these four guys when they started their respective companies, and not many of us will follow the same path as these guys but for some exceptions like Warren Buffet and Naryanmurthy who took these risks, we can see the results.

To conclude, I would say power of sighting great opportunities coupled with supernatural risk taking abilities can make the normal person great. Mere education won’t help you to be great. It just gives you a platform to achieve greatness.