Here’s how Prof. Wales does it in his classes: he grades heavily on attendance, participation, and effort, while still “teaching them the tough lessons”.

For example, they might have a debate where both teams earn some credit if they do a decent job, but the “winner” in his eyes gets more points toward their final grade. There is an effort component to the grade as well as a results component.

Once they enter into the phase of class where they need to start the business that profits $200, effort still factors into the grade (say – making sure you maintain a blog with your progress, turning in financial statements, doing a solid final presentation of what they learned, etc), but the grade can’t be an A+ without achieving the goal of $200 in profit.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a start. Maybe I’ll ask him to do a guest post and outline better how and why he does what he does.

Words like “teach,” “instruct” and “school” are hard to mix with words like “entrepreneur,” “outside the box” and “initiative.” For example, say you want to teach a lesson in risk/reward. You need students to experience a situation where they are likely to fail painfully, but it is till worth it because of the upside. For the lesson to mimic reality & allow the kids to “experience” risk and reward “trying your best” should not be enough.

A school or teacher able to teach that lesson well, within the confines of the school paradigm would be very impressive.

I think you have to have a strong desire to be a successful entrepreneur, while you can teach people the concepts and look at the case studies of what others have done and it may ignite a spark I don’t think education, in the conventional sense, is going to yield great results. As with most all schooling, you study for a test, you pass a test and you are there in qualified to do whatever you were studying. As an entrepreneur you are faced with new challenges almost daily, I’ve functioned as an entrepreneur for over 15 years now and it’s rare that a day goes by that I don’t come across something new. In a world that has been defined by yes and no, black and white, running a business is a lot of maybe and grey – that is hard, if not impossible, to teach in the classroom environment.

The question I have is: Why are so many enamored with the prospect of becoming an entrepreneur? As entrepreneurs we all openly discuss that it’s not what people think it is, often it is more hours, more problems, more work for less pay an benefits; at least it is this way for a period of every entrepreneurs life. I have to admit it doesn’t sound very attractive if you are in the outside looking in, yet why would so many just like us not trade it for anything? I think it boils down to something we touched on before, happiness. Those entrepreneurs who truly love what they do don’t care about how much vacation time they get, they don’t care about how much they make an hour, they are so engrossed with what they are doing they couldn’t imagine doing anything else or at the very least have a vision of where they are going that they believe in so much that they are willing to make enormous sacrifices for that vision to become a reality. I think what the outsiders really seek is the sense of contentment and genuine happiness that is one of the recurring themes I’ve noticed with entrepreneurs that I’ve met. You can feel, almost in a palpable sense, the energy that these people emit and all real entrepreneurs have it – that I do not believe can be taught in a classroom.

That is an excellent quote from Fried. I usually don’t like his stuff much but that resonates.

On the other hand, I’m suspicious & cynical of big institutional attempts to teach kids entrepreneurship at college or high school. There is a bit of school entrepreneurship stuff going on but it tends to be pretty bland.

I think it’s more likely to be useful from an uncle or something. paying for them to go to Uni? How about buying them an on campus sandwhich shop. If they don’t run it in to the ground you can have your money back at the end. If they run it well maybe they’ll pay their own rent for 4 years.

Maybe in the States that wouldn’t sound so crazy. Here it sounds pretty extreme. People (in the States, anyway) will sink a lifetime of savings into a “good education.” If running her own business isn’t education for an 18 year old, what the hell is?

Also, having entrepreneurial skills… i.e. the ability to make money on your own… is a very valuable skill to have even if you’re a corporate person. Wouldn’t it be nice to know how to create a cash flow when you’re laid off? Or when a big company won’t hire you?