by Pau Pavón

What I learned when I took an entrepreneurship class at age 14

Last year, I made one of the best decisions of my life.

At school, I had to choose one of three subjects: French, classic culture, or Entrepreneurship. I didn’t know what the last one was all about, so I joined in.

I was told it would be something “about business” and stuff like that. It sounded good, but nothing too exciting. Oh, was I wrong: it turned out to be awesome. We had this class twice a week, and I remember looking forward to it every single day.

The goal of the subject, ultimately, was to build a project or a service that answered a need in society.

Before and while doing that, we learned some (very useful) concepts which are essential to setting up a business, like defining the value proposition(s), evaluating costs and revenue streams, and so on. Overall, we learned how to make our own business model canvas, which I now believe to be key when building or trying to understand any business.

Despite the usefulness of this knowledge, that wasn’t the best part. What ended up being better — way better — was what I would learn on my own.

As I said, taking the class itself was great. But I wasn’t satisfied with what I was taught in it: I wanted more. I began googling and youtubing (is that even a word??) and eventually got really, really interested in entrepreneurship.

And that’s really the point I want to make in this article. Entrepreneurship is a passion for a lot of people, just as writing, engineering, sports, and art are for others. So I’ve been wondering: why isn’t it a subject that most schools teach? Not only may you find your passion, but entrepreneurship classes come with plenty of other benefits as well.

Here are some lessons I learned, both from my class and from working through problems on my own.

Entrepreneurship enhances creativity and boosts innovation

Being creative and innovative is something inside ourselves that needs to be developed. It’s only through putting these abilities to work that you can improve them. It’s undeniable that entrepreneurship requires both skills, so they’ll get used and improved along your way.

You learn to listen to others and value their ideas/points of view

Working with your team in order to get something done is essential. People naturally excel in different subjects. If you accept that fact and learn to use it to your advantage (the team’s advantage), the end product, service or whatever project you’re working on will turn out really well.

You get to think about the problems society is facing today

When choosing what we wanted to develop, we had to find a need or a problem in society that we wanted to solve. It’s very likely that you don’t think about this every single day, and trying to do so can even be difficult at first. Once you get into the flow of it, though, you start to realise that there are tons of things that can be solved or improved. You also become aware of a lot of problems you hadn’t ever thought about.

Your team needs to chase an end goal

Combining the above three, you finally set yourself and your team an objective and start working towards it. I believe that this is essential, not only in business/school related matters but in life in general. Having clear goals you’re passionate about makes it easier to realise your dreams and fulfill your aspirations in any field.

And, at the end of the day, that’s what I think entrepeneurship is about. It’s about making other people’s lives better while you improve yours as well. It’s about giving, receiving, hearing and being heard, and, overall, loving the work you do.

I hope you liked my story, and I’d really like to read your opinions on entrepreneurship being taught at school. Thanks for reading!