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Do you find that when you are trying to grow your business or make sense of certain components, you wish you had more knowledge behind you? As an entrepreneur, education is undoubtedly an invaluable aspect of developing and growing, but we could place a lot of importance on the idea of education in a traditional sense, perhaps too much importance. Getting a qualification is something that proves helpful in certain respects, but if you are looking to run a business, exactly how essential is it? 

What Do You Think You Are Missing That Education Can Fill? 

The fact of the matter is now that you can find a qualification to cover almost any aspect of running a business, from the accountancy side to project management. This is where we see many people getting an Agile certification and Scrum qualifications to help them learn the ropes with regards to project management, but you have to ask yourself if you have the skills necessary to run your business in the way that you see fit. Qualifications provide insight, and they can certainly help fill skills gaps, but you must remember that to be an effective business leader, it doesn’t just help to have qualifications, you must have real-life visceral skills as well.

How Can Education Inspire You? 

When we talk about education, we believe that it is the best way to get a variety of skills, and it is, but only to an extent. Education also provides you with worthwhile experiences, just as long as you go about it the right way. For example, there are people coming up through the ranks now who have used their time in college to learn how to run a business, by running student groups or societies. That being said, entrepreneurs don’t need to have a degree. Many people go to university to get that piece of paper under their belts. 

The Double-Edged Sword of Education

To be able to get onto the career ladder, it can be a prerequisite that you have a degree, however, you can run a successful business without venturing into education at all. There are plenty of people who have never gone through traditional education and have made a very successful life for themselves. If you have a solid business idea or plan, there’s plenty of support. But this is where colleges can provide an opening if you do not have what it takes right now. But you won’t know until you start to develop yourself in the right way. Some people feel that going into education is a step back. But we also must remember that education is an amazing stepping stone. 

It’s not the be-all and end-all, and it is a wonderful way to fill certain skills gaps, however, if you think you’re missing out on certain business skills because you didn’t have the right education, you might find that taking a few courses will give you those skills, but an education, no matter how over or underpriced it is, can never replace actual real-life experience.