New Delhi Times - Gaurav Bhatnagar reporting from New Delhi, India

Can entrepreneurship be taught? That was one of the questions that got discussed at various points at TiECon. Many aspiring entrepreneurs questioned the VCs as to what they are doing for educating them about entrepreneurship. Somebody also asked if it makes sense to have a course on entrepreneurship in schools.

My take is that you can't teach somebody how to become an entrepreneur. You can teach somebody how to become a doctor or an engineer but not an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship has to come from within. If you ask, most entrepreneurs will tell you that the reason they started out was because the urge to start became so strong that they just had to give up what they were doing and dive into it. Hardly anybody will say that they started a company because they attended a course in entrepreneurship.

That doesn't mean that courses in entrepreneurship are not useful. One can learn a lot about the basics of running a business in such courses. The best way to learn the ropes, however, is to actually work in a startup. The real challenge of doing a startup is dealing with the everyday fires that occur without notice. The real challenge is in building a great team and keeping it motivated. The real challenge is in doing more with less. The real challenge is in not getting burnt out working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. All of this can't be taught. It needs to be experienced. A startup is a the best on the job training one can get in entrepreneurship. Perhaps that is one reason why so many successful companies led to creation of other successful startups (Microsoft is of course the best example of this).

So if you are serious about entrepreneurship but not yet ready for it, working at a startup might be the next best thing!