Do you need formal education to do well in business?

The first and direct answer to this question is Yes! We can now spend the rest of the day defining what we mean by education.

The media is rife with stories of school dropouts or people who never went to higher institutions, but still founded and run successful multimillion-dollar businesses. Reading such stories over and over again, a lot of people begin to feel like they really do not need the education to know how to run a business.

But before going into the rest of the write-up, let me point that people and events make news when they are odd, unusual and when they are the exceptions to the rule. If you get my point, I mean that those multimillion-dollar entrepreneurs who make the news as being only half-educated are the exceptions to the rule. Generally, you will need a college education, maybe an MBA, plus years of corporate experience to start and run a successful business. Just because someone was successful in business without a college education does not mean that you will. In fact, more than 90 percent of the number failed in the business. The few you see on the news are the ones that broke the jinx.

Now let’s talk about education, and what this could mean in the business world. One reason why a lot of businesses fail is a lack of sufficient knowledge and effort. Does this necessarily mean education within the four walls of a school? Not necessarily. Being educated means that you have acquired sufficient knowledge on a topic, discipline, skills, etc. Being educated will stretch your ability to think critically and question things.

The young Igbo boy who spends five years working under an Electronics merchant in the Alaba market will barely need any MBA or corporate experience to start and run his own business afterward. He has spent five years acquiring the specific knowledge needed for that industry he is in. He will, most likely, do better than the business administration graduate who works two years in an office and then decides to start an Electronics business. However, if the same young Igbo boy chooses to go start a fintech instead, we may be looking at an entirely different kind of result. He is obviously lacking in the education needed for that sector.

I devoted time and resources to getting my MBA and attending other educational courses because I knew that in my line of business, this knowledge would become very relevant.

If you are in the corporate space and desire to start a business in tech, artificial intelligence, and the likes, you need formal education. You will be working with a lot of experts and you need to be able to understand how they think and how they work. You are going to handle your accounts before you get an accountant, for instance, how do you figure out that your books are in black or red? How do you understand your cash flow? What if your accountant is tampering with your reports, would you have an inkling?

Getting a college degree or an MBA does not mean that you are done learning. You will have to keep improving, adapting, and changing to suit the trends.

Education means being an expert in what you do, and in the startup world, you really need to be an expert in what you do in order to make a significant impact. The business space has no room for the half-baked entrepreneur who is merely hoping to get lucky. Without formal education, a hard worker with knowledge of the field he chose and some natural talent can put in the effort and succeed in his business.

You will notice, however, that most of them still go return for some formal education as they keep the business growing. Learning never ends, and if you are an entrepreneur, this should be your motto. Thanks to modern tech, you can take some courses online and get real value like you would in a classroom. Like a quote says “a hustler never stops learning”. Pushing more and more education into yourself is the same as investing in your business. Learn more about your business than anyone else, and you’ll become stronger as a business.