Modern-Day Meno

So, in D.C., I'm working for the Public Forum Institute. Right now, their main project is to work on the National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship, made possible by a grant from the Kauffman Foundation. Our task is to promote debate and deliberation on policy issues relating to entrepreneurship, using methods such as explaining regulatory burdens, discussing rising costs of health care, etc. Aside from the issues of running a business, the main philosophical thrust of the Kauffman Foundation is the attempt to spur on entrepreneurship. This goal lies on one premise which I'm not sure is a totally valid one: that entrepreneurial ability can be taught.

Now, as Socrates asked Meno to do, in order to answer this question, we must first examine the nature of entrepreneurial ability; ist est, what is it? Is entrepreneurial ability a high-falutent way of saying motivation, drive, tenacity, and all those other qualities that are highly dependent on individual will? Or is it more along the lines of knowing what tools one can employ in order to see an idea through, ensuring that it will succeed because of proper prior planning? Most would probably say it is an inextricable mix of the two; without one, the other is useless. An excess of the first qualities leads to the types of businesses that you'll see creating objects in infomercials and probably represents a majority of failed entrepreneurial ventures. An excess of the latter results in risk-adverse individuals who make safe bets and end up becoming bankers.

"So, if it is indeed a mix of individual will and a tool set to know how to best apply that will, what good is simply increasing entrepreneurial education going to do? You can't simply instill the drive to succeed in someone," our hypothetical interlocutor might say. The response to this is yet another question, following the typical Socratic formula: "Are we certain that all those who already do have the will have the toolbox, though?" This answer MUST be a resounding no.

The status quo of America, which entrenches minorities and those in lower socio-economic conditions further down the Darwinian totem-pole, stifles those who could achieve in many ways. Firstly, by failing to give these children proper education, their wills are invariably stunted, having been born in an environment where the only ways out of the ghetto are "slinging rocks, shooting hoops, or telling jokes," according to Dave Chappelle. Students, like serfs in feudal societies, have no concept of a better life because none is presented to them as a viable possibility. Pop culture, which idolizes gangsters and otherwise unsavory characters, only provides them with negative role models and a vision of the American Dream that is unattainable, except through extreme luck, which is no basis for building a society.

Entrepreneurial education admittedly does little on its own to improve these root causes of social disparity. What it does do, however, is solve the proximate problems of students who have not been stifled to the point of hoplessness; it does provide the toolbox for those who have the drive and perhaps better than a high school diploma. These people, who sit on the margin and may have been pushed down without such programs, are invariably helped by being pushed up, instead. These individuals can go on to provide good, responsible role models for children with ghetto tunnel vision. Entrepreneurial education can provide the first step out of entrenchment, and for that alone, it is worth trying.