What they do (not) teach you about Entrepreneurship in school

2008 was my final high school year. Closer to the end of the year, almost after all the final exams, the school didn’t really know what to do with us. So they decided to instill entrepreneurship ideas in the minds of the pupils. Being a school with a strong accent on mathematics and computers, they decided to invite some tech entrepreneurs. In a somewhat voluntarily, 1-hour session, inside the school auditorium—two people sat on a stage side by side.

To my left, sat Yossi Vardi. Yossi Vardi is the father of, and the investor in, Arik Vardi—one of the co-founders of ICQ. He is a serial tech entrepreneur who invested in more than 85 high-tech startups, and I can’t find a reliable source for his net-worth, but ICQ alone has been sold to AOL for $287 millions in cash back in 1998 (that’s more than half a billion today, adjusted for inflation).

To my right, sat Alex Sirota. Alex is not as known as Yossi, but he founded a browser extension named FoxyTunes—in which Yossi Vardi invested—and later sold it to Yahoo (yes, that Yahoo) for $30 millions.

They kept on talking about entrepreneurship, the importance of believing in yourself, etc. I don’t remember the entire content of the session, but I remember how I felt afterward. I felt that I’m going to be a tech entrepreneur! This was such a strong feeling. I remember that I was dating a girl back then, and she (together with her girlfriends) decided to “skip” this “non-mandatory” session and go home. When we met later that day, she asked me what was the session about, and I did the most businessman face I could, and I answered her “We spoke about tech entrepreneurship”, like I was some important VC, and we just had a board meeting.

I spend the summer break trying to build a link sharing services, similar to digg.com. I’m going to be a tech entrepreneur in the golden years of the Internet. But I failed. I though maybe it’s not for me, maybe I should focus more on college. But then came something big.

The Social Network

Remember the movie “The Social Network” that came out in 2010, where Jesse Eisenberg plays Mark Zuckerberg in a story of founding of The Facebook? How he came up with the idea? The two nasty lawsuits between the Winkelvoss twins, and his friend Eduardo Saverin? The saga with Sean Parker, Napster and the “cool billion-dollar company”?

An inspiring piece of cinematography. I re-watched it recently. A story that will truly spark entrepreneurship in every one of us. All you need is an idea and a laptop, the true dream of tech entrepreneurship.

This movie signaled a new era, the era of Tech Entrepreneurs. Movie after movie, book after book, we got a glimpse into the world of big tech entrepreneurship. Companies like Uber, Airbnb, Instagram, WhatsApp, Dropbox, Spotify, and more—became big during that period. Names like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, Drew Houston, and more—resembled the typical image of a tech entrepreneur. And this reignited my desire to be like one of them.

Except for one little thing: it’s all a lie. Sort of.

The truth

They say that school does not prepare you for the real world. Nor does Hollywood. Dreaming big is important, but your chances of being the next Mark Zuckerberg, or the next Elon Musk, are slim. Approaching zero I’d say. Movies rarely capture the true story, and they tend to omit details in the backstory of the founders. They are an inspiring story of tech geeks who just messed with computers and “accidentally” built a billion-dollar company. They don’t talk about the struggles of raising money, and they ignore the thousands, if not more, of people who tried and failed.

What they do, however, apart from presenting an interesting story, is instilling a false belief. The false belief of “Go big, or go home.” They promote the idea that successful entrepreneurship, especially in tech, is when you raise millions of dollars in capital, and reach a $1B valuation. Which in reality is extremely hard, and never achieved by one person (despite what the movies try to tell you).

But there are many other entrepreneurs. Some of them work in small teams, others prefer to work alone—thus known as solopreneurs. Some raise money, while others bootstrap their business alongside their 9-5 job. Their revenue varies: some make millions, while others have enough to live comfortably. Many of them also fail. In the end, entrepreneurship is hard, and it’s not for everyone.

And yet, they rarely present at panels in schools, or have movies filmed based on their biography. But this lifestyle has way higher chance for success than thinking that you can be the next Mark Zuckerberg. It took me 14 years to change my mind and instead of focusing on a billion-dollar idea, focus on building small, sustainable online business. And it’s only when I left my job, a bit more than one year ago, and decided to travel for some time while building an online business, I’ve realized that maybe that’s what we should teach kids in schools if we want to instill entrepreneurship in them.