I’m about to complete my second year as “true” entrepreneur since graduating from the University of Minnestoa in 2009.   The reason I put the word “true” in quotes is because I cannot play the student card anymore, and I have to actually make a living doing this.  Even though I graduated with a degree in entrepreneurial management, the real world ended up being much different than what they talked about in the classroom.

The biggest difference I faced going from the classroom to the real world was the gap between theory and reality.  In school, it was all about doing the research, writing the business plan, and creating the financial projections, but in the real world, it is all about execution.  By no means am I saying college is pointless or a waste of time, I am simply stating the differences.  Graduating from business school, I was prepared to create marketing strategies, but I did not know how to close the sale of my first customer.  My Human Resources class taught me all the laws and requirements around employees, but it did not teach me how to recruit the best possible team.  The University taught me the elements of an elevator pitch, but not how to grab the attention of a room full of investors.

Again, the difference is theory and reality; it’s projecting your sales versus actually closing the sales.  Business school taught me a lot, but what it did not teach me is actually how to do it, and especially at the startup level, doing it can be a lot more valuable.  Most of all, what any business school cannot teach, and what is critical to be a great entrepreneur, are PASSION and PERSEVERANCE.  With those two attributes, nothing else matters.  It does not matter whether you have a Ph.D or dropped out of college; with that combination, you will find a way to have success.  So if you are in business school or thinking about business school, just realize there is a huge gap between the theory you learn and how to actually apply to your business.  But if you are passionate and are willing to do whatever it takes to be a successful entrepreneur, then I would not worry about finding a way to fill that gap.