by Daniel Kwek (Singapore, SMU)
The lessons I have taken away from my Technological Entrepreneurship module covers both technical / academic knowledge, as well as Business skills / experiences only attained through practical application.
Technical / Academic knowledge
Materials covered have revealed to us details that are intimate to an entrepreneur’s heart. The rough contents are as follows:
- Conceptualization of a business idea
- Nurturing the idea
- Writing a business plan;
- Protecting this business idea;
- Seeking of funds;
- Understanding the incentives for and against an entrepreneur / investor;
- Understanding the intricacies of contracts / deals between one’s partners, employees, investors, etc;
- Deeper appreciation of how to run a business and subsequently grow it;
- How to protect one’s company;
- Exit strategies for an entrepreneur;
- Setting up of our company’s website
The above highlights the rough technical / academic knowledge I have grasped from this module. These have allowed me to understand more about entrepreneurship and provided me with a firm foundation to further build my experiences and knowledge upon within and / or beyond the context of this module.
Business Skills / Experiences
- Sharing sessions with entrepreneurs
Interaction with entrepreneurs has brought some realism to both this module, as well as entrepreneurship. Previously, ‘entrepreneurship’ was a foreign term, and carried the connotations of something being “BIGGER THAN LIFE” and “UNATTAINABLE” / “IMPOSSIBLE”. I believe that this stereotype has vanished now.
Entrepreneurs are just like you and I. They are people that have gone off the beaten track, following their hearts, and chasing that dream that they have conceived. Some will succeed and be richly rewarded, some will earn enough for sustenance, and most would have “failed”.
One might ask, “Why then even bother?”
Passion.
Passion for one’s dream. This was something that was clearly radiating from entrepreneurs that spoke in class. They had an inner calling to further their dreams, to materialize them for all to see/use/benefit from. To be able to endure those painstaking years as an entrepreneur, one must possess a strong conviction (passion). This is what I understood from those conversations in class. - Self learning / Experimentation
Since the course requires students to develop ideas with external parties, we had the opportunity to discover more knowledge from the School of Life-through our interaction with venture capitalists, private equity fund managers, and
micro financiers.
Having attended a breakfast meeting with venture capitalists and private equity fund managers, allowed us further insights into the realm of VCs. The experience allowed us to network with individuals from the various sectors in this industry. We came out with a better understanding of the flaws of our business plans. These were invaluable industry knowledge that was hard to come by.
In sum, TE has managed to fuse academia with that of the real world. Knowledge must be supplemented with practice for learning to be valuable and relevant. That was what TE module has provided and achieved.
