Last week, a reader called me to give her view regarding my MSMEism™ column on entrepreneurship that was published in the July 20th issue. Contrary to my opinion she believes that entrepreneurship can be coached and trained.
We had a long conversation over the phone on whether entrepreneurship is an art or a science but the outcome was however inconclusive. I must confess that some parts of our conversation got quite ‘heated’ but we were respectful to each other throughout. The spirit of finding a common ground was the key factor since the two of us were genuinely interested to find the right answer.
For some time now, I have never felt so good after having a ‘heated’ conversation with someone. In today’s modern society, most people tend to dwell on their differences rather than focus on the objective. People are likely to get angry, upset and agitated when they feel that others are unable to accept their opinion. This unfortunately can even lead to friendship turning sour.
Being in the media industry for sometimes now, it is my nature to be opinionated. Therefore, people who forget my profession are likely to misunderstand me as an arrogant person. Fortunately, my profession has also taught me to focus on our commonalities and not on our differences. I believe that we should learn this particular skill of “agreeing to disagree”. We must agree that sometimes, people aspire to reach the same result but each has a different methodology.
Coming back to the telephone conversation, I would like to express my utmost respect to the reader for her professionalism as well as the manner she conducted and carried herself. She reminded me of the need respect differences and focus on the objectives. I am so thankful to her and the timing of her call. She made me feel normal again unlike others who think I am too opinionated and arrogant.
So, is entrepreneurship an art or science? Well to me, I still think it is an art but anyone else can still think it is science which can be formulated and trained. Whether it is an art or a science, for all of us who think one way or another, the most important objective is for us to finally find the right answer and start producing more entrepreneurs.
God bless MSMEs!
