You Can't Learn to Swim at the Library

Neil Kane, Assistant Teaching Professor, ESTEEM Graduate Program, The University of Notre Dame

There’s a sign above my desk that says, “You can’t learn to swim at the library.”

That one sentence pretty much sums up my entire philosophy on teaching entrepreneurship: To learn it, you have to do it.

My belief in this isn't just academic; it's forged from a career of doing. I’m an engineer by training, but I’ve also been an enterprise sales rep for IBM, I’ve worked in venture capital and I’ve started or led over a dozen companies. When I look back, what I learned building those businesses is far more relevant to my students than what I learned in my (entirely classroom-based) MBA program.

That diverse background—sales, investing and building— forms the three pillars of my teaching philosophy: knowing how to sell, knowing how investors think and knowing, above all, that you can only learn entrepreneurship by practicing it.

That's the mindset I bring to my current role as a teaching professor in the University of Notre Dame’s ESTEEM Graduate Program, where my job is to help students turn innovations into real businesses.

Teaching is a Skill, Not Just Knowledge

When I was hired to build the entrepreneurship program at Michigan State University, they had the good sense to recognize that an entrepreneur should build their program rather than a faculty member. But although I was an experienced entrepreneur, I had zero administrative or teaching experience and had to climb a steep learning curve.

I learned something humbling very quickly: teaching is a skill all its own. Just because someone was a great football player doesn't mean they’ll be a great coach. I had to work at becoming a competent instructor. I had to learn how to build a course, manage my time, handle grading and recognize that not all students learn at the same pace or have the same motivation.

But learning how to be a good instructor was only half the challenge. The other was figuring out how to teach a subject that moves at the speed of a startup—think AI, venture capital and blockchain—inside a traditional university system that is, to put it kindly, notoriously slow-moving. By the time a new course winds its way through the normal approval process, the field itself has radically changed.

So, what's the answer? You bypass the problem by letting students learn by doing, not just by sitting in lectures.

“Startups fail because they don’t have any customers. If you have a big enough market and you’ve truly identified a real problem that customers will pay to solve, raising money won’t be an obstacle.”

In the ESTEEM program at Notre Dame, we are overwhelmingly experiential. Every student spends nearly 10 months on an intensive capstone project, partnered with a real company to solve a real business challenge. We’ve had students do projects for giants like SpaceX, Lockheed Martin and Lenovo, as well as for brand-new startups. Everything we teach in the classroom—theory, finance, marketing, or emerging technologies like AI—gets immediately applied to their capstone project.

That's how you learn to swim: by getting wet.

It's Not About the Tech

And the biggest lesson those students learn, time and time again: It isn't about the technology. It's about the market.

Before I became an instructor, I spent many years commercializing technologies from different universities. When people ask me about accelerating the impact of innovations, my answer is simple: It’s about the market (and the caliber of the people doing the work). It is not about the technology.

A mentor of mine once said he’d never seen a tech company fail because of the technology. He was right. Startups fail because they don’t have any customers. If you have a big enough market and you’ve truly identified a real problem that customers will pay to solve, raising money won’t be an obstacle. The obstacle is almost always a lack of a good market or a deep misunderstanding of customers and their needs.

The AI Elephant in the Room

That focus on the market—on customer needs and human problems—is becoming more critical than ever as we face the AI elephant in the room.

AI is going to change our economy, our culture and our jobs in ways we don’t yet fully understand. As an educator, this forces a big question: What's left to teach when AI can automate so many tasks? I have a degree in mechanical engineering. I’d say today, 100% of what I did in my first job out of college could be done by AI.

AI neutralizes the advantage of having technical skills. So what will differentiate the next generation of knowledge workers?

It’s all the things we used to call "soft skills"—which are now the hardest and most valuable skills of all. How to communicate? How to sell. How to negotiate? How to network? How to make a cold call and get someone to talk to you? How to be a good project manager? How to tell a persuasive story? How to spot talent. How to inspire?

These core human skills are what will matter the most because the technical tasks are being automated right in front of our eyes.

Just Go Do It

So, what’s my advice for aspiring entrepreneurs? It’s the same thing I would have said ten years ago.

If you are sure you want to be an entrepreneur, then just go do it. You will figure things out as you go. There’s a Zen concept: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." It’s true. The people and resources you need will show up when you’re ready for them.

But if you’re not sure, feel that you need support, or if you want to build your resume and create new career options, then a graduate program can make a ton of sense. It gives you an incredible support system and, most importantly, the chance to try things in an environment where there is no penalty for failure. And you’ll get a degree.

Just remember: the cost of starting your own business goes up 10x the moment you cease to be an enrolled student and lose access to the wealth of resources, mentoring and funding that most universities provide.

AI

Startups

Blockchain

Marketing