America’s Comeptitive Advantage Part 2

So in the last part, I ended with the point Friedman has already made: Imagination is America’s competitive advantage. Before I move, I just want to clarify that by imagination, I essentially mean innovation. Innovation in how we use energy, make calls, transport ourselves, etc.

What exactly does this mean? To paraphrase Friedman again, his point was essentially that the doomsday sayers are not 100% accurate. Yes, it is becoming ever more inevitable that China will join the US in the ranks of world superpowers, if it hasn’t done so already. But, unlike what many are saying, this does not necessarily mean that China will replace the United States. America has, and certainly can continue to be, the hub of creative thinking where great ideas are born. There’s a reason technology entrepreneurs congregate around Silicon Valley, and there’s a reason why so many world class scientists come to American institutes to conduct their research. There’s a a reason the overwhelming majority of major international companies were started in America. And it’s simple, the American lifestyle and culture inspires creativity and encourages everyone to go out and do their own thing. Or at least it did.

This is what really got to be when I heard the professor speak a couple weeks back, how America might be losing the competitive advantage it has had for over two centuries. The problem itself is an ironic paradox. With the increase of higher education and graduate school education, America is arguable diminishing its age old atmosphere of creativity. Higher education is good for many things. For one, those with a college degree on average well over a million dollars more over their lifetime to non-degree laborers. Coupled with masters degrees or other graduate/specialty degrees, a college education allowed people to go on and become doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants, and other highly respected and well paying careers.

However, there’s a glaring omission on this list: entrepreneurs. This is certainly an arguable topic, but I don’t think entrepreneurship is something that can be taught in the class room. If you are a hopeful future entrepreneur, but go to full time college like most others - you really aren’t sure if the whole entrepreneur thing is going to work out. You don’t know if you’ll just be able to go out there and start some revolutionary company that has a billion dollar IPO, you don’t know if you’ll make the next Microsoft or the next Google. Honestly, if you want to be an entrepreneur but are in college, you probably don’t even know if you can create a small company that just makes ends meet. And because of this uncertainty, you come to college; a degree provides a fall back that still generally assures a good life. I know this, becase I think I fall in this category. If I knew today that I could quit college to start my own company and be set for life, I would do it in a heartbeat. But I don’t, and college is a sense of insurance that will allow me to still fulfill some of my lifelong dreams.

This is where the problem is. By using college as a safeguard, that entrepreneurial spirit is often killed. While one might have gone into college with dreams of creating his own company, 4 years later he’s out there doing interviews looking to work for a firm. College is great for so many things, but not entrepreneurship. College doesn’t teach you how to run a company, how to get venture capital, or many of the other skills needed to innovate. College, rather, largely teaches students higher level skills that allow them to get professional, well-paying jobs. College doesn’t teach one to risk everything they have to create something that could be great, it teaches one to learn, rehearse, and prepare for a relatively static and traveled path in life. I’m not saying college is an all together bad thing; much of our recent economic growth is due to higher level education. But when it comes to entrepreneurship, college needs reforming.

And this is how Friedman ultimately ended his speech, with a call to reform education. Today’s schools are so fantastic if you want to become a doctor, an engineer, an economist, etc - all of which are respectable fields. But when it comes to creating entrepreneurs - what has always been America’s competitive advantage - higher education is woefully lacking. Colleges need to focus more on teaching emerging adults how to innovate and implement, not just learn and follow. Colleges need to encourage and support those who are willing to take a shot and inventing the next big thing. Colleges need to be a nurturing ground for regular ingenuity, not simply repeated adequacy.

Personally, I don’t think college has really helped me further my entrepreneurial goals. I think mine are still alive and entirely possible, but I can’t deny that college has made me think long and hard about setting into a more certain career path. That’s what I think the problem is. College right now is good if you have a set path that you are going to follow and fulfill, but if you’re unsure and are really an entrepreneur at heart - it can be tough. There are so many things here that kill the entrepreneurial spirit and make you think of where your career is “really” going to go in a few years. And that’s a shame, because in these tough economic times, America desperately needs its innovators.