From Solopreneur to Team Player

Last summer I was sitting amongst 3,000 people in a crowded auditorium taking copious notes while the speaker laid out the key skills needed to succeed in the world we were entering. The speaker was Malcolm Gladwell and the skill he highlighted was collaboration. In his own words, “Collaboration is the skill of the 21^st century.” 

This may be the skill of the 21^st century, but the concept is certainly not new. A famous African proverb lays out a similar message: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”  

Unfortunately, this is not always the perception when it comes to entrepreneurship. Often, entrepreneurs are hailed as the lone wolves—the siloed geniuses who strive forward alone and build empires. And as this myth is perpetuated, students begin to accept more and more the idea of the “solopreneur” and associate entrepreneurship with loneliness, social anxiety, and unending drive. 

I am here to say that entrepreneurship education is the space for collaboration. As educators teaching the entrepreneurial mindset, we have a calling to bring real-world applicability to our lessons and prepare students for the future, however uncertain. One primary way we can do this is by encouraging a team-focused approach to student business creation. 

When students come together, united by a common vision and working toward a clear goal, the result is often magical. This doesn’t mean it isn’t still messy and confusing and frustrating at times (after all, we’re dealing with humans), but it does means that students are developing key skills through the experience. Collaboration essentially leads to human skills—when we learn to work together, when understand the primary concept that other people exist. 

My favorite example of this style of approach comes from our own Fine Dining Restaurant on the campus of Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy. When I tell people that we have a student-operated restaurant on our K-12 campus serving multi-course experiences on par with high-end restaurants, I get looks of disbelief. Until they come see it for themselves. 

While the concept started as the dream of a single student, the execution of the idea required a dedicated team and a whole heap of the entrepreneurial mindset. In the end, as amazing and cool as the restaurant turned out to be, what the students learned through the process was even better. 

 Let’s go! 

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Check out this Video Highlighting the Fine Dining Experience  

A group of six students started a brand-new concept at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy- a fine dining restaurant in the school’s state-of-the-art teaching kitchen (our hub of entrepreneurship). 

 Over the course of a school year, the students applied the entrepreneurial mindset to a Wildly Important Goal (WIG) and launched this venture. The business will start its third year of operation this fall.