Liberal Arts and Entrepreneurship

According to Mary Godwyn (2009), “Liberal arts and entrepreneurship have a common foundation, but they have erroneously become defined as polar opposites within the academy”. This may be due to preconceived assumptions about both systems.

Entrepreneurship has stereotypically been seen as a practical discipline compared to theoretical liberal arts modules that aim to build important skills. While entrepreneurship is rooted in business, it exists in every field. Fundamentally, entrepreneurship helps solve problems through innovation, passion and curiosity. The liberal arts education aims to teach students how to question assumptions. Blending real world practical demands with the skills developed through a liberal arts education is vital. 

In “Liberal Education and the Entrepreneurial Mindset: A Twenty-First-Century Approach”, Leo Higdon describes an entrepreneurial mindset as “individuals who can extend their knowledge to recognize opportunities where others don't.” The author points out that characteristics of an entrepreneurial mindset are often embedded within the goals of a liberal arts education. 

The liberal arts model values characteristics such as challenging conventional thinking, seeing connections between various fields, open-mindedness, focusing on larger goals, learning from setbacks and communicating effectively. These characteristics often relate to being a constant learner, for example by being able to learn from setbacks and be open to new ideas. These values overlap with those characteristics necessary for an entrepreneurial mindset. 

Based on these assumptions, the liberal arts model is easily adaptable to engaging with entrepreneurship, since it values entrepreneurial characteristics. 

According to Derek Lidow, arts and science converge in entrepreneurship. Creativity, innovation and understanding human behavior and being able to apply these skills to improve lives and commoditize are what make entrepreneurship up. The liberal arts model encourages an interdisciplinary understanding of various disciplines to help students engage with different ways of thinking, and identify connections between multiple industries. 

The liberal arts model helps develop entrepreneurial traits. Some other direct ways of engaging with entrepreneurship are through integrating coursework from different fields with entrepreneurship,  educating students to launch enterprises through non-academic activities such as clubs, or competitions and incorporating entrepreneurial processes directly into coursework. Overall, entrepreneurial students can benefit from a liberal arts education through a variety of ways. 

Thus, the liberal arts and entrepreneurial mindsets complement each other to a great extent. Entrepreneurship includes critical thinking, effective communication and questioning conventional assumptions, with the context of creating a compelling value proposition and taking action. 

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References

Aaup.org. 2020. Can The Liberal Arts And Entrepreneurship Work Together? | AAUP. [online]

J. Higdon, Jr., L., n.d. [online] Liberal Education and the Entrepreneurial Mindset A Twenty-First-Century Approach.

Lidow, D., 2020. Why Entrepreneurship Should Be A Required Undergraduate Class. [online] Forbes.