I have to say that grades can teach you something. When I was in high school, I was bored because almost all the content of my classes is the same stuff we covered in fifth grade. Boredom and the pressures of home together with the aforementioned emphasis on formatted regurgitation make for poor grades, even if you already know the stuff. I learned to measure my learning internally and to target my own goals.

For many people, I think, grades are the best measurement we have, even if they are not a perfect one, of one’s learning. It is only those of us who don’t quite fit into “the mushy middle” who need to find another standard to use.

In thirty years since I got out of school, I still set my own goals and use my own standards of measurement. I think that an owner-manager needs to do that anyway. Your measurements will primarily be related to the reasons you started a business, along with whatever standards are required in your field of business or your location (e.g., financial standards for tax reporting).

While I’ve always believed that there is little correlation between good grades and success in life, your insights offered in this post still come across as very fresh to me because although I thought there’s no correlation between the two, I never thought good grades would actually be detrimental to the entrepreneurial spirit.

And though I generally agree with all your points here, I have to say there are still some merits to getting good grades in school because excelling in whatever you do is a habit and attitude you need to develop to succeed in life. And the best time to develop that habit and attitude is from a young age starting in school.

Cheers~

Mark

@Evan
I will definitely check those books out from the library next time I have the chance. Thanks for the suggestions.

@Carla – Many of my friends’ parents came to the US with no degree and no grasp of the english language. Yet every single one of them found a way to be wealthy. Clearly, there are more positives than negatives in favor of going to college, but nothing teaches you more than when you are forced to succeed.

@Michael – I’m glad things are different with your CS classes. I think it’s also very cool that your school offers entrepreneurship classes. My college was just starting to offer them when I started graduate school. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to take advantage of a few classes before I left.

In my computer science degree, we’re given extra credit for going above and beyond, and we’re given a large degree of free rein on our projects. We still have to conform to a certain style of writing/documentation, but they justify this by saying that clients would expect things in a certain way as well. It’s fair enough really, though frustrating sometimes.

And there’s a module purely for “Entrepreneurship and Innovation” though I haven’t taken it so I can’t really comment on how good it is! Still, the name is promising.

The thing is, it’s not that easy. If it was, it would have been done already!