Business Year 4: Learn Through Observation

I’m a double degree student at Wilfrid Laurier University taking Business and Comp Sci and I’ve noticed 1 very specific truth over the last 4 years of schooling.  While most logic-oriented people can learn computer science on their own (with considerable effort and passion), the same is not true for business. Look around. The people that are good at business didn’t have a great idea when they were 30. Some had them when they were 15 and thought: “I think I can sell this to people”. 

These people are pioneers and none of them think through all the different models and theories they learned about business in class. Hell, of all the speakers I’ve gone and listened to, most relied on instinct and clever thinking to get ahead. Computer science is a little different. While instinct and creativity is great (and needed to be the best of the best), you can’t write code without knowing the intrecacies of the language. Period. You might be able to do code reviews and debug it without knowing every little thing but the true breakthroughs happen with people who eat, sleep, and breathe it.

I’ve been in university for 4 years and, so far, I’ve learned that my business courses can be learned through observation. So far.

I hear it gets better