How Academic Papers Can Inspire Entrepreneurial Thinking in Students

Hrvoje Š.
9 Min Read

Some individuals, whether at the high school, undergrad, or postgraduate levels, will always chafe when teachers or professors assign them homework. That’s even likelier when the homework takes the form of academic papers. Little do these youngsters know that these papers can be a lifesaver. That is because they frequently teach these budding scholars to have an entrepreneurial spirit.

That’s not to say that every academic assignment instructors give their scholars will get them into this mindset. It all depends on the paper’s instructions and content. When given an assignment, though, some individuals will automatically start looking for writing paper online help from the best resources available, such as:

  • Scholarly articles
  • Blogs run by successful business entities
  • eBooks written by entrepreneurs 

Some pupils will even start typing phrases like “write my paper for me online” or “do my paper for me” into search engines. They’re looking for papers writing help from professionals.

While this might seem counterproductive, even these activities can encourage scholars to get ready for the business world that’s lurking just outside academia. They’re learning to allocate tasks to others, which can serve them well if they ever get into managerial or business ownership positions.

It’s worth talking in more detail about how academic assignments can get pupils ready to become entrepreneurs, so let’s discuss that right now.

What Do the Best Minds in the Industry Think About a Particular Subject?

Let’s imagine a scenario for a moment. A professor has a class of undergraduate students. For the sake of this hypothetical, their field of study is unimportant. The instructor assigns them an academic-style essay they must write for the class. Maybe they’ll want the pupils to use the MLA, APA, or Chicago format.

The students might grumble about the assignment. However, the professor adds a caveat to the instructions. The young scholars in the class can utilize any tech that exists for the purpose of paper writing. The teacher might even allow the class members to use AI to some extent.

By doing this, the students are encouraged to use all available resources to craft an essay that can hopefully get them a good grade and allow them to pass the class. That is what’s on the line for them in an immediate sense, but they’re also learning how to conduct themselves in the long term.

The students will likely scour the internet and find out what the top minds in their given field of study have to say about the paper’s subject. They will gather together all the information and present it to the teacher in a comprehensive essay.

What Does This Accomplish?

If you look at this scenario on the surface level, it seems unremarkable. The scholars in this class are merely gathering resources to write a paper in the same way others have done for the past several decades. However, if we get a little more in-depth, it becomes evident that the entrepreneurial spirit is being encouraged in these youngsters.

They are:

  • Learning to use all the resources available to them. This is something that company owners, CEOs, and other individuals in positions of power must do.
  • Learning to put together a comprehensive report on a particular subject and present it in an easily digestible form. This is, more or less, the equivalent of market research. 
  • Getting ideas from reputable sources. If they’re creative, the students can then develop their own ideas about the subject matter based on what others have already written. 

If you look at the situation in this way, it’s easy to see how what seems like a boring homework assignment is actually a chance for the young minds in this class to sharpen themselves. They’re learning at their own pace and digesting the information about the paper’s subject that they find. In essence, they’re learning on their own. That’s something all paradigm shifters need to do in the business world.

How Else Do Academic Papers Help Individuals Get Ready to Enter the Business World?

That’s not the only way these types of assignments help scholars with their creative and critical thinking skills. Maybe the teacher instructs the students to meet in study groups to encourage each other while they complete this assignment. Each member of the class must turn in their own work, but they can collaborate in the meantime.

This collaborative spirit should be beneficial to students who one day want to go on to start their own companies. They should learn that even if they’ve had some brilliant idea for a new endeavor on their own, they likely won’t be able to see it through to fruition unless they have help from others.

That’s crucial for any CEO or company owner to know. They can’t reach the pinnacle of their niche or industry unless they have the right team around them.

The Instructor Can Also Encourage a Risk-Taking Mindset

There’s an additional way that assigning students papers can get them thinking like company heads. Let’s say the teacher makes the format for the finished deliverable a little more flexible. They mention some different elements the student might add to the project, like graphs, stats, charts, etc. These can also be aspects of the paper.

By doing so, the instructor is encouraging their pupils to deliver a creative finished product that’s stimulating and engaging. This skill will undoubtedly serve them well when they present a business idea to a credit union, bank, angel investor, or venture capital firm. A would-be entrepreneur needs to get seed money from somewhere, so they will likely go through this step at some point.

Academic Papers Can Be the Jumping Off Point for Individuals with Big Dreams

When a young person is assigned what seems like a dry or dull assignment to write, a teacher with the willingness to spice up the assignment in some way will do this individual service. They’re teaching them that even a scholarly paper can be a chance to learn skills that they can put to use once they graduate and enter the business world.

Ideally, the assignments that a teacher hands out at this stage will:

  • Kindle excitement in the young people in that class
  • Get them thinking about ideas that they can potentially develop 
  • Show them that meticulous research can help them formulate thematic ideas
  • Encourage them to collaborate and cooperate with others 

All of this will entice them to potentially become CEOs, company owners, or to ascend to similar positions once they graduate.

Not all students have the ambition to become entrepreneurs or moguls. Some of them may end up being perfectly content working on the lower rungs of corporations, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that. However, if they are pushed to develop the skills they need when they are in powerful and prestigious positions, that may be precisely where they end up.

While getting an assignment to write an academic-style deliverable might not thrill some young people, it’s not just the basis for their high school or collegiate careers. It also lays the groundwork for ambitious things to come. Once a young person understands this, they may be more receptive to these kinds of tasks.

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