A good education is the foundation of entrepreneurship. A person who is not aware of the world cannot become an entrepreneur, particularly in the current era.

Last week, the Second Annual Entrepreneurship Summit was held in Istanbul. The first meeting was held in Washington under the auspices of US president Barack Obama. The second summit, in Turkey, was hosted by prime minister Erdoğan, and the third summit will take place in the United Arab Emirates. Obama would have attended the summit in Istanbul if the US elections had not been so close; he was unable to find time for the meeting in his schedule. US vice-president Biden attended the summit in his place. The meeting was not composed of boring sessions about the definition and the history of entrepreneurship. The main purpose was to celebrate entrepreneurship with the success stories of entrepreneurs. In the past, labor was the most glorious value; today we are living in the “Entrepreneurship is a virtue” era. During the meeting, I thought, “This was not the case when I was a child.” Actually, it still is not the case exactly. Let me tell you why.

Do you think the people’s opinion about entrepreneurship has changed? I don’t think so. Let’s imagine: You go to meet your girlfriend’s parents to get their approval to marry. Your future father-in-law asks you what you do for a living, as is the tradition. You were graduated from the faculty of engineering and decided to establish your own business. You have just opened your first office. How do you respond? You say, “I’m an engineer, but I’m self employed.” Right? You will not explain your business at length. The job of a self-employed person, however, is never clear. If you had said that in the 1960s, for instance, your future father- and mother-in-law would most have been unhappy with this. Back then, self-employment meant, “I do whatever job I can get.” likely Income was not guaranteed. Neither was the business or job. In short, entrepreneurship was not a good thing then.

Then, Turkey started to change. But we have yet to understand the definition of the term “self-employment” and to overcome the fear of this concept. During the 2008 crisis, finding a safe job in the public sector was still popular. And future mother-in-laws still say, “I would not have approved you marrying my daughter if I had known you would establish a business.”

Why is entrepreneurship not a virtue in Turkey although the country has been growing rapidly thanks to the dynamism of the private sector? I would like to share three conclusions I drew while listening to the success stories of foreign entrepreneurs during the meeting in Istanbul. First, in Turkey, while we frequently talk about the virtues of entrepreneurship, we do not celebrate it or entrepreneurs. How? For instance, we do not tell their stories as heroic tales. We tell stories about soldiers and artists, but not entrepreneurs. But entrepreneurs are both heroes and artists. There is no difference between an entrepreneur and a sculpture who sees the shape in the stone block before he begins. Turkey needs awareness campaigns about successful entrepreneurs. This is the first point to state.

The second point relates directly to the first. In my consideration, successful entrepreneurs do not think even for fifteen minutes about how to tell their success stories, either. They do not receive professional assistance. But they should. Each entrepreneurship story involves some myth. A successful person needs to write his or her own history. There is a problem here, too.

So, what is the source of the “Work in the public sector to make it in the shade” perception common in the previous generation, especially among mother-in-laws? In my consideration, it is the absence of professions. What does a young person who did not receive a proper education and graduated without hopes do? He or she tries to land a job in the public sector. The desire to work in the public sector goes along with the lack of profession.

I think the common feature of the success stories of entrepreneurs is that good education is the foundation of entrepreneurship. A person who is not aware of the world cannot become an entrepreneur, particularly in the current era. “We shall drop out of school and start work in our garage” is just the myth part of the story made up later. It is useful not to exaggerate. Education is a must.

So, let me now answer the question: Please keep in mind that Turkey is still a country in which parents do not give their approval readily for their daughters to marry entrepreneurs.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 09.12.2011