Scott Adams - - That's how value is created

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, writes a periodic article on management for the Saturday edition of The Wall Street Journal.  This past weekend's column, How to Get a Real Education attempted to answer the vexing question of - - "Why do we make B students sit through the same classes as their brainy peers?  That's like trying to train your cat to do your taxes -- a waste of time and money.  Wouldn't it make sense to teach them something useful instead?" 

Adams answers his question with a wonderful list of recommendations - - framed as his lessons learned in his world of entrepreneurship.  I will highlight these this month - - the first one is below.  Enjoy!

Combine Skills.  The first thing you should learn in a course on entrepreneurship is how to make yourself valuable.  It's unlikely that an average student can develop a world-class skill in one particular area.  But its' easy to learn how to so several different things fairly well.  I succeed as a cartoonist with negligible art talent, some basic writing skills, an ordinary sense of humor and a bit of experience in the business world.  The "Dilbert" comic is a combination of all four skills.  The world has plenty of better artists, smarter writers, funnier humorists and more experienced business people.  The rare part is that each of those modest skills is collected in one person.  That's how value is created.