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  • ''You learn how to ride a bicycle by doing it, and once you know how to do it, you never forget. The same thing happens with entrepreneurship.''

''You learn how to ride a bicycle by doing it, and once you know how to do it, you never forget. The same thing happens with entrepreneurship.''

José Manuel Pérez Díaz, Pericles, entrepreneur at Proyecto Valnalón

  • Pericles

In the decade of the 50’s, in Spain, sport was not as widespread as it is today, it was rarely practiced. In the 70’s, after the support provided by Samaranch, physical education became part of the school curriculum, and this led to the 92 Olympic Games in Barcelona. If at that time the only bet had been to build High Performance Centers, the Olympic Games probably never would have arrived.


The same thing happens with entrepreneurship, and that’s why I thought we must start in primary school. Why did it happen in Asturias? Out of necessity. In the 20th century, thirty years ago, the industrial era ended. Now we have entered into a totally different era and yet we are still providing training for an industrial society.


Without entrepreneurship, there is nothing in the world we live in. We must take entrepreneurial education to the education system, starting in primary school. This is achieved slowly and constantly. Building enthusiasm to transform. It is possible, it is easy and absolutely necessary, and it’s a mandate of the European Union. The goal is to have, from the age of five through to the end of high school or the education cycle, a program of entrepreneurship. And it’s even good for the health.


If we are already doing it in the Basque Country, in Catalonia, in Andalucía, in Honduras, in Ecuador, etc. It must be possible to do it all over Spain, without altering the educational curriculums. It’s a question of offering entrepreneurship as an elective subject.


I have two fundamental goals:


1. After the study about entrepreneurial education in Spain, it took two days for all of us to put on the table the programs we were doing. Lots of things are being done in lots of places, and we need to get to know them and exchange knowledge and experiences.


2. In Spain there are 8 million students, and only 200,000 (40,000 in Valnalón) are studying entrepreneurship. I will not stop until these 8 million students who do physical education also have entrepreneurial education.


Columbus didn’t go to America, he found it there. I didn’t go for entrepreneurial education, but in fact I found myself with an education for a lifetime.


We should all be entrepreneurs: business entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, free-lance entrepreneurs in other organizations, entrepreneurs out of necessity, etc. An idea or an innovation or a project needs to proliferate with an entrepreneur to move forward; otherwise, it will stay in the drawer.


Let’s imagine that being an entrepreneur is a sport. And let’s suppose that we want to train cyclists. We could start from a theoretical standpoint, studying the types of materials, the shape of the bicycle, how to use it, etc. Education currently uses this approach, and we need to go in a different direction. You learn how to ride a bicycle by doing it, and if you want to dedicate yourself to it, by training every day. And once you know how to do it, you never forget. The same thing happens with entrepreneurship .  

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