Do degrees matter in business, or is experience everything?

[Jephthah]

Formal education often provides the foundational frameworks, network access, and risk-management language that help owners understand macro-level strategy before stepping into the market.

Few debates divide business owners as quickly as this one. Some will tell you a degree gives you the foundation: accounting, marketing, management, and the discipline of learning how things work. Others will say the classroom can't teach what the market does, and that a few months of real selling beats years of theory.

The case for degrees is stronger than some admit. A formal education can teach financial literacy, strategy, and how to read numbers that many self-taught owners learn only after expensive mistakes. It can also open doors: a network, credibility with investors or banks, and access to opportunities that require qualifications. In some fields, such as law, medicine, or engineering, you can't operate without one.

The case for experience is just as real. Plenty of successful business owners never finished school, and many graduates struggle the moment they face real customers, real cash flow, and real pressure. Experience teaches things no lecture can: how to negotiate, how to handle rejection, how to spot a bad deal, and how to keep going when things fall apart.

There's also a middle path. Short courses, mentorship, apprenticeships, and learning on the job can fill gaps without years in school. And some argue that the best combination is not one or the other, but knowing what you don't know and being willing to learn it.

In contrast, day-to-day execution forces founders to learn through real stakes—navigating tight cash flows, immediate customer feedback, and the resilience needed to keep building when things fall apart.

It may also depend on the type of business. A street food vendor and a tech startup may need very different kinds of preparation.

So where do you stand?

• Do you have a degree, and did it help your business in any real way?
• Did you learn more from experience than from any classroom?
• What skill do you wish you had studied before starting?
• If you had to choose between a degree and five years of hands-on experience, which would you pick?

Share your view, whichever side you’re on