Giving young people the freedom to innovate
Interview with Tom Hadfield
The UK's exam-orientated education system and rigid curriculum are strangling young people's freedom to innovate, says young entrepreneur and founder of Soccernet.com, Tom Hadfield.
What motivated you to set up Soccernet.com?
The site started as a hobby in my bedroom, years before the Internet became popular, and - through a coincidence of timing - got caught up in the dot.com boom. Daily Mail General Trust bought the website in 1998, and the company was sold to ESPN for £25 million a year later. while I was studying for my GCSEs!
Did you always want to become a young entrepreneur - or was there someone or something that inspired you?
When I was seven years old, I set up a small business washing cars for people who lived on my street, in Brighton. I remember offering a discount because I couldn't reach the top of the cars to clean the sunroofs. When I was nine, I started a computer magazine with a few friends, which we sold at school for 20p.
I guess entrepreneurship has always been a passion. I love getting new projects up-and-running - whether they're for-profit or not-for-profit ventures. Having said that, I don't think being an entrepreneur is something you "want to do" - I think it's something you just do.
Do you think entrepreneurs are born or created?
Both. Everyone is an entrepreneur. I believe we all display entrepreneurial behaviour at different points in our lives - it's not just about starting a business. At some stage everyone takes risks, innovates, organises and leads... we are born with the capacity for those characteristics. The real question is to what extent we choose to nurture them.
How did you develop the skills needed to set up at a global enterprise at the young age of 12?
Learning by trial and error - there's no other way. I taught myself HTML so I could code the web pages, and I taught myself how to spell properly in emails, so people wouldn't know I was just a kid. Everything else was detail.
What was the most valuable lesson you learned from this experience?
We're only limited by our ambition. If you want to sail single-handedly around the world, and you really set your mind to it, you'd get there eventually. The most difficult part is making the decision to get started.
What types of skills and attitudes do you think are important for young innovators?
I think young people have a competitive advantage when it comes to innovation. Young innovators are open-minded and have a tendency to be disruptive - and to challenge the status quo. I also think our naivety is perhaps our greatest asset because we have no idea we might fail. We're also a pretty enthusiastic bunch. And Ralph Waldo Emerson was right: "Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."
Do we do enough to nurture these types of skills and attitudes in young people?
You can never do enough. My question is: do we do anywhere near enough to nurture these attitudes and skills?
I think the exam-orientated school system, with its rigid curriculum, actually discourages young people from innovating. Most teachers are so busy teaching the five key facts about Oliver Cromwell or the four types of cloud formation, that innovation is that last thing on their minds.
Imagine if schools gave young people the time and space to be creative. Imagine if young people felt like they had the freedom to fail - and therefore the freedom to innovate. The system is designed to encourage cramming knowledge for exams, not pursuing entrepreneurial interests.
What advice would you give to other young people wanting to set up their own enterprise?
Think big, start small, and scale fast. And then do it again.
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Comments on this article
Added: 17/03/2008 3:37pm
Paul McKie, Director, Hodson McKie Creative Consulting
I have just read with interest your interview article with Tom Hadfield.