Background : I started a business and managed to build it out with no formal education at all. I often wonder whether formal education in business would have h

Background : I started a business and managed to build it out with no formal education at all. I often wonder whether formal education in business would have helped me, or hindered me. I'm certain the structured information contained in a structured business course would have been useful. At the same time, when I was starting out, I did a lot of things that no reasonable educational institution would advocate just to get through the month and make payday. During all of this, I was reading and learning as fast as I could about all of the numerous knowledge gaps I began to realise I had, as I came up against various walls. After years of experience in running a business, when I read books about business/sales/marketing/economics, it's far easier to process and understand the theory. I think any kind of education about business is valuable, but I also think it's 10 times more valuable if you have some kind of real-life experience to which you can map the theory.