Business Education Is Not for Creatives

Business school wasn’t built for artists. Here's how to learn business your way.

Jul 24, 2025

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My day job is teaching business and entrepreneurship at an art and design university. At the start of every term, I hear some variation on this question:

“I’m not excited about learning business. Like at all. The few business classes I’ve taken were boring and I don’t remember anything. How can I make myself want to learn this?”

Traditional business education wasn’t made for you. That’s why it feels boring, forgettable, even hostile.

So let’s find a way to learn business that actually works for you.

Why Business Education Fails Creatives

Here’s the thing. Business education wasn’t designed for me either. (I’m honestly not really sure who it was designed for.) As an engineering undergrad, I took the required 5 courses to get a business minor and remember nothing about them. Not just because they happened at the turn of the century. (This side of it, mind you.)

About 7 years later, I completed an MBA program where I did learn something. But not because of the curriculum. I learned because I worked in a corporate strategy role and could immediately apply concepts in my work. The classroom lectures and assignments? Gone with the wind.

When I started teaching business to creatives, I knew I had to do it differently. If business education bored me, it would bore creatives 100 times as much. So my job isn’t to teach as I was taught in school. It’s to translate what I’ve learned in the real world into the language, mindset, and lived experience of creatives.

But you’re not in my classroom, are you? The good news is, as I’ve honed those classroom experiences, I’ve discovered they apply to creatives out here in the real world too.

Learn As You Go

Traditional business education is theoretical. Its textbooks and case studies force students to imagine situations they’ve never been in to apply concepts they may never use. It’s an expensive waste of time.

Instead, learn what you need when you need it. Don’t spend any time deep in business books learning theory if you don’t know when (or if) you’ll need it. Spend that time on your business and, when you see something unfamiliar, seek only the exact education and guidance you need for that moment.

Learn from a Coach

Your creative work is uniquely you. But you’re not the first person to build a business around their creative work. Much of what you need to learn has been learned and translated into building a creative business by successful entrepreneurs who are ready to give back to others facing the same challenges they once faced.

So find a coach or mentor who’s walked your path and is ready to give back. I know, asking someone to mentor you can be uncomfortable, can sound like you’re burdening someone. But a lot of creative entrepreneurs do this as a part of their business, in an effort to give back and support their income. If you find someone who does it for a living, it’s supporting another creative instead of being an imposition.

Learn Together

Nobody should try building a business alone for a whole host of reasons. I expect my students to learn as much from one another as they do from me. As I'm translating business to creative language, I'll be successful with some students but not all of them. The ones who get it can quickly translate for those who don’t.

So find a community of creatives who are building a business and grow together. You’ll learn from the successes and missteps of those around you. You’ll solidify your learning by teaching them and helping them grow. And you’ll have a support system in place when you need it.

These suggestions are all generalizations that come from my experience with creatives who need to learn business. But every person has their own style of learning that sticks. You’re unique in that regard too.

This Week

This week, reflect on how you learn. Do you thrive on theory? Or do you learn best by doing, hearing, watching? Write down the way you intend to learn business and then find a resource that aligns with it.

And reach out if you have any questions about specific resources I’d recommend. I’m always happy to point you in a direction that fits your learning style.

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