Below is an article from Frank Hurley and, Vicky Collins. The Herald . Glasgow (UK): Jan 3, 2004. pg. 8 :

PARENTS who dread an inevitable "could do better" on their child's school report may well be raising the next Richard Branson or Chris Gorman, according to research published yesterday.

The study by Leith-based company Mindscreen found that school grades are a poor indication of a pupil's innate entrepreneurial skills, which often go unrecognised.

The talents that indicated potential future business tycoons were not only to be found in the high flyers at school, but also in those who were disaffected and unlikely to achieve good exam results or to go to university.

Mindscreen worked with children at six Scottish secondary schools in its entrepreneurial spirit programme.

It found that only between 9% and 19% of secondary school pupils displayed that extra something that has made entrepreneurs like Tom Hunter, the Ayrshire-based founder of the Sports Division chain, so successful.

Some of these were among the highest-achieving pupils, as Mr Hunter had been in his school days. Others were performing poorly in the classroom, much in the same way as Sir Richard Branson in his childhood. However, both groups tended to be extroverts who liked quick results.

Gavin Devereux, Mindscreen's managing director, said entrepreneurs were natural risk-takers and independent.

His company is trying to discover young people who might show those strengths and channel them towards creating positive, enterprising businesses.

He said that, with 20% of pupils claiming they were disaffected at school, he believed there was scope to release their potential in other ways.

The study found six out of 10 teachers believed they had little to contribute to the entrepreneurial spirit initiative and 65% of teachers believed that fewer than one in 10 pupils had what it took to create their own business.

Only 15% of teachers believed the school environment was well suited to promoting entrepreneurial activity, claiming there was not enough time in the school curriculum to include enterprise initiatives.

Chris Gorman, co-owner of greetings cards retailer Birthdays and chairman of Gadgetshop, said he "scraped through" school and did not go to university, but said it was the adversity he came up against that gave him the "hunger and drive" that later made him so successful.

He believed the qualities needed to make a successful entrepreneur were those of a "hyperactive eight-year-old" and that society generally dulled this quality, rather than nurturing it.

"I think we should give all children some understanding of enterprise, but I'm don't think you can necessarily teach them to be entrepreneurs."

Previous research by Mindscreen has found that many of Scotland's top entrepreneurs failed at school. Nearly 40% of entrepreneurs who took part in the 2001 study left school early without A-levels or equivalent and 44% said they did not enjoy their early education.

Mindscreen did not name the entrepreneurs who took part, but Vera Weisfeld, the Glasgow-born co-founder of clothing store What Everyone Wants, is one of those who left school at 15 without any qualifications.

She became a shop assistant, but then went into partnership with Gerald Weisfeld, her husband, and together they built up the business from scratch, eventually selling it for (pounds) 50m.

Anne Gloag, co-founder of the Stagecoach bus and rail group, left school at 17 without any qualifications, as did Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire owner of the Virgin empire.