A Life Credential for People Who Think Beyond What Already Exists

Dr Pauline Crawford
1 day ago
5 min read

Entreprenology PHD: Bringing Knowledge, Experience and Imagination Together

What should we be doing that we haven't tried yet?

That question lies at the heart of Entreprenology.

Entreprenology brings together three powerful dimensions of human potential:

Knowledge + Experience + Imagination

Knowledge gives us what is known.
Experience teaches us what life has revealed.
Imagination allows us to see what might yet be possible.

Together, they create an Entreprenological Mindset: the capacity to think independently, learn from experience, navigate change, recognise opportunity and imagine possibilities beyond the present.

At the International University of Entreprenology™, we believe some of life's greatest learning does not happen in a classroom.

It happens while building enterprises, raising families, leading people, taking risks, surviving failures, navigating change, crossing cultures, solving problems and discovering opportunities that nobody else could yet see.

That learning has value.

And now it deserves to be recognised.

The Origins of Entreprenology

The discipline of Entreprenology emerged from the pioneering work of Professor James R. Omps (1921–2014).

An entrepreneur long before he became an academic, Professor Omps spent decades building enterprises and observing the natural characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.

His own unconventional journey took him from having no college education to becoming a successful entrepreneur and later a professor in the College of Business at the University of Hawaii.

He worked internationally, including contributing to business education in Karachi, Pakistan, and developing relationships with the Ford Foundation in India.

But his central fascination remained the same:

What makes an entrepreneur see possibilities that other people cannot yet see?

In 1971, while presenting to senior corporate leaders in Taiwan, he introduced Entreprenology as a discipline concerned with change, enterprise and the continual search for what might be possible beyond established thinking.

The following year, in 1972, the International Institute of Entreprenology was established, later becoming the International University of Entreprenology™ (IUE).

More than fifty years later, that question has perhaps never been more relevant.

We Teach the "Un-Teachables"

Professor Dr James R. Omps expressed the philosophy beautifully:

"We teach the 'Un-Teachables' — the principles and possibilities born in our natural creativity, independence, common sense and imagination that define our true natural value."

Entreprenology does not reject traditional education.

It complements it.

Academic education gives us extraordinary access to established knowledge.

Entreprenology asks us to add something else:

What has life taught you?

What did experience reveal that a textbook could not?

What happened when the plan failed?

What did you discover about yourself?

What did you create because the established answer was not enough?

What can your experience now teach somebody else?

The Professional Higher Doctorate in Entreprenology

The IUE Professional Higher Doctorate (PHD) in Entreprenology recognises substantial professional and entrepreneurial learning acquired through life and experience.

It is not an honorary doctorate.

Nor is it designed as a substitute for a conventional research PhD.

It is a different journey.

The PHD invites accomplished entrepreneurs, leaders and changemakers to examine their own lives as a body of learning.

Candidates explore their achievements, decisions, failures, turning points, values, relationships, imagination and contribution.

In doing so, something remarkable often happens.

They rediscover what they already know.

They recognise patterns they had never previously connected.

They remember accomplishments they had forgotten.

And sometimes they discover that the next chapter of their life is already waiting inside the story of the chapters that came before.

This is why we describe the PHD as a Life Credential.

The PHD Journey

The journey is personal, reflective and individually mentored.

Rather than sitting in a conventional classroom, candidates work through a series of deep conversations and reflections with an accredited IUE mentor.

The process explores the candidate's life and professional journey through the lens of Entreprenology.

Conversation, reflection, video and audio capture, journaling and written work help surface the learning embedded within decades of lived experience.

Candidates explore areas such as:

Entreprenological MindsetHow have you created value, recognised opportunity and developed your own principles for success?

Vision and ImaginationWhat have you seen that others did not yet see? How have ideas become enterprises, projects or movements?

Failure ManagementWhat happened when things went wrong? What did you learn, change or create as a consequence?

Human Relationships and LeadershipHow have relationships, communication, collaboration and difference influenced your journey?

Business DynamicsWhat have finance, operations, marketing and enterprise-building taught you?

Values and ResponsibilityWhat principles have guided your decisions, and what responsibility accompanies success?

Future ContributionWhat wisdom from your journey could illuminate the path for those who follow?

Between conversations, candidates reflect on their own "Aha!" moments and continue building the story and evidence of their life journey.

The eventual dissertation and Life Portfolio bring these discoveries together into a coherent account of experience, learning, imagination and contribution.

"Failure Management" Is Part of the Credential

Entreprenology does not pretend that successful lives and business travel in straight lines.

They don't.
Businesses fail.
Ideas collapse.
Markets change.
Relationships alter.
Money disappears.
Unexpected opportunities emerge.

The entrepreneur learns to navigate all of it.

Failure management is therefore an important part of Entreprenology.

The question is not simply:

Did you fail?

The more useful question is:

What did the experience teach you, and what did you do next?

The ability to learn, adapt, pivot and imagine another possibility is one of the defining characteristics of an Entreprenologist.

From Life Experience to Intergenerational Wisdom

There is another reason the PHD matters.

Wisdom should not disappear when a successful leader retires, changes direction or reaches another stage of life.

We need ways of transferring lived wisdom between generations.

The PHD therefore asks candidates not merely to document what they achieved, but to consider:

What can somebody younger learn from my journey?

Imagine the value of experienced entrepreneurs and leaders sharing not only their successes but also the decisions, mistakes, courage, imagination and relationships behind them.

This is intergenerational wisdom.

Our ambition is to connect the wisdom of experienced leaders with the imagination of emerging generations.

Not to tell younger people what to think.

But to help them learn how to think for themselves.

Building the Next Horizon

oday, Entreprenology enters its next chapter.

The world facing tomorrow's entrepreneurs is dramatically different from the world in which the discipline was born in 1972.

Artificial intelligence is transforming knowledge.
Technology is accelerating change.
Traditional career pathways are being disrupted.
Economic, environmental and social challenges cross national boundaries.
In such a world, knowledge alone will never be enough.
Human beings will need the confidence to draw upon their experience, imagination, natural talents and relationships to navigate what has not happened before.

That is where Entreprenology belongs.

The International University of Entreprenology™ exists to develop and recognise visionary leaders who are prepared not merely to respond to the future, but to help create it.

Leaders capable of generating prosperity while remembering humanity.

Women and men able to value their different perspectives and build together.
Entrepreneurs prepared to imagine enterprises and possibilities that do not yet exist.
And experienced changemakers willing to illuminate the path for those coming behind them.
This is the continuing legacy of Entreprenology.