????去年9月份，T.J.杜安開始在斯坦福大學(xué)商學(xué)院(Stanford University's Graduate School of Business)學(xué)習(xí)創(chuàng)業(yè)車庫(kù)(Startup Garage)課程，他計(jì)劃打造一個(gè)面向律師的封閉在線網(wǎng)絡(luò)。

????這門課程為期24周，但上了大約8周后，他和他的團(tuán)隊(duì)拋棄了這個(gè)想法。

????“我們改弦易轍，決定打造一個(gè)面向社區(qū)的工具，”杜安說。他最近剛剛放下手頭的工作，返回校園休整。杜安的團(tuán)隊(duì)試圖幫助研究生根據(jù)各自的技能和學(xué)術(shù)背景找到合適的創(chuàng)業(yè)搭檔。

????創(chuàng)業(yè)車庫(kù)鼓勵(lì)失敗。創(chuàng)業(yè)車庫(kù)指導(dǎo)老師、斯坦福商學(xué)院的運(yùn)營(yíng)、信息和技術(shù)教授史帝范?贊尼奧斯說，嘗試，失敗，再次嘗試，這個(gè)周期有助于學(xué)生再三錘煉自己的創(chuàng)意，做好接受天使投資人拷問的準(zhǔn)備。

????贊尼奧斯說：“創(chuàng)業(yè)車庫(kù)側(cè)重于種子期融資，也就是說要讓你成長(zhǎng)到能夠站在投資者面前，要求獲得25萬、50萬，甚至100萬美元投資的程度。”

????斯坦福大學(xué)商學(xué)院目前有809名在校生，其中大約95%的學(xué)生至少選擇上一門創(chuàng)業(yè)課，無論是創(chuàng)業(yè)車庫(kù)，產(chǎn)品發(fā)布(Product Launch)，還是新創(chuàng)企業(yè)的組建( Formation of New Ventures)。在斯坦福創(chuàng)業(yè)工作室(Stanford Venture Studio)，申請(qǐng)常駐的學(xué)生正在利用這片空間設(shè)計(jì)和打造公司。其他人正在利用工作室提供的各種服務(wù)，比如產(chǎn)品宣傳練習(xí)、與導(dǎo)師配對(duì)，以及點(diǎn)對(duì)點(diǎn)輔導(dǎo)。

????盡管選修課程是斯坦福培育學(xué)生創(chuàng)業(yè)精神的核心方式，但這所學(xué)校相對(duì)于其他商學(xué)院的另一個(gè)明顯優(yōu)勢(shì)是，它位于硅谷。此外，斯坦福距離最大的風(fēng)投公司集中地、加利福尼亞州門洛帕克僅幾英里遠(yuǎn)。自1996年成立以來，斯坦福大學(xué)創(chuàng)業(yè)研究中心(CES)充分利用了這個(gè)得天獨(dú)厚的地理位置，不斷地從硅谷招募人才，同時(shí)還與硅谷領(lǐng)袖締結(jié)了各種合作伙伴關(guān)系。

????斯坦福大學(xué)與硅谷的聯(lián)系“對(duì)商學(xué)院的影響更加迅速，更加深入，”天使投資人，凱鵬華盈風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資公司(KPCB)前合伙人拉塞爾?席格曼這樣說。席格曼目前在斯坦福商學(xué)院講授創(chuàng)業(yè)車庫(kù)和其他課程。

????結(jié)果是：斯坦福大學(xué)往往會(huì)吸引相當(dāng)多打算自主創(chuàng)業(yè)的學(xué)生。一旦學(xué)生進(jìn)入硅谷，學(xué)校會(huì)提供足夠多的機(jī)會(huì)來提升他們成功的幾率。2013屆斯坦福MBA項(xiàng)目畢業(yè)生中，選擇自主創(chuàng)業(yè)的學(xué)生比重再創(chuàng)新高，達(dá)到了18%，較90年代末期的12%大幅增長(zhǎng)。在社交網(wǎng)站Poets&Quants發(fā)布的MBA初創(chuàng)公司100強(qiáng)榜單上，斯坦福和哈佛商學(xué)院占據(jù)的份額超過一半。（躋身這份榜單的MBA初創(chuàng)公司至少需要募集160萬美元。）

????T.J. Duane began the Startup Garage course at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business last September planning to build a closed online network for lawyers.

????About eight weeks into the 24-week class, he and his team ditched that idea.

????"We pivoted ... and decided to instead build a community tool," he says, during a recent break on campus from working on his company. His team's startup will help graduate students find each other based on their skills and academic backgrounds.

????In Startup Garage, failure is encouraged. That cycle of trying, failing, and trying again helps prepare students to pitch bullet proof ideas to angel investors, says Startup Garage instructor Stefanos Zenios, who is also a professor of operations, information, and technology at Stanford.

????"Startup Garage focuses on the seed-stage of funding -- getting to the point where you can stand up in front of investors and ask them for $250,000 or half a million or maybe a million," Zenios says.

????About 95% of Stanford's Graduate School of Business's 809 students opt to take at least one entrepreneurship class -- whether it's Startup Garage, Product Launch, or Formation of New Ventures. At the Stanford Venture Studio, students who apply to be residents are using the space to design and build companies. Others are taking advantage of services like pitch session practice, mentor matching, or peer-to-peer coaching.

????While the elective courses are at the core of Stanford's approach to entrepreneurship, another obvious edge the school has over others is its location in Silicon Valley. It's also just miles from the biggest venture capital firms in Menlo Park, Calif. Since its founding in 1996, the Stanford's Center for Entrepreneurial Studies (CES) has taken advantage of that proximity, hiring from Silicon Valley and creating partnerships with its leaders.

????Stanford's ties to Silicon Valley "rubs off quicker and more deeply at the school," says Russell Siegelman, an angel investor and former partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, who teaches Startup Garage and other courses.

????The result: Stanford tends to attract a very high percentage of prospective students who want to do their own thing and, once in Silicon Valley, the school serves up enough opportunities to push the odds in their favor. A record 18% of the 2013 Stanford MBA class chose to form a startup, up from 12% in the late 1990s. According to a Poets&Quants list of the top 100 startup companies founded by MBAs, Stanford and Harvard's business schools together accounted for more than half of the list. (To make the list, an MBA startup had to have raised a minimum of $1.6 million.)