Why Stories Matter in Entrepreneurship Education

Note: The following contributions are personal impulses from Max Eckel. They represent individual reflections and are intended to stimulate discussion and further thought.

I got interviewed for a YouTube channel with ~100k followers. Afterwards, I let AI roast my part…That was… fun. It started with me introducing myself as the “Story Onkel.” Which, to be clear, I called myself. The roast’s response: “He isn’t running an entrepreneurship center; he’s running a mythology department for people who think wearing a suit to a lecture is a personality trait.” Fair enough. (the mythology department bit, not the suit thing. I’ve never seen that in a regular lecture.) Then it went after the setting.

Talking about WHU being in a small town with little nightlife but very active student clubs, it concluded: “This is the most depressing success formula ever admitted on camera. [...] While Berlin founders are distracted by raves and art, WHU students are so desperate for stimulation in their tiny Rhineland village that they accidentally found HelloFresh just to have something to do on a Friday night.” And when I pointed at a specific student flat where multiple companies started, it really leaned in: “He treats a likely moldy student apartment like a religious shrine. You can almost hear the implication: "If you sleep on this mattress, you too might reach a 10 billion valuation." It reduces entrepreneurship to superstition—as if the entrepreneurial spirit is a fungus growing on the walls of that specific building in Vallendar.” That one hurt. Mostly because it’s just incredibly funny.

Here’s the thing though. I don’t tell those stories because I believe in magic flats or superstition. I tell them because stories change what people believe is possible for them. The Entrepreneurship Center, at least as I understand it, isn’t about “creating founders.” It’s about making the unwritten rules of ambition visible.

Most people don’t opt out of entrepreneurship because they lack talent. They opt out because the game feels distant, elite, or reserved for “other people.” Stories do something simple: They turn “people like them” into “people like me.” Same with the boredom argument. How cool is it that students channel their time into events that entertain thousands and even shape whole careers. Everyone constantly sees others building things. That creates momentum. Not because anyone forces you. But because doing nothing suddenly feels like a choice.

Agency: So yes. I’ll probably keep sounding like a “High-Society Village Elder.” I’ll keep pointing at old flats. I’ll keep repeating the same stories. Not because I believe in myths. But because environments matter. And narratives are part of how environments work. If one more person thinks, “Okay, this game exists. And maybe it’s playable for me too.” Then I’m happy to take the roast.

Check out the video by Niklas Schwab on his channel highperformer.henning!

And check out Vallendar and the spirit of our students clubs.

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