Before I get started, I would like to note that I have never enrolled in an actual certification course, so my opinion is biased, and it's just that - an opinion.

Having never taken an entrepreneur certification course, I still consider myself an entrepreneur. I'm not quite on the level of Steve Jobs or Richard Branson, but if you consider someone who creates businesses born from ideas of their mind an entrepreneur, then I am this thing, in that sense.

But how did I achieve such qualifications having never took a course?

If you haven't caught on to my sense of humor yet, what I mean to say is that no one can give the certification to be an entrepreneur. You either are, or you aren't. Don't take this to mean that if you currently aren't, that you never can be.

No, that's not the case.

You have the entrepreneurial spark, and you just need to learn how to take action.

What I mean is that, why on Earth would you want to take a course? After all, are you really going to put it on your resume?

"Ah, hello sir, yes, I spent four years learning how to start my own companies. I want to work for yours right now, but I've got my own startup in my garage, so I'll be quitting if the thing ever takes off, but for now, your company is good enough."

I think not.

If you want to study business, great, get an MBA, be part of a team, and work for someone else.

But if you want to be starting your own companies, building your own business, and be the helmsman of your own career ship, then no one can teach you how to do it.

Which is why the internet is so great!

You can learn anything you want, and for free (most of the time). If you wan to start your own business on the internet, look for people who have done it (I have). Ask them questions. Annoy them on Twitter, follow their articles on Google+, friend them on Facebook until they get a restraining order.

Consume as many blogs, news sites, RSS feeds, podcasts, YouTube videos, and PDFs as you can possibly fit into your hungry brain. The information is out there, you have to go find it. If you want someone to feed it to you, maybe you weren't cut out for this thing. Being an entrepreneur isn't about someone telling you what to do next, it's about you taking control and doing whatever you think is right.

So do I think that entrepreneur certification courses are worth your time? If you are just beginning, in the very early stages and worried about that very first step, then yes, I do. They can at least give you some kind of outline on where to start. I actually started with a decent online course teaching online business and it helped immensely.

But it's not worth going to college to study, and it's not worth paying thousands of dollars for (1 course at my local university costs over $1000 dollars). Get your info for free, or cheap, and find your own direction, because at the end of the day, you are going to say which direction you're headed, not a course book.