The Quest to Become a “Learntrepreneur”

PROVO, Utah – Dec 15, 2020 – A self-proclaimed “learntrepreneur,” Taylor Halverson values two things in his career more than anything else: learning and entrepreneurship. As a professor of entrepreneurship at the BYU Marriott School of Business and the mentoring coordinator for BYU Marriott’s Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, Halverson encourages students to also become learntrepreneurs.

Halverson believes that becoming an entrepreneur is the best way to achieve lifelong learning. “Of all the disciplines that I've studied and experienced, entrepreneurship is the one that requires the most commitment to lifelong learning,” he says. “Entrepreneurship requires ongoing humility and change. I find the field enlivening because I am forced to confront my own humanity and my responsibility to act.”

As the Rollins Center mentoring coordinator, Halverson helps students prepare to act and continue to learn by pairing them with experienced entrepreneurs. “The honest truth is, there are more ways to fail at launching a business than there are ways to succeed,” he says. “One way to minimize the risk of failure is by connecting students with seasoned entrepreneurs who have been down the path and can guide students toward success. I help pair students with entrepreneurs, which leads to valuable experiences, almost like business dating. I'm not necessarily a matchmaker, but I try to create situations where entrepreneurial matchmaking can happen.”

Halverson isn’t just a learntrepreneur in the business and the classroom. He strives to be a learntrepreneur in all facets of learning, including spiritually. In 2006, he received two PhDs from Indiana University: a PhD in Judaism and Christianity in antiquity and a PhD in instructional systems technology. Halverson combined his educated scriptural insights with his expertise in technology to create the Scripture Plus app, which compiles numerous resources into one app to help enhance scripture study.

“I dream of launching a new Tyndale moment,” he says. “William Tyndale advocated for translating the scriptures and making them available to everyone, and now anyone can access hundreds of different translations of the Bible. I think we need a new Tyndale moment that makes the best scholarly resources available to the masses in a way that amplifies and accelerates their spiritual learning and application.”

Halverson shares his knowledge of the scriptures with people all over the world. Alongside BYU religion professor Tyler Griffin, Halverson hosts Book of Mormon Central’s Come, Follow Me YouTube channel, which draws as many as 165,000 viewers each week. "I love hearing our listeners express their deepening love for God and the scriptures,” he says. “Knowing that the knowledge I’ve cultivated about the scriptures is now serving others and impacting their lives is comforting to me.”

In addition to continually developing new scripture reference technologies, Halverson also leads informative travel tours. One of his favorite tours involved escorting seventy people through India, Nepal, and Bhutan. “While we were in Buhtan, standing before this massive, gilded 175-foot statue of Buddha, we asked our local tour guide about his religious beliefs, and he said something that resonated with me forever,” he says. “He said, ‘Love is my temple and kindness is my religion.’

“Still today, I carry that truth with me,” Halverson continues. “The world has so much beauty and goodness, and we have much to learn from all cultures and people. I want to continually strive to learn new things and apply any truth that I find into my own life, because making those applications is a crucial aspect of becoming a true learntrepreneur.”