Student+entrepreneur != hard

Mar 18 2010 Tags: Boxing, Business, Entrepreneur, food for thought, Health, life, People

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Yesterday I gave a guest talk sort of thing at the Jobfair on my faculty. The point was to perform the function of a live demo for my startup incubator and help them get more startups that way.

My personal point was to get some blokes to go “HEY! I wanna to help with that too!”, which of course did not happen because the audience was mostly electronics and hardware people. But nevertheless, it was a lovely chat.

Although, I noticed a very interesting trend. None of them felt very keen on becoming entrepreneurs while still at uni. They thought it was too hard, that next to classes and studying they don’t really have time to do anything else. Hell, I even got an almostpplause for being such an impressive lad that I can do both AND keep a girlfriend.

But seriously, it’s not hard at all. Just take this week’s Tuesday as an example:

On Tuesday I worked for nine hours, five of which were studying/taking a hard maths exam (I count school as work because it’s my “job”). I went to the playhouse and I watched an episode of House. I also helped my girlfriend prepare a presentation for school.

And I still went to bed by midnight.

See, it’s that fucking hard!

Not only have I never passed as many exams as I have now that I’m also an entrepreneur, I’ve also taken up a new sport (boxing), which takes six hours out of every week.

Sure it’s not all fun and games and many people find it difficult to jam 60 to 70 working hours into every week. But if you think being a student and an entrepreneur is hard, you’re trippin’ man. Seriously.

Just get off yer arse and do it. The television and alcohol can take care of themselves.

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3 responses so far

http://animalija.sopca.com Krof Drakula

The problem mainly lies on your reliance on sustenance, usually provided by a full-time job. Though I have to admit, even beside a full day’s work, I still manage to squeeze at least 3 concurrent projects and still have weekends and a day or two to myself.

Case in point: once you have a strict set of goals, time management is the least of your worries, as long as you plan your off-time to be as important as your work. Provided it doesn’t take up too much time on its own.
http://swizec.com Swizec

That’s why being a student is actually a bonus. People don’t feel as weird taking care of your sustenance and shelter.

The absolute worst that can happen is you’re forced to freelance for a day or two every week (like I’m trying to find a freelancing gig atm)
http://animalija.sopca.com Krof Drakula

Speaking as a self-sustainer for the last 8 years (yes, even during college), I can safely say that it’s definitely doable, though hard if you aren’t disciplined enough to pull it off.

But as all debates concerning working students in Slovenia, the problem of finding a person prepared to dive into entrepeneurship requires these prerequisites:

a) The person’s basic needs must be tended to by guardian/parents.

b) If not *a*, then by self-sustaining with part- or full-time job.

c) Must have enough will and energy (and knowledge/willingness to learn) left to devote to project with clear, long-term goal in mind.

Now, if *a*, it’s really a no-brainer and only dependent on *c*. Whereas *b*is tricky; working in IT usually brings about abnormal amounts of stress, especially in mission-critical operations, leaving too little will and power to satisfy *c*. Given the slave-driving approach to the student workforce, it’s no wonder hard-working students are avoiding entrepeneurship in this case (my personal account).

All in all, if you can satisfy (a || b) && c, then you’re all set. But most fail on this logic test.

Student+entrepreneur != hard

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