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- Jul 2, 2013
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Being in college myself, one of my main questions that I like to direct towards fastlaner's such as yourself is related to schooling. You had mentioned that what you learned in school was in a sense pointless, but what I'm curious to know is "Could you have done it without your 'formal' education?" I understand school for a lot of people was kind of
I cant speak for Spaxton1, but I can give you my own personal advice, as I went to school and studied entrepreneurship, started a business right out of school, and failed miserably. My problem was I thought I knew it all, because the professors made it seem so easy. What they dont teach you in school or at least not the one I went to, was the actual mindset you need to have. They lead you to believe that the textbooks are actually a blueprint for how to create a successful business. Its as if all businesses need to be formed in the exact same way, but in reality all businesses are different and what X company needs, isnt what Y company needs.
No one ever mentioned the word failure, it was a taboo word that non college educated people dealt with. No, for us college grads we were going to start a business, follow the advice written in marketing 101, and would be drinking on yachts in about a year. The reality however is that you cant learn success from a textbook, you have to "do it". You have to understand that you are going to make mistakes and thats fine. The phrase fail early, and fail fast never made sense until I actually went through it, and had those "aha moments". The problem was I thought that I could make anything successful, it was all about me and people needed to buy into that. One of many lessons I learned through failing is that it has to be all about the customer. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates didnt become wealthy because they were great innovators, they became wealthy because people actually bought what they were selling. So the mindset needs to be customer focused, and those customers have to actually buy what you are selling. Ideas are worth nothing, until you have sold your product. Too many people spend all their time trying to figuring out the next great thing, when they should be looking at a market, and asking themselves, "how can I make their lives easier or how can I do X better". I think if I went back to school I would be tempted to slap the first person who told me they had a million dollar idea. Ok, maybe not slap, but maybe a mean stare, because a million dollar idea isnt just that until its made a million dollars. Great ideas are a dime a dozen, its all about execution. I could probably go on and on, but if you take anything away, take this, "create something people actually buy".
Hopefully that doesnt make you want to drop out, as I did gain some good stuff from going to college.
School helped me validate that entrepreneurship was what I wanted to do, as I was always selling things to the neighbors, had an Ebay store, and knew I had a passion for it when I was younger. And I learned some important fundamental skills, like how to access great resources, how to crunch numbers, and how to work in a team setting. I also feel like I got a well rounded education, and I forever have a college football team to root for on Saturdays.
The lessons I learned, I was going to learn one way or another, whether I went to school or not. Could I have gotten to this place without a formal education? Maybe, but its brought me to where I am today, and I certainly dont have any regrets.
Good luck to you. What are you studying?
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