After starting several businesses in college, I learned the hard way what it takes to build a successful business as a student.
And, quite frankly, it’s hard.
It’s hard enough to build a business in general. But add on top of that, copious schoolwork, a job to put food on the table, all while trying to build a business and you get a recipe for failure.
But don’t get me wrong as stated in my last article, you should start a business in college.
Start a business in college, not for the success but for the process. You see, the more attempts at-bat you take, and the more failures you have, the more learnings you’ve earned.
The more you understand the process and the better you are for it.
I recently read how Bryan Cranston the main actor on Breaking Bad, finally found success. He said he didn’t achieve it until he started doing this one thing: “Focus on process rather than outcome.”
I’ve taken that one step further and made it my own. I say, “Focus on process rather than success” or “Love the process, not the success”.
By focusing on the process, not the success, you remove all the stress & worry of having to be successful. You allow yourself to be and love the work/thing you are doing.
This releases your subconscious/creative mind to do its thing; helping you find inspiration and start innovating.
BUT
If you are dead set on starting a successful business in college then, know this, you can’t be a full-time student and entrepreneur at the same time.
Building a business requires so much time and energy that anything else is a distraction and will lead to your business failing.
When the business gets hard you will use schoolwork as an excuse to avoid doing the hard business work.
That’s why for your college startup to have the highest odds of success, you’ll need to be ALL IN the business.
BUT
Understand that even if you drop out to focus full-time on your business the chance of it succeeding are still slim. It’s said that anywhere from 50% of businesses fail after 5 years.
Which is why I urge you to stop focusing success and instead focus on the process.
Cheers,
Claudius
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