University VS. Entrepreneur.

dr_warlock · 2016-11-10T16:44:16+00:00

The whole entrepeneur from armchair-sitting and pondering ideas million dollar business from nothing fantasy is bullshit. Ideas and creativity dont pop out of thin air (usually), they come from experience. Most people that start businesses have a skill they've practiced in the field or even as a hobby for years. Unfortunately, the past generation has been sitting idle in the daycare-prison for 12years and comes out with no skills whatsoever. No apprenticeships, no internships, no self-teaching or family social circle to mentor them.

Im gonna guess you're in highschool. This means you know nothing about the real world, have no capital, and have no skill set. Get the skills first, then worry about a business. Do you need a university degree to do this? Absolutely not. Can university help you? Absolutely, but you gotta know how to navigate it academically and financially.

Go read Aaron Clarey's book "Worthless" and check out videos on his youtube channel regarding school, degrees (liberal arts, business management), and academia for more information. Mandatory.

[deleted] · 2016-11-10T19:29:12+00:00

[permanently deleted]

Magice · 2016-11-10T20:29:04+00:00

I went down the no university and entrep. path.

I had some mild successes but mostly failures.

The reward is far greater but your honest chances of succeeding aren't that high.

Still going to stick to it for the rest of my life though, swim or sink.

YouSoGetMe · 2016-11-11T01:12:51+00:00

tl;dr: do both, plan them out; my 16yo son asked the same question, I highlighted some points to consider.

When looking at the longer game, there's a fallacy in what you write: because if you're going to be making the same money after 3-4 years, you're at the same point but you either have a business or a degree.

Entrepreneur Path (fuck this fucking hard word to type, it's EP from here):

If it's a good business / product then you will be copied and you're a threat to larger companies. You will need to respond to the actions of all competitors to keep your market. This occurs non-stop.
If it's a crap business /product (according to the consumer because the creators' opinion doesn't matter shit), then it's just crap. You have to refocus your offering, ie: start again but smarter this time.
a business / product can fail, be out-competed, your market could shift or collapse, or you might have a great offering but cannot afford the $1000+ / week it costs for advertising (unless you're like Dan Norris in the 7-day startup, he failed his EP fantastically until he hit his right formula and he does not have a degree. He created a pay-for-services company but socially he provides a free service to help others to provide their services, which feeds back to his pay-for-service company).
'build it and they will come' is not true, unless you provide consumables. People easily spend money on food but don't part money for services.
if you are trying to do EP by yourself you need to simultaneously wear the hats of: concept creator and market tester, project manager, developer, QA, and there's more just for the product. For the business you need to know and continually refine your business model to adjust to competitors actions, also be the marketer (to find the right niche audience), advertiser (to that niche), and know what things are done for certain events (payments, refunds, legal and gov't req's, insurances, etc) and how they are done.

I'm in that world right now - making the product is cheap but converting that to sales and keeping it going is not cheap, running the business solo takes time from making sales.

University / college path (CP):

it's the people you meet and the extra skills you learn from the degree that give you a wider scope to either get a better job or to run your business better.
Degrees do not instantly get jobs; skills, confidence and attitude do. A wider scope of skills from a CP helps you get a better first job which is an important choice. This is because your second job is often similar in skills to your first job (due to needing money and you apply for things you know you can already do), and so on .. then unless you change it, the path of your working life stays in the skill area of your first job.
I agree with /u/dr_warlock where you do not need a degree, it helps. However, you certainly need the skills. In my situation, my pre-uni path had nothing to do with my post-uni path.
in your CP you soak in the skills and advice of others who have run businesses before because it's not as competitive as the real world, plus it's easier to hear about and learn from their mistakes. You also have free mentors and guides to help you.
you will find likewise people to form your entrepreneur team because you've spent time with them and you've built up the trust. I've had 3 systems lifted because my legals were not tight enough, one is earning $4M/year now.
if your parents are paying for it, do the CP.
CP makes you meet more women.

Suggestion: do both.

define what success means for you: good working life, good relationships, how much money per year do you need for your first 3 years out of home? Set these as targets and create plans to achieve them. Good house and car are byproducts.
plan a gap year to see which business area fits well with you AND if it's in line with the things you like to do. This gives real-world experience and insight to different business areas so you can see what gaps you could fill. Even being in another country with no money and no food will teach you how to rely on yourself.
in the time between now and the end of your gap year, learn courses or skills available online to refine / define what you really want to do for your business. Plus the added skills give you a wider scope of businesses to build and also jobs to apply for, if the business is not flourishing (I've been there).

Take-away 1: it's skills, attitude and confidence that give more life happiness and money, regardless of a degree or a successful business. I know many successful businesses run by very unhappy people. You don't need to sign up for a 3-4 year course to learn a single skill, you can cherry pick courses to match the skills you think you need.

Take-away 2: people with struggling businesses will pay for advice that helps their business. Strong maths skills indicate you may be a logical thinker and make connections between abstract concepts easier. Use these connection skills to see where a successful business model can be applied in any area that interests you. I'm currently creating a CMS for a sports chiropractor who wants his EP business processes organised.

Take-away 3: you can build apps or a business at any point but even creating a 'set-and-forget' app requires good EP skills. Running a successful business needs the right people and money and as you're not in an incubator with seed funding, you have to grow it from ground up. The CP lets you meet the right people to help do that, the EP path doesn't at all unless you're happy to give away 30~60% of revenue.

Either way, you've got the luxury of time and other people here to help make things into the way you want them

Source: company director, worked in in healthcare, engineering, construction, mining, energy, telco, travel; 2 self-funded business systems that failed due to previous poor EP, 1 app going strong due to current high EP skills. I went to uni 8 years after high-school.

Ranger_Mitch · 2016-11-11T02:40:58+00:00

You seem to have missed TRP lesson one: Do what YOU want to do.

If you have a huge interest that requires going to University, then go do that!

If someone else thinks you should not like some interest of yours they can go fuck themselves.

You can start your own business at any time - if you want. Doing something like that is a huge risk, extremely time consuming and not something most people should even consider. TRP elitists don't like it because you're being less independent, but a 9-5 job and a steady paycheck creates stability and economic safety and then you can spend your 5-9 + weekends + vacations doing whatever the fuck you want. As an entrepreneur, free time is usually a very rare commodity. Only start your own business if you're really passionate about it, otherwise the unending string of 12-hour days will crush you.

redditatt · 2016-11-11T02:54:31+00:00

Most good universities have Entrepreneurship programs. So do both.

Title	University VS. Entrepreneur.
Author	Hblockie
Upvotes	4
Comments	9
Date	November 10, 2016 4:27 PM UTC (9 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/5c8pzo/university_vs_entrepreneur/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/university-vs-entrepreneur.77401 https://theredarchive.com/post/77401

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