Starting a business or school?

[Tearos]

Hello!

I am a 17-year-old looking for opinions and advices.

Is it wiser to spend years studying Business at school, or just start a business right away instead?

Let me know what the pros and cons are, and ultimately what decision you would've made to give me your advice.

Thanks in advance,

Tearos/Fred

[ExodiaGearCEO]

Hey I just turned 21 and I never went to college after high school. Instead I took year and half off and suddenly I have my own online business now. I know some people that went to college for business and they was never ever motivated or happy. And it's ironic that I have my own business when people are going to school to learn business when you can learn business on Google or YouTube. But anyways, I think starting a business is way better then learning business because you're actually learning a you progress when starting a business and gained experienced from it. 

[frnsh]

I think that studying gives you these benefits over starting a business right away: 

• A degree related to the field of your work: which comes handy when/if it is required for you some time somewhere in the future. 
• Knowledge: Depending on how usefull are the courses they are giving you, they can get you ready to become a better and more skilled entrapreneour. You can do it yourself if you seek it right. 
• Connections: Studying with and spending time with the people in the similar place, gives you ideas and connections for your work later on. You also can do this yourself if you know where to look, join seminars, meetings, etc. 

But as I said, you can do some of them yourself and in that sense maybe studying would be a waste of time depending on what kind of business you are gonna have, are the target group gonna get reduced by then or not, are you gonna change your mind, etc. It really depends in that sense.

[sgn]

 

[mohdanas]

Just read Personal M.B.A by josh Kaufman, and save money. 

[Tearos]

@ExodiaGearCEO @frnsh @sgn @mohdanas

Thanks for all answers!

[Arman]

I was once told that business school doesn't actually teach you how to start a small business. 

[frnsh]

3 hours ago, Arman said:

I was once told that business school doesn't actually teach you how to start a small business. 

Depends on the major and school. I studied business and they actually thought it and also gave more credits if you made a company.

[Elisabeth]

IMHO studying business & running one at the same time should be possible, so if you're very confident you could take a gap year, get your business running and then proceed to deepen your knowledge. Or, you could start school, wither the storm of the first year, and then work on your business on the side. I wouldn't be making both changes at the same time, but you don't have to wait for your degree. Business school is likely not like you're gonna study medicine, which really takes up all your time and strength. Just my 2$ though, note that I never ran a business. 

Do you already have a good idea how your business should look like?

Edited March 14, 2018 by Elisabeth

[Tearos]

@Elisabeth

I have a lot of ideas, but not sure how to get them out.

[alyra]

On 3/11/2018 at 4:08 PM, Tearos said:

 

Is it wiser to spend years studying Business at school, or just start a business right away instead?

Why not both?

[Nahm]

@Tearos Chalkpaint wall! 

If you don’t start a business, what would you be doing with all your free (other than school) time? 

[Tearos]

@alyra

I figured that either one is going to take a lot of my time

[Tearos]

@Nahm @Nahm

On my free time I do music and personal development

[Nahm]

@Tearos If you choose business school, how would you pay for it?

[alyra]

11 hours ago, Tearos said:

@alyra

I figured that either one is going to take a lot of my time

 Any of these things could be wrong here:

1) you’re over ambitious and your business idea is very risky and will probably fail after 5 years

2) your ability to balance responsibilities and be an independent adult needs a lot of work before you can handle a business

3) you’re too inflexible to be able to run a business well

4) you aren’t passionate about it or didn’t take the time to creatively find something you’re passionate about

5) you’re depressed or anxious all the time

6) you’re too dead set on things happening one way that you didn’t consider ways to take different approaches 

7) you have too much urgency and could be more patient 

8) you done have enough skill with foreword thinking and planning and vision that you only have the goal in mind and don’t have a clue what the steps to get there would look like

 

Notice i said “could be” and not “definitely is” 

notice insaid “any” and not “one” 

 

 

there are many ways you can adapt the demands of “starting a business” or “learning at school” to do both simultaneously. 

 

I recomend being real with yourself about “why not” - simply dismissing it so quickly like you have shows that of all the ridiculous accusations I’ve made, at the very least you don’t have the self awareness to think things through for .. say .. a week. I’ve been thinking about starting a business for over a year now, despite believing I wouldn’t actually be ready to seriously move in that direction as soon as now. I did a lot of growth in the right ways because of it - because I kept an interest in something while learning and growing, what I learned was influenced enough to better prepare myself for something I thought too hard.

 

If you think you can’t start a small business while goin to school, that should already tell you you’ll never have time to go to school. So your question should really be,

 

“should I take the risk of starting a business now, or the risk of spending extra years without serious income first to better prepare myself? And, should I consider working for other people for a bit to afford myself some more leeway? 

What is my urgency to start this year? What am I realistically able to do this year? Why can’t I do more and what can I do to change that?

what are my options for starting a business and why don’t i have more options?”

what are the demands that are forcing me to make a hasty decision?”

[Tearos]

@Nahm 

It's free in Norway, unless it's a private school

[Nahm]

@Tearos So basically, you have time to go to school and start a business. You also have time to do music. All of these are personal development. You also have time to do more personal development. 

It may be hard to believe, but you can do everything you want to do. 

I went to college full time, worked full time, worked two part time jobs, play gigs in bands, started a business, and did personal development, for years. Then I started 2 more businesses and quit the jobs. 

That time is relative, is not a joke. It takes vision. If you think you can, and see that you can, and believe in yourself, no one will stop you. No one would have the audacity. 

[Ether]

Bruh, why are you asking us what to do?