- Optimism
Let’s face it; starting a company takes a fair amount of optimism. You have minimal resources, yes and the odds are severely stacked against you. Granted. But starting a business needs a lot of optimism on the entrepreneur’s side and no one has more optimism than students because they have not been hit by the rigours of life and responsibilities. To be an entrepreneur, you need to have some sense of escapism from reality and some measure of idealism – Aspects which students have in abundance. Optimism helps to encourage investors to put their money in your idea since nobody wants to invest is a pessimist and it also helps to motivate your employees.
2. Extensive Peer Network
One of the great things about being a student is that you have the opportunity to meet and work with a lot of different people. If you know how to play your cards right you will have an extensive network of well placed individuals ready to do your bidding or at least lend an ear to your problems. It has been well established that nothing else gets things done faster than connections, not even money. Most students don’t know this, but a few have discovered that there are people and organizations which are deliberate in working and helpings students. Plus there are many networking opportunities in events that have special entry rates for students.
3. Risk Tolerance.
One of the greatest advantages that students have is their high risk tolerance. This is brought about by the fact that we have no pending financial obligations that employed people have e.g. mortgages, insurance, transport, loans etc. This therefore puts us at an advantage over the employed folk since we literally have nothing to lose so we can try anything or everything without risking our non-existent financial status. This is also coupled by the absence of other obligations such as family and children.
4. Unlimited Resources.
Colleges and Universities have been the bedrock of innovation since time immemorial, some of the biggest companies and corporations were started from college dorm rooms mostly because of the unlimited resources within these institutions. There are think tanks in the form of professors and lecturers whose brains you can pick for free while others pay for them in the form of consultancy. Libraries also contain abundant knowledge sources which you can exploit to get your venture of the ground.
5. Availability of Time
College students have a lot of time in their hands between classes and over the weekends when others are partying. Maybe you should take time to work on your venture and see how it works out. This abundant resource called time is the most important for an entrepreneur, take advantage of it before you graduate.
6. Ability to adapt.
Some may argue that surviving in college is a survival test on its own. It takes a certain amount of survival skills combined with ability to adapt to new surroundings. This is much like the business environment where things can change in a heartbeat and your ability to respond to that change decides whether you continue doing business or not. Charles Darwin puts it plainly, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”
7. Ability to think outside the box.
Students in college are known for their creativity and ability to think outside the box. This is brought about by certain courses that they study in school that encourage abstract thinking such as calculus and critical thinking and its use. Such student’s brains therefore operate on a level of thinking that others cannot comprehend and therefore make them prime candidates for entrepreneurship.
All the best!
