ESYB2 092 - My Start and Early Failures
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[00:00:00] My personal entrepreneurship journey started when I was in college, and for me, that was around the mid 2000s. Yes, I'm old now. So, what I was majoring in is computer science, which enabled me to make things like websites. And that's what I would actually encourage you to do. Whatever field you're in, learn how to make anything.

You might learn a programming language. That's not for everybody. You might learn how to make AI. program for you, or you might learn how to make physical things, but learn how to tinker. Add that to your skill because, you see, my peers during university, if I had friends who were marketing majors or art majors, they could not make websites.

Whereas I, as a computer science major, I was able to have an idea and that same evening begin to work on it. And this really brings me to another really valuable thing early on that I look back on and I love that it happened. It was coincidence, I had no control, I had no knowledge, but [00:01:00] I really believed and was really intrigued by my own curiosity.

I valued it. Not because I said, my own curiosity is so precious, but just because it was interesting for me. Like I had an idea early on, my first business idea, was based on a part time job that I had. Because to pay for my college, I had a job as a security guard at night. And I noticed that the company who employed me for the security guard job, they just scheduled everything with pen and paper.

And I thought to myself, well, let's modernize this company, so why don't I build software. to modernize them, make them digital, and sell that to them and make a lot of money. So, I, and I started to work on it. Obviously, I ran into roadblocks early on and I didn't know how to sell it. I didn't really know how to fully make that software.

So that idea died. But the difference is, the difference is that I was able to tinker. to work on it, whereas my peers, they would have had to hire some [00:02:00] engineer, which would have cost thousands and thousands, and actually over the course of my entrepreneurship career, if I had to pay someone to build things for me, it would have cost millions and millions of dollars, which would be not feasible.

Now, it's very annoying and frustrating to learn skills. Like, programming is very hard to learn. I wish it wasn't like that. I wish it was easier. But it's one of those things where you have to eat your vegetables. Whereas, wherever you're learning some skills or how to make something, you are investing in yourself, not now, but you in 5 years, the you in 10 years, the you in 15 years.

You're investing all the future you's, which is going to pay for itself many times over. So I would strongly encourage learning skills to make things. And of course, during university, I had computer science skills, but I had absolutely no business skills. So every single idea I tried, miserably failed. But what it gave me was a little bit of [00:03:00] momentum and fascination.

Because when I had my business ideas, it added a layer of quality to my life. It was enriching. I was more excited about my everyday because I was building something and I was working towards something else. In addition to my university, I was also working towards these business ideas. I had no idea they were going to fail.

Of course, whenever you have a business idea, you think, hopefully, this is the one that goes big. The truth is, it's like my 15th idea is the one that became successful. But I never knew that on my first idea. That's kind of a paradox of entrepreneurship. But what I want to point out is that Starting however badly on your first idea will get you in motion and maybe it will help you discover your second idea or your third idea but more even it's going to start growing the love of tinkering of entrepreneurship in you so that you're [00:04:00] naturally into it it's yes for the money but it's also for you it makes your life better that's how you start Entrepreneurship should be, it should excite you and add a dimension to your life.

That's what I would encourage you to do is find a way to gain the skills to keep learning so that you can pursue your ideas today, tomorrow, so you can fail at them quickly, but learn by being in the game. That's what I did. I got myself in the game. I lost the game, but I got myself in the game in college.

And in the next video, I'm going to share with you what happened to my entrepreneurship journey once I left college.

