“How to succeed”

“If you feel that you have a winning idea, don't let anyone tell you that you can't succeed. There are plenty of people out there who will put you down, but an entrepreneur has to know how to brush off the nay-sayers and not get discouraged.”

A lot of start-up founders began their businesses while they were still students. Students start businesses with a wide range of motives, generally combining personal ambition and a broader desire to create meaningful impact through a product or service. And here are some features that make them win:

First of all, a fair amount of optimism.

Let’s face it, starting a business is not an easy task to perform. After you have poured all of your money into product development, then running a business with virtually no budget is even tougher. To overcome this potentially troubling reality, entrepreneurs must exercise suspension of disbelief and demonstrate a degree of optimism to take that initial step. I think this is easier to do when you’re a student. You’re more equipped to be optimistic than if you were a corporate old and bored employee. Students are happier people and more capable of the optimism that is required to get started.

Another important trait is higher risk tolerance

When you’re sitting there in class and an idea comes to you, it doesn’t really cost all that much to give things a try. It is so simple at the first glance and this new isn’t competing with a regular paycheck. It’s competing with classes and academic work. Many academic programs don’t consume 100% of the available energy of an entrepreneurially minded student. There’s time left over for starting companies.

And also abstract thinking

Since students are exposed to a big amount of abstract thinking, it may come a little easier to them to think about strategy, competition and how their offering might change the world.

Another good point is applied learning

As a student, it’s often very, very tempting to try and apply some of the concepts learnt in school that are new and exciting, and do something with them. One of the easiest ways to do this is to build a startup that somehow implements or expands on the idea.

Moreover, being a student means having the opportunity to meet different people that can be your potential co-conspirators and collaborators. One of the single largest contributors to startup success is the ability for more than one person to come together and collaborate.

The ambition, creativity and restlessness associated with the insides of a university are now transforming aspiring students into young entrepreneurs - and the impact of these young entrepreneurs in the decades ahead is destined to reach far beyond the gates of the universities where they got their start.