Bold claim – starting a company will make you more successful. But don’t most companies fail, especially for first time entrepreneurs? So how does likely becoming a failure set you up to be successful? True – odds are that the first thing you start won’t be a smashing success, but second time entrepreneurs have a MUCH higher likelihood of success. And this boost is made even greater with the right resources, training, and support throughout. Think back to the first time you can remember doing something foolish. For me, it was building a double-decker go-kart with my brother when I was in early years of elementary school. Anyone with some experience in physics would know this to be a terrible idea, and sure enough, I went flying off the second story as we went around the first turn. Were all those hours of work designing, finding materials, building, and painting worthless? Absolutely not! I had a first-hand understanding of important concepts in physics, and went on to get a degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, and work a few years later at BMW’s design studio, DesignWorks, in California. But I didn’t know when I was so young that I wanted to study engineering, or that I would love cars and want to design them. And chances are, my high school student readers don’t have a resolute image of their future success. What’s more, even if they do, success is different things to different people, so how can we best prepare? MIT Launch seeks to prepare students for real world success, and in measuring our impact, this took breaking down our impact to three basic questions:
Our alumni were asked for ratings aligned with these questions, and nearly ¾ of them (184 students) responded with the following results:
So what does this mean? Starting a company – experiencing the time demands, changing market pressures, team dynamics, and inevitable ups and downs – is the single best thing that someone can do to prepare themselves for future success. And every “failure” is still a success – through the self-awareness, insight, and growth professionally and personally that is gained. I might not have made a functional go-kart when I was a kid, but I learned more about what I loved, about the way objects moved, and about starting a project and adapting to new information. I learned that I was an engineer and innovator.
Get ready – for what your startup project teach you.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Proudly powered by Weebly