While building a business from scratch has its allure, not all of them take off. A whopping 90 percent of startups fail. This means students aspiring to become entrepreneurs need to work smarter and learn from others’ mistakes to improve their chances of future success. The internet has a smorgasbord of ideas on how to become a successful entrepreneur while entrepreneurship courses are becoming popular in universities.
虽然白手起家创业有其诱人之处，但并非所有的创业都能成功，有高达90%的初创企业倒闭。这意味着想要成为创业者的学生们工作时需要多动脑筋，从别人的错误中吸取教训以增加自己未来成功的几率。网上有许多如何成功创业的建议，创业课程在大学里也越来越流行。
However, students who are aspiring to become entrepreneurs should also heed the lessons from those who have walked the path they’re keen on embarking on.
然而，那些渴望创业的学生也应该注意吸取前辈的教训。
Know your ‘why’清楚自己'为什么'创业
Gauthier dabbled in two businesses while still in university. While he enjoyed success in both endeavours, he decided that he would have a “proper job” upon graduating and started working at the Financial Times. However, he soon discovered that he didn’t enjoy working for a big company and the lack of flexibility that came with it, and did the next best thing – built his own company. “Many have asked me why I wanted to become an entrepreneur. I think you have to do things that make you happy,” he said. “For me, entrepreneurship allows you to release your creativity. It’s much, much harder than a traditional job but it’s also so much more rewarding and so much more fun.”
Gauthier还在上大学的时候就涉足两份生意，虽然都很成功，他仍决定毕业后选择一份“合适的工作”并开始在英国《金融时报》工作。然而他很快发现自己并不喜欢在缺乏灵活性的大公司工作，于是他做出决定：建立自己的公司。“许多人都问我为什么要做创业者，我认为一个人必须要做使自己快乐的事情。于我而言，创业可以发挥创造力，虽然相较传统工作来说要艰难许多，但也回报更大且更有趣。”
Experience is the best teacher经验是最好的老师
Running two businesses while still in university served as an important learning experience for Gauthier to ensure he didn’t repeat his past mistakes. “When I was at university, I had a small business that sold university hoodies. We found that a lot of people were proud of going to their university, but they didn’t have university hoodies. We initially made 300 hoodies and they sold out in two days,” shared Gauthier. The business proved so successful that by the time he was in his third year of his degree programme at the Bocconi University in Italy, they had sold some 5,000 hoodies.
在大学期间做两份生意对Gauthier而言是重要的经验，这让他未来不会重蹈覆辙。Gauthier分享道：“当我还在上大学，我做了一个售卖印有大学标志连帽衫的小买卖，因为我们发现很多同学对自己能在这所学校念书而自豪，但缺一件印有学校标志的帽衫，于是第一次我们印了300件但两天就一售而空。”事实证明，这个买卖非常成功。到他在意大利博科尼大学念大三时，已经卖掉了5000件连帽衫。
Meanwhile, his second business, Iconic Matter, connected brands with students through the free distribution of a notebook that contained ads. “Let’s say you’re a student in Belgium and you get this free notebook. So students would use it to make notes, and you get big brands like RedBull or MTV who would pay for advertising in this notebook. Because these students would use these notepads for several months, this allowed them (advertisers) to be in front of students for quite a long time,” he explained.
他的第二个生意，是通过免费发放包含广告内容的笔记本，将赞助品牌在学生群体中推广开来。“假如一个比利时的学生得到了这样一个免费笔记本并用它做笔记，印在笔记本上的广告就会在他面前出现数月，诸如红牛、MTV等大品牌就会为笔记本上的广告支付广告费用。”
*更多TOEFL丨SAT丨AP实用的提分秘籍和有趣好玩的视频课程，关注微信公众号"SATPEDIA"。
网友评论