What To Do In College To Prepare To Be An Entrepreneur

Thanks to all the press embracing technology, the movie the Social Network and the emergence of the consumer web and mobile apps, entrepreneurship is in the spotlight again. With that comes the interest and excitement of students in college. You can see it on all the campuses around Boston as seemingly every school has an entrepreneurship club, a startup mentoring program and hackfests. These programs do everything from inspiring new entrepreneurs to coaching them through their first venture.

The problem is, the odds of you being the next Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Clerico, or Aaron Levie is statistically insignificant.  What's more likely is that you can lay a foundation in college for an amazing career as an entrepreneur that later in life becomes a successful founder. Here's a few tips for making the most of college to prepare for being a great entrepreneur.

What To Do In College To Prepare To Be An Entrepreneur

1) Start Something!

Do you see a problem around you on campus or in your environment you wish was solved? If you have an idea for solving it, try it! There's nothing better than starting your first venture in college (Here's 10 Reasons Why) even if it's a total failure. Nothing teaches you quite like the experience of actually doing it. 

If you don't have an idea though, do not fear! There are 5 more things you can do below...

2) Lead.

Leadership is an underated soft skill that to build a company you absolutely have to develop. Like a muscle, it's improved through usage; whether its an honors society, comedy troupe, a club for your major or an intramural sports team, lead anything you can in school. You'll learn your leadership 101 lessons before you have a funded company with a lot more pressure than an intramural sports championship game. 

You don't know how hard it is to get others to do what you hope they'll do until you try.  My experience in leading intramural sports teams and an honors society on campus at Northeastern proved invaluable as I learned how hard it is to get people to do things when there are no consequences; the only way to get someone to do something for you is make them *want to do it*. You'll only learn this and other leadership lessons by trying to lead.   

Colleges provide an unprecedented environment for young leadership due to the concentration of young people and groups. Don't miss out on the opportunity to learn these skills before you're "low man on the totem pole" in a real work environment.

3) Write.

Not ready to be a part of your local school newspaper? Don't worry. Just start a blog. But what do you blog about?! Blog about anything you're interested in: tech and startups, cool things happening in and around campus or a hobby you're passionate about.  

Communication skills are essential in the 21st century work environment. Whether you're aiming to be lead engineer, CEO or the operations lead, you're always going to need to communicate with others. Having a strong base of writing skills will be tremendously helpful as you try to communicate your views via email at 3am or write an engineering blog post about the cool tech your company uses that you hope will attract engineers to join your company.  

Don't know tech or don't have time to set up a proper blog? There's no reason not to with sites like Posterous, Tumblr and Wordpress.com making the starting of a blog a 5 minute project. Start writing!

4) Get a Technical Skill Set.

Ideally you'll have a STEM major but if not, take a class or two and learn some basics. The engineering mindset is unique and very helpful in understanding how to systematically approach problems (little known fact - I have an Electrical Engineering degree). As a bonus, when you struggle in the technical class, ask for help from your classmates; not only are you likely to get help, but you'll learn how to work with them (they think differently than business majors). You might even meet your technical cofounder.

5) Get an Internship.

Love the phrase, "try before you buy"? An internship is the perfect opportunity to try out startups while in college. The key is to have a skill set they need. That's why it's important to have a technical skill or writing skills. Most internships usually center around marketing or technical roles, so as long as you've developed some of the above skills, you might just be attractive to a startup. 

How you get that internship is up to you. Some people just look for companies posting internships, others try to network their way to the CEO and others will message a bunch of employees on social networks. They all work if you're persistent and prove you can add value.  Often, the company won't know what you can do for them, so you have to show how you'd be helpful and combined with persistence they'll want to hire you.

6) Work to Excel at Everything You Do.

This is advice that I received when a VC came to Northeastern to speak to a class I was in. He recommended everyone get in the habit of exceptionalism. Not every class you take may directly tie to Entrepeneurship but showing you can get an A in it anyways shows commitment and willingness to do whatever it takes. Anything you take on, focus on crushing it. You'll learn a ton that way and force yourself to reflect on why some things may not go as planned.  

When you're starting out, all you have is your reputation. With limited work experience, the next best thing is to show how you've excelled at everything you've done thus far. That will give people the confidence that you can take on new challenges and crush them as well. 

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Whether you're a freshman in college already amped up about startups or a senior just starting to get interested, following these tips will not just make you a better entrepreneur, but a better person. Hone these skills and you'll be well on your way to success, whereever your career takes you.

What advice would you give to college students interested in entrepreneurship?