My Lens 002: “Bike Shop Guy”
We’re taught in business school that there’s 5 steps to success.
- Get a 4 year degree
- Have a summer internship or two
- Apply for jobs
- Get a job
- Succeed
This is ludicrous that there’s only one way being taught. There’s so many other ways to earn money. You can go to trade school, start your own business, or volunteer at a non-profit. (Sidebar: I personally think in 20–30 years trade schools are going to be as sought after as Graduate schools, due to shortage of workers in trades.) Having not started my own business, I can’t fully attest to it. I will say that at face value, starting your own business must be done through action not, sitting in a classroom. You can’t learn how to start a business unless you go out in the world and do it.
Another aspect that isn’t taught in business school is the value of working for free. In business, there’s no free lunch and everything has a cost or an opportunity cost (cost of not doing something else). Therefore, since everything has some sort of cost to it, you should never do anything for free because you’ll be missing out on profits! This is a very short term view to work. We aren’t taught about different ways of thinking. We are 22 years old! People are living to 100! We are only 22% done on this planet. If we work FOR FREE until we’re 32 that will still only be 32% of your life gone. 32%. One third. Well when you put it that way we have all the time in the world to work for money.
The value of doing work for free is experience. Something, that is a little more difficult to put a dollar sign on. One thing many college students are lacking is experience, myself included. So if you don’t have any experience and people won’t pay you for you to get experience, why not start asking around to get experience for free? From a business’s POV, there’s enormous value right there. They could pay some other no-name college kid $10 an hour over the summer or not pay you and get the same work done. There’s your value right there. You’re saving that business money by working for free! Then, after that summer is over and you’ve completed a job well done, you have a reference and a resume builder.
Don’t overlook the benefits of working for free. I’m sure if you walked into a job interview and you were questioned about your work you would set yourself apart. How many other college students actively, volunteer to take no pay for their work? To be specific, if I was asked in an interview at the end, “Do you have any questions?” Here would be my response:
No, but I would like you to know something about my work last summer. Every college student is seeking experience to appear the best to any employers. I wanted to stand out from the rest. I volunteered my whole summer working at the local bike shop by working the shop during the day and planning/executing social media strategies. I actively GAVE AWAY my time, the one asset no one can ever get back. I wanted to provide the most value to that bike shop because they sold me my first bike, which I bought with my own money when I was 7. You separate the hard workers and the hardest workers when you take away the dollar signs. If you took away money from the equation, I would still work for you because I believe in this business. I’m looking to provide value to you and your company.
That response would make you memorable, which is the only thing you want. When they look at your resume, they should think, “Oh he was the bike shop guy!” You won’t be complaining about being “bike shop guy” when you get the job offer.
And that’s something you don’t learn in business school.
