Yesterday, I had a great zoom webinar with 180+ college students from Turkey hosted by Bogazici University ( one of the most prestigious schools). I love to chat/talk with a young and energetic group of people. After I shared my story and some of my best business practices. I figured out all my business-related tips are not only for business but also for life.
Here are my extended tips for you to make your college life more fun, productive, and resourceful :
- Read: Read as much as you can. It doesn’t matter what you are reading in the beginning. Reading they say in the beginning, junk food. After a while, when you know what you like and not, you can switch to other interesting topics for you. You will carefully select them, like choosing healthy food vs. fast foods.
- Join or start your own student club: Join one of those student clubs. But, most of the clubs, at least in my time, had so much hierarchical structure. If you like none of them, start your own. You need to start only convince one friend. You can even start an unofficial “zoom club” before going back to school.
- Work free: List what do you like to do. And find which one of them you really love, and you can even do it for free. Then find who’s expert in this field in your city, then reach out to that person and say, “ why are you a good fit? and how you can help him with a short/sweet message.
- Travel: Travel is a good teacher—especially the ones who are not in your comfort zone. Go! Discover other countries/cultures. If you don’t have a budget, start to save (I’ll talk about the next tip). So many countries are super-cheap; all you need to buy a ticket in advance or might even walk or bike ( just google those people who are traveling the world with a bike or walking)
- Money 101: Learn basic finance and accounting—so many free great videos on Youtube.
- Eliminate Bad Energy: Be around the people who are adding value to you. Avoid power consumers. I should call them power suckers. All they do talk and suck your energy and never return anything to you
- Learn failing: Try as much as you can. Don’t afraid to test/experimenting if you need motivation about this. Look at me! I started from the bottom and now running the multi-million-dollar revenue of a company with clients from 70+ countries and growing every day!
- Be unique: This is your game! No Game Over! Don’t compare & compete with yourself with the “others”. They have no idea what they are doing anyway. Focus on only YOU! There is the only person you can change is YOU
- Play Long Game: Anything, in the beginning, is hard. Don’t worry. Be patient with results. The practice is all matters. Don’t try to be famous or rich in a couple of months or years. The longer you play the game, the longer you will stay the game!
- Give: Just give! Don’t expect your return. Write, Share, Teach, Sing, Paint…. Do whatever you want to do. But, don’t be greedy and ask, “what’s my cut”?