Read then read some more
As a student entrepreneur you should be constantly reading. Yeah that’s right, reading and entrepreneurism actually do work well together, believe it or not.
Ok… ok… I know that we’re all very busy and have a lot of other things to do with our time than have our heads in a book, but trust me, reading and learning new information is essential to any budding entrepreneur.
When I first got into entrepreneurism in about 2003, reading was just about all I did. I read books, magazines, online content, you name it. My friends even become concerned with me as they asked “where the hell have you been, Dave?” to which I would respond “working on my company, dude.”
Nowadays I toned down my reading to a healthy level (from absolute bookworm to bookworm in training) — something around a few books a month.
Now I’m not saying that you have to spend night and day reading like it was the last thing to do on Earth. What I am saying is that with a little bit reading discipline, you can expand your knowledge base exponentially. And what does that mean? It means that you’ll have more mental ammunition to create, innovate, and build your business.
I think that it’s best that you read on a wide variety of subjects, not purely business. For instance, on any given day you can see my eyes rolling through books about various technologies, programming, design, successful businessmen, etc… heck, I even enjoy reading about nutrition and health. Once you allow your mind to take in material from many, many subjects, you begin to think in ways that you’ve never imagined (cool, eh?).
So head over the library (or Amazon.com, my favorite) a get yourself some good ol’ books. Remember: you have to think of books as an investment in yourself, never forget that.
Invest in your self-education and you’ll soon realize that spending 20 bucks on a book rather than a few 24 packs of Budweiser is truly wiser(wiser rhymes with “weiser” from Budweiser, cool) investment (and it’ll save you the hangover in the morning, right?).
This is great advice. But based on personal experience, I do have something to add: reading a lot is great, but a balance is even better. At a certain point, you have to know when to stop reading and start doing. Reading will help you formulate a lot of new ideas, but the problem is that the more you read, the more ideas build up and get put on the back burner because you are spending too much time constantly thinking and not enough time acting upon your thoughts.
So, personally, I designate a very specific amount of time each week/month to reading. And I actually keep a notebook with organized notes on what I learned, what ideas I had as a result, etc. And then the rest of the time, I tell myself that it is time to stop reading and start putting my thoughts to use.
Also - books are great, but MOST books are filled with too much fluff and really, are written because the mildly successful authors just need some extra income. Credible magazines and websites are much better. Short snippets of ideas will give you a better range of knowledge and thought stimulation vs. spending 2-4 weeks reading a book by one author with one point of view. And the best part is, this type of content can usually be found for free. Which leaves you with the extra cash to go out on a Saturday night and have a good time. Because after all, if you don’t have a good time every once in a while, what’s the point of it all anyway?