>> So I think some really easy things that an undergraduate can do, and graduates students,
and even post-docs can do to start to think about and position themselves
for a career is to keep an open mind.
It sounds very simple, but by open mind I don't mean to say
that you should consider every single career under the sun, but it is what are one
or two things that you would like to do?
So if you know, for example, that you have a passion for writing,
and you do that really well, and you could really see yourself as a full-time writer just
as an example, you know, that may be one area that you go down.
And perhaps you're also thinking about some other skillsets that you have
that you also enjoy using and can be leveraged as well.
Right? So it's not becoming so narrowly focused early
on that you close off opportunities for yourself.
My advice for someone who wants to become an entrepreneur, there is this balance
between great risk taking also calculation.
And I don't think that's something that people can teach you what's comfortable for you,
but there are lots of start-up help, there are lots of kind of start-up boot camps as well,
there are competitions that you can enter.
There's some things that you can do that help you develop out kind
of your entrepreneurial skillset and kind of test it out before you make a big leap.
You know, I think also recognizing that as an entrepreneur you may --
as in my case, I really enjoy the part that is the coaching
and the career advising -- that's what I most enjoy.
But I have to do payroll because I have people who help me with my website,
who help me with my blog, who do graphic design, right?
I also have an accountant that I have to work with.
I have to understand business accounting.
I don't really love it.
I'd really rather not be spending a couple hours doing that, but these are all the functions
of becoming an entrepreneur, even if you're outsourcing or you have staff.
You know? So maybe you begin with a staff of a handful of people and you're not a solopreneur,
you still have to know how to do these things or at least on some level understand them
so that you can interact with your team members, right?
So as an entrepreneur I would say if you're interested in that,
there's a lot of things you can do before you actually strike out into business to start
to learn a little bit more about it and some great books that are out there, too, to read.
And sometimes it's just create what you want, see what the market says,
and then you'll know if you have a business or not.