3 Tips For Being a Successful Student Entrepreneur in Canada’s Tech Capital

culled from:http://laurierentrepreneur.ca
As a successful entrepreneur in high school, I was excited for all that university had to offer. Better academics, bigger campuses, and a stellar startup ecosystem in Kitchener-Waterloo. Laurier’s BBA and Computer Science double degree program seemed to be the perfect fit for me.
Despite my initial goal to focus on academics, the startup scene was like a magnet pulling on my entrepreneurial spirit. Before I knew it, I had co-founded Teknically, joined the Laurier Launchpad as the only first year company, won the Canadian Business Model Competition and $25,000 in Halifax, and competed internationally at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
Life rarely happens all at once, so looking back I can better see the smaller steps that lead to the opportunities and success of my first year. Here are the three lessons I learned early on that continue to open doors to new opportunities and success as a student entrepreneur in Canada’s tech capital.

Photo courtesy of Andrew Paradi

Take the First Step

You don’t cross a desert in a day, you cross it one step at a time. There are so many opportunities in Kitchener-Waterloo to get your first taste of startup life. The only prerequisite is that you’re willing to sign up, show up, and keep an open mind.
Whether you try out entrepreneurship clubs on campus, meet & greets, hackathons, startup weekends, or speeches from local experts, all it takes is some time on Facebook events, Eventbrite or Google to find an opportunity that suits your interest. Best of all, most of these opportunities are free! Even if the event turns out to be less than you expected, it is always a chance to meet others in the region with similar interests.
In September, I took a chance and was part of Startup Weekend KW held at Communitech. It was a remarkable opportunity to get a feel for the quick paced, high intensity, and rewarding environment that a startup could be. Over the 54 hours there, our group went from just an idea to making serious progress on a real business.
Looking back on the weekend, I realized how applicable the wisdom of Drake’s lyrics “started from the bottom, now we’re here” can apply to the journey of a startup. When we take that first step, none of us know where we’ll end up. Whether you’re a first year student or first time entrepreneur, remember that everyone had a first time. Take the first step; you won’t regret it.

Nobody “Has it All”

The first year of university is demanding. Tough academics, new living conditions, finding time to cook, clean, and study. Throw in founding a startup and “work-life balance” seems impossible! That’s because it is.
Each day is full of choices. Finish a new design mockup or read ahead for my next class. Catch up on sleep or finally do my laundry. Part of life is realizing that there are always trade-offs, and that is okay.
Once I started getting to know others in the startup space, I realized that nobody has a “perfect” balance. The biggest trap is thinking that you’re alone in trying to “balance your life”. Building a strong support system in friends, family, mentors, and peers is vital to your long term success. Stress is inevitable, but burn out is preventable.

Photo courtesy of Teknically

Remember Your Motive

When some people imagine entrepreneurship, they see a CEO setting their own hours, enjoying the California sun and sipping some red wine outside their beach house… all of which was funded by their company’s recent Google acquisition. Few people imagine the amount of late nights, hard work, failure, and optimism required to reach any level of startup success.
Through all of the times this year where I was left uninspired by everything left on my to-do list, or yet another assignment mark that wasn’t as high as I hoped, one thing remained: my aspirational goal, my desire to build something, my personal vision of success.
More than money, more than materialistic measurements of success, you need a motive for your hard work that can’t quite be quantified with a number. The potential for money won’t keep you working hard at night, and the dream of gracing the front page of Tech Crunch won’t push you to practice that pitch one more time. If you belittle entrepreneurship down to a materialistic end goal, you’ll have blinders on and might miss out on the remarkable journey to reach it.
Find your vision of success. Find your motive. Everyone stumbles sometimes, but the successful pick themselves up, realign to their vision, and keep going.

tl;dr

1. If you want to join the startup scene, find an event that interests you, sign up, and show up.
2. Everybody stood in your shoes once so don’t be too intimidated by a busy schedule, just take life one day at a time.
3. Don’t lose sight of your vision for your life and your business. The journey is just as important as the destination.
Author:

Brandon Chow
Brandon is the CTO & Co-Founder of Teknically and has been featured in the Globe and Mail, TechVibes and the Waterloo Region Record.  He wrote the first lines of code for Webplio soon after his previous IT hosting business was acquired in August 2013. Brandon balances his BBA & BSc (Computer Science) program at Wilfrid Laurier University with managing the Webplio development team and always dreaming up the next big feature set. In his free time, Brandon likes to play badminton.