Editor’s note :
Alan Earle, currently 25 years old and Manga Corta founder, shares with us his thoughts about starting a business and studying at the same time.
His conclusion:
It is possible and definitely recommendable.
Most of you probably didn’t know anything about Alan Earle and I must admit that I, personally, didn’t either.
But now I can say that I honestly respect his strength and optimism, his eagerness of doing his own thing and by doing so, encouraging others to follow him! How? Well, find out!
About Alan
For “some weird reason”, as he calls it, Alan started studying Civil Engineering. In 2008, during his third year of university, he started his company Manga Corta which sells t-shirts online, making enough money to be able to travel around as a newly married couple during summer vacations (which is really enviable by the way!).
Before graduating from university, his ideas became more clear and he finally received a total of 22 million pesos Chileno: 2 million from Sercotec and 20 million from Startup Chile. Although having loads of outstanding ideas in his head, Alan finished his degree well. Congrats, Alan!
3 reasons for following his example
1) Time
Even if you have to study hard, you always have enough time for anything you want to do!
Once you have to start working full time, time is scarce, so take your chance now as a student while you still have lots of free time.
2) Support
Use your chance to ask all the talented people around you tons of questions, they will be more than willing to help you.
Plus, the network you build up now, will be incredibly important in the future, so try to start as early as possible.
3) Learning
Sometimes we think “we will never be able to profit from that”, but once you start doing business you realize that everything and even university classes are an opportunity to learn more and to finally apply what we have learned.
Obviously doing business changes the way you look at things, which is great because it expands your horizon.
The hardest part
Alan admits that it is not easy and that many sacrifices must be made. Maybe activities or people you like need to be disregarded and somewhat ignored for a while so you can focus on doing business. And of course, a good team is essential – a team that helps you out when you need to study or when things become a little complicated at times.
“The main difference between doing business yourself and working for others is the motivation with which you get up in the morning”, says Alan.
So if you’re young, maybe also still studying and have been dreaming of your own business, take that step now and remember Alan’s encouraging words!
This is the best time to start your business!
