Evan Carmichael advises engineering graduate Robbie to propose a time-limited trial to his parents: work full-time on a startup for a summer or year, with a promise to return to school or a job if it fails. Evan took a year off after university to build his business while keeping other offers as backup, arguing that youth makes risk-taking easier.
Chapters
Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael, and welcome to another edition of Ask Heather. In today's video, I'm going to answer a question from one of our readers, Robbie, who is a recent graduate with an engineering degree. He wants to start his own business, but his parents want him to get a stable government job, and he's asking for my advice on what to do next. So Ravi, first of all, you know, parents are always trying to look out for our best interests and they might be a little more conservative than us, but try not to be too combative with them because it's not going to help the situation. But in terms of some advice for you, the first thing I would do for inspiration is look up to Michael Dell, look up his story. When he was 19 years old, he was in university, he started his business and it started to do well and he wanted to drop out to do his business full-time. And his parents thought he was crazy and said, "You have to go back to school," and they fought a lot. So he made a deal with them where he said, next summer from May to August, I'm going to spend full-time on my business, and if it does really well, I'm going to continue my business, and if it doesn't do well, I'll go back to school. He agreed, they agreed, and he never went back to school because his business took off. So that's kind of one way to get around any issues with your parents about starting your own business. From my own story, when I graduated university, I had some job opportunities with consulting companies and banks, and I thought, you know, I really want to get my business off the ground, and I had— I was running the business already, and I thought, you know, some of my friends are are taking a year off and they're traveling and discovering themselves, and I thought, I'm going to take a year off and focus on my business and see if I can make it a really big success. Because if it doesn't work out, I'll still have those opportunities. And that's the great advantage when you're young. Nothing's really going to happen in that year. You can still go back and still get those government jobs, and you'll have gained a little bit of experience for yourself if your business doesn't take off. If it does take off, then you're ready to succeed as an entrepreneur. It's a lot harder when you're older to be able to do those same things. When you have more responsibilities and a family to look after, it's a lot harder to then go and start your own business from scratch. It's a lot better to do it when you're young if you can. So if you're talking to your parents, one thing you might want to do is do the Michael Dell approach and say, for the next year I want to focus on my business, and if it doesn't work out, then I'm going to go back and get that government job. And that's a little bit easier for them to understand than, I'm not going to do it, I'm just going to start my own company. So there's some kind of timeline in there, makes it a little bit easier. And if they see that your company does take off, then it's a lot easier for them to swallow and want to see you succeed. And the side of that is you gotta work really hard in the next year to make sure that your company does take off so you don't end up having to go get that government job. So I hope that helps, Robbie. If you guys like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. I'd also love to hear your thoughts and feedback if you want to leave a comment. And stay tuned for the next episode.
