Aaron Hubbard, founder of Algorithm Coffee, dropped out of high school before returning to college and building his business. He talks about the nontraditional paths entrepreneurs take, emphasizing hard work, perseverance, finding a mission, and building a team.
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I'm the founder and CEO of a small independent coffee company called Algorithm Coffee. We're based out of Berkeley, California. And basically, I'm here to tell you guys that the life of an entrepreneur is not as beautiful as everyone makes it out to be. There's gonna be struggle. There's going to be a lot That gets in your way and breaks you down and walls that are going to be put up that you're going to have to just break down, climb, and beat. It's funny, if you go on YouTube and you look for the most motivational speeches from entrepreneurs, it's usually self-help. It's telling you, you know, anti-depression stories of, you know, trying to get through the stress, trying to get through the struggle, because it is hard. But if you're passionate, you believe in what you do, and you love the industry that you're in, and you want to change the world, it's going to happen. But it's going to take hard work. So my journey started when I was 16. I started, you know, struggling in school. I was missing school. I was missing the bus. I wasn't going. And that's because I wasn't feeling challenged, because school, high school education, isn't set up for entrepreneurs. It's a structured path that if you get on that path, you're probably gonna be okay. You'll get a job. You'll pay your bills. You'll meet somebody. You'll start a life. And you'll work. And you work for someone else, you're working for someone else's dream. It's not set up for obviously what you guys have, you know, have seeked out, which is starting a life of an entrepreneur. That path to get to success, whatever that is like in your head, if it's, you know, a house, a car, a dog, Girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever it be. That path will get you there. But the path of an entrepreneur isn't paved. Like, it's not even like a sketchy dirt road. It's, you know, it's not like— there's no path. Like, you have to find the tools. You have to find the materials. You have to have a team. You have to put it together. Start working that path, building your own path, because there is no path for you. No matter what industry you're in, no matter what you're trying to do, what you're trying to achieve, trying to accomplish, like, you're gonna have to put in the hard work. You're gonna have to do it with people who you care about, who care about you, believe in your mission, and eventually you'll get there unless you give up. Now, it's easy to give up because failure is right in front of you all the time. And it seems easier to just say, screw that. I'm going to go. I'm going home. I'm going to go play video games. I'm going to go watch Game of Thrones, whatever it be. But like, I highly recommend if you want to be an entrepreneur that you forget about all of that. Those are secondary things. Put them away. Maybe Netflix an hour a day.
Maybe.
But you have to believe in what you're doing. And you have to have the right team around you to make sure you can fulfill your goals. For some people it's money, which is awesome. For me it's just fulfillment. Like, I want to fulfill my life. With work, with goals, with people around me who are, you know, super dedicated to whatever it is that we're doing. And that's fulfillment to me. Now, I haven't made a lot of money yet, so maybe that will change once I do. Maybe once I get a taste of money, I'll be like, actually, no, it's all about the money. Forget everything I said. But I'm not there yet. But yeah, let me tell you a little bit about me. So at 16, I decided to stop going to school. So I dropped out of high school. It wasn't for me. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a musician. And I started dedicating to that, practicing hours and hours a day, trying to just be the best I could be. When I finally got the opportunity to do that for a living and make money, You know, pay my bills with that. You know, it's like, that's what it means to be a professional in anything. Like, if you get paid to do it, you know, you're a professional. And once I got there, I realized that's not really what I wanted to do. It wasn't really fulfilling. It worked, but like, it wasn't fulfilling, you know, fulfilling my life. So I started doing other things. But I started educating myself. And once I had the freedom to, like, learn what I— what it was that I wanted to learn, I was able to really hone in and, you know, start building my path. So, from 16 to 21, not really much going on. I mean, I was working hard, you know, always working, hustling. Doing anything I can, helping people, working in the community, doing things like that. But I wasn't really doing anything that set me up for my future. I had no idea what I wanted to do. So if any of you have no idea what you want to do, that's OK. You'll find it. Does anyone in here have a startup that they're starting at all? We're all starting startups? Awesome. Like what kind of industries?
Anyone? Water, food packaging.
Awesome. For water, for like sustainability and—
Yeah, so it's, the idea behind the company is getting chemicals out of water and food. So solve a bunch of problems.
Perfect. Saving the world.
Yeah.
Right?
Well, yeah.
Yeah.
Trying to eliminate toxins.
That's awesome, man. That's something you can get behind. That's something other people can get behind and get excited about. And you have to find that. Like, you have to find out what that is for you. You know, how many of you are willing to work for free? Because it's going to happen. Like, if you want to start your own business, you're going to have to work for free. So, let me back up a little bit. When I was 22, I decided it'd be best for me to get some experience. General education. So I went to college. It was— my path wasn't setting me up to go to college. Like, there were a lot of tests I had to take, placement tests, all these things that I had to do. And I didn't have the money for it either. So I had to find that out too. Because I wasn't on the traditional path. The traditional path's a hell of a lot easier than the nontraditional path. So if you don't want to work hard, definitely start working towards the traditional path because— It's going to be easier for you. But I decided I wanted to go to college. I got in. I failed my first 2 classes. It was awful. It felt like, you know, just total failure. I wasn't putting the work in. You know, I wasn't showing up. I wasn't doing what I needed to do. And it didn't work out. So I stopped going again. And then I started working a job. What was the job? That I really didn't like, but I was making decent money and it was enjoyable. And I saved up enough money to go back to school and do it right. So when I went back to school, I was there early. I was the first one in class, the last one to leave. That was my goal. It was like someone said, hey, be the first one there, be the last one to leave. Okay, well, I tried it. It worked. I ended up, you know, getting all A's in all of my classes. You know, I did a leadership committee, ended up being the president of this leadership committee, and ended up also getting the Dean's List Award for, you know, my performance in school, which is pretty unconventional for a high school dropout. But that's part of my story, and I had to work harder, and that's where I learned to work harder. You have to show up, you have to do the work, and just work harder. That's all there is to it. If you sweat, you're going to see results. And there's a little bit of talent involved too, like personality, talent. That's like such a small portion. But the big portion is just doing the work, like learning, getting in there, doing the work, hustling. And that's, that's what got me to that elevated level.
