Welcome to Edition #7 of Ask Gorick Anything. This AMA is part of Gorick's newsletter, where Harvard career advisor and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Gorick Ng shares what they don't teach you in school about how to succeed in your career.
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→ Read time: 4 min
ASK GORICK ANYTHING
Best jobs for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Q: “My ultimate goal is to start my own business. I don't come from a business background and my folks are not of entrepreneurial stock so I want to work for companies before striking out on my own. What are some roles I should work in that may teach me the ropes of starting and running a business?”
—J
Gorick:
Hi J!
Thanks for your question.
To start and run your own business, you'll need 3 ingredients:
1. A deep understanding of a problem
2. The ability to build a solution to that problem
3. The ability to sell or market your solution to your target buyer and user
If you have these 3 ingredients already (or can get them yourself), great. Get started!
(Unless you have the financial resources to just quit your job and go all in, though, I recommend starting your venture as a side hustle as Rihanna did in this week’s story and as the founders of Nike did.)
If you don't have one or more of the above ingredients, then you can pick your next job based on what you most need:
(1) Don’t have a problem you want to solve?
Get a job that allows you to work for and with the people you want to serve.
- E.g., Want to help school administrators? If so, consider getting a job (or volunteering) at a local school. You could interview your target audience, sure, but nothing beats directly observing their everyday behavior.
(2) Don’t know how to build a solution to your problem?
Get a job that teaches you the skills and mindsets you need.
- E.g., Does your solution require building a certain type of software? If so, consider getting a software developer job where you’ll develop that skill and in that given context. Or, if you’re not sure, do an online search for “fastest growing companies” in your area and look for a job where you’ll get to work closely with the founders so you can see how they work.
(3) Don’t know how to reach or convince your audience to buy your solution?
Get a job that allows you to build relationships with your target buyer.
- E.g., Building a solution for creators? If so, consider getting a job that allows you to interact with creators, whether in client meetings, conferences, meetups, trade shows, or industry groups. Similar to #1, nothing quite beats directly working with your target audience!
(4) Don’t know if entrepreneurship is really for you?
Get a job that gives you exposure to lots of different people and problems.
- Check out my list of 1,000+ early career programs. Many of these are “rotational programs” or “leadership development programs” which allow you to try out a lot of different departments. Or, if you’re in a creative field, try working at an agency. That way, you’ll get to meet lots of clients before picking a certain path. I personally think there’s no better place to start your career than to go broad.
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Enjoying this AMA?
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This seems like a lot—and it is! I have 3 pieces of good news:
a. You don’t have to have to do this all yourself. If you have a certain ingredient but are missing another, go look for a cofounder who has assets and skills you don’t.
b. You don’t have to have everything upfront. If you have enough to get started, go get started—and use the Internet to learn the rest along the way.
c. You don’t have to decide now. Don’t let stories of college dropouts becoming billionaires pressure you into thinking that you need to become an entrepreneur right now. Given that the average age of a successful startup founder is actually 45 (Google it if you don’t believe me!), you have time. So focus on learning more about yourself first.
You may have noticed that I didn’t say “Go work at Google or Microsoft.” Don’t get me wrong: there are plenty of successful entrepreneurs who’ve worked at these big tech companies, but…
1. Entrepreneurship isn’t just about knowing how to build software or hardware.
- Plus, with so many “no code” tools available these days, it’s increasingly no longer about your ability to code (unless you want to build some deep tech thing) but about your ability to design a good user experience and sell and market your idea.
2. Big tech companies are, well, big. As a result, you won’t see how a startup gets started.
- Instead, you’ll see how a big company maintains its existing product suite. You’ll be working with big teams with big budgets—the opposite of what you’d experience as an early-stage entrepreneur.
3. In the world of startups, people like to preach the importance of finding cofounders with “complementary skills.”
- This is a fancy way of saying, “Don’t just find a clone of yourself. Find a cofounder who can do things you can’t do and knows people you don’t know.” So, look for the best cofounder for what you want to build—not just the most convenient cofounder from the next desk over.
Good luck!
—Gorick
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