Although your unique story would have been more interesting, I definitely agree with a lot of what you said.
I graduated college June 4 of last year, and have gone through a couple ideas already. I put serious effort into 2, one being an e-commerce startup I hope to launch this summer. I've definitely had to re-evaluate how much my time is worth over the past year, and that is one of the most important pieces of advice I give to my friends just graduating now.
I planned on working for ~6 months to pay down some debt (credit cards and student loans) and save some money to move to the city (NYC or SF). Ended up getting a great job teaching the computer class at an elementary school and running a staff development program for about 30 elementary school teachers. Its an hourly job, no salary, but I definitely end up working more than 40 hours each week. I'm so drained after dealing with young kids all day that it's incredibly hard to put in more work on a startup.
I really am only able to do it due to two things: first, thank god for breaks, vacation time my first year, and being a school days only employee. Second, finding a great co-founder that keeps me motivated and focused (and also happens to be my significant other - not always a great choice, but for us it's amazing... our third date turned into a three hour long brainstorming session for the e-commerce project I mentioned above).
While I see things working out great in the future, and I'm definitely getting a lot out of my current job (I definitely want to do an education focused startup, and I feel like this age group is impossible to learn about without working with them directly), it is very hard to manage work / life balance when it's really work (day job) / work (startup) / life balance. Getting into a routine, finding sufficient motivation and willpower, and realizing how valuable time is at this point in life is important before even thinking about being able to reasonably work on your own projects or startup.
I run the computer lab at an elementary school, and I make sure to tell all my classes that if they are willing to work hard for it, they could move to Mars at some point during their lives.
At the rate SpaceX is going, the students I have now are going to witness an incredible amount of major advancements in space travel and related technologies. I try to make sure they all know this, and some are already coming into the computer lab during break to talk about space exploration, careers in space, etc. These are just 5th graders! It makes me almost as excited to see their interest as I am to about missions like this.
I run the computer lab and teach technology classes at an elementary school in California. Are there any similar programs in the states?
In the last year especially, I have seen lots of technology education programs like this start up in the UK. Seeing them in the UK is still inspiring and pushes me to do more, but I wish there were programs like this in the states.
I graduated college June 4 of last year, and have gone through a couple ideas already. I put serious effort into 2, one being an e-commerce startup I hope to launch this summer. I've definitely had to re-evaluate how much my time is worth over the past year, and that is one of the most important pieces of advice I give to my friends just graduating now.
I planned on working for ~6 months to pay down some debt (credit cards and student loans) and save some money to move to the city (NYC or SF). Ended up getting a great job teaching the computer class at an elementary school and running a staff development program for about 30 elementary school teachers. Its an hourly job, no salary, but I definitely end up working more than 40 hours each week. I'm so drained after dealing with young kids all day that it's incredibly hard to put in more work on a startup.
I really am only able to do it due to two things: first, thank god for breaks, vacation time my first year, and being a school days only employee. Second, finding a great co-founder that keeps me motivated and focused (and also happens to be my significant other - not always a great choice, but for us it's amazing... our third date turned into a three hour long brainstorming session for the e-commerce project I mentioned above).
While I see things working out great in the future, and I'm definitely getting a lot out of my current job (I definitely want to do an education focused startup, and I feel like this age group is impossible to learn about without working with them directly), it is very hard to manage work / life balance when it's really work (day job) / work (startup) / life balance. Getting into a routine, finding sufficient motivation and willpower, and realizing how valuable time is at this point in life is important before even thinking about being able to reasonably work on your own projects or startup.