5 Skills I’ve learned from my Apprenticeship
(that I didn’t learn in higher ed)
I am one of three Enstitute fellows who has seen both undergrad and this brand new, learn by doing apprenticeship approach to higher ed. I believe that because of my unique situation, I hold a valuable opinion on the matter and that it is my responsibility to report the differences I have experienced education-wise between the two models. These are 5 things I was never taught in college that I have learned in the last 6 months at my apprenticeship that I believe are what will help make me a more valuable employee than my degree holding cohorts.
1. Relentless Resourcefulness/Bootstrap- How to get big things done with a small amount of resources.
In the startup world, you often find yourself dealing with small teams, where each person’s role spans multiple jobs and requires each team member to get things done that would normally fall to a specific person in a larger company. You may be assigned tasks in fields in which you have zero experience. This is no excuse for the relentlessly resourceful. It means persevering to accomplish a task by whatever means necessary. In college, you just take a C+ and move on. “Difficulty is an excuse that history never accepts.”
2. Fail fast, fail often- learn quickly from your mistakes and use these experiences to improve every day on the job.
In school, failure is feared and never embraced for what it can teach us. We are taught that if we fail a test, the next step is to calculate what we need to get on the next test to maintain a passing grade, instead of going back and learning the material in an effective way.
During one of our first group assignments at Enstitute, we failed, and we failed miserably. Immediately after we had let that fact sink in, Kane and Shaila (the co-founders) asked us- “Okay, you failed- now what did you learn?”. This was a strange and wonderful concept for most of us, and a brand new one at that. When I would fail in college, I was never given the chance to show my teachers what I learned from it. In my role as an apprentice, I’m constantly poking the box to see what happens, what works, and what doesn’t. Everyday is a constant learning experiment. I’m learning to live my life in a permanent beta.
3. Learn to work with and thrive on uncertainty- Be comfortable taking risks- you may benefit from the payoff.
An overwhelming majority of startups fail, and the odds are rarely in your favor. In school, my objectives were typically clear and spelled out- through syllabi, grading rubrics, etc. It’s in the best interest of the teacher for you to be prepared, do well in the class and leave with a positive impression so they can receive a good rating. In the start-up world, almost nothing is certain. Funding, market trends, product roadmaps- all of these things can change quickly. If you simply like to tread water and keep you head above the surface, then this is not the place for you.
4. Emotional Intelligence- Keeping your emotions in check, both in business and in life.
You won’t learn this from a book. Marc Ecko- clothing designer, philanthropist, and always full of surprises- came to dinner at Enstitute one night and taught us two key concepts, what he called “some fortune cookie shit”. First off- ditch the word “entrepreneur”. It’s just another word (a French word, he reminded us) for someone who develops creative solutions to difficult problems. Don’t let it discourage you, or let it go to your head. The other, was to recognize when you’re being emotional. And by emotional, I took it to mean “irrational”. Take a step back and try to view each situation from an unbiased point of view. Don’t allow your raw emotions to guide your decisions. For the most part, you know when you’re in a bad mood, being spiteful, jealous, etc. Don’t let this get the best of you. Try not to make decisions while you’re mad or promises while you’re happy. He also reminded me to tell my girlfriend that she is beautiful, every single day- great advice I have yet to thank him for.
5. Take risks.
When was the last time you ever had a teacher tell you to think bigger or try something new and unexpected? For me, it almost never happened. We were told what to do and what to think, instead of how to think. Stray too far away from the standard path, and you get an F. During my second month at my apprenticeship, my mentor and I began to brainstorm on a project where I would have a deliverable, something I could present and “own” as my accomplishment. I brought him a few ideas, which I had worked pretty hard on, developing the first few steps in the process. I was proud of my work. He, on the other hand, was unimpressed. He also happens to be the nicest guy in the world, but what he was basically saying was “you’re not thinking BIG enough, kid!”. I had every resource available and was not only given permission, but encouraged to throw up a Hail Mary to see what I could learn from it. The objective was just to learn something. And if it benefited the company, all the better. This is a fundamental difference between the theoretical classroom and the real world as we know it. The last time I threw up a “Hail Mary” in school, I wrote papers on topics such as the effects of hardcore music on emotion and the research of potential benefits of LSD. I was not praised for taking risks, I was throw in detention and they called my mom.
There is no better teacher than real world experience. Now that is some fortune cookie shit right there.
