The media is always selling the flavour of the season. Of late, it’s been startups.

Advertisements consistently feature young people working in startups. Successful. Enjoying their work. Living it up with trek colleagues. Making more money than they can spend, hence always living the good life.

Such a farce.

No ads highlight the long, lonely nights spent working. The daily challenges one must (MUST) overcome. The constant fight for survival, to stay relevant in a workplace that changes everyday. The everyday failures. No weekends. And more often than not, journeys that end in utter, absolute failure.

I’d know. I’ve been working with startups for over four years now.

Why, then, would one still do it? I can think of only one reason that’s almost always true.

You learn. Everyday, you learn something new. Every month, you feel embarrassed on how naive you were the month before. Every year, you feel like you’ve amassed wisdom that would take others five years.

It’s like being in war. It changes you.

And when you emerge on the other side, you’re a better soldier.

So, see through the media BS. Don’t do it for glamour. Don’t do it for fame. Don’t do it to be cool to your friends.

Do it, because you’re a student. And nothing teaches like a startup.