How Studying Computer Science Prepared Me For Business

“Most good programmers do programming not because they expect to get paid or get adulation by the public, but because it is fun to program”

— Linus Torvalds

I feel very fortunate!

My family migrated to the U.S. from Mexico when I was very young, and we were pretty poor. But whether by luck or destiny, my dad brought home a PC one day. I think it fell off the back of a truck! This was the early 90's and most people did not have computers at that time, especially immigrant families with very low incomes.

I fell in love with it right away, trying to figure out how it worked, breaking it, fixing it, and totally immersing myself in it. It was the best toy I could have ever gotten! Eventually I learn how to build websites and eventually pursued a degree in Computer Science, which has had such an amazing impact in my life. I truly don’t know where I would be now, had it not been for that sequence of events.

Jumping Ship

Being poor had an impact on my desire to pursue building wealth. I always knew I wanted to start a business, but just wasn't sure how or when I was going to do that.

Fast forward 20+ years since my first interaction with a computer and I have now left the employee life and thrown my hat into the Entrepreneurship ring. And with that, I've come to realize how learning to code, and studying Computer Science has given me the foundation to build a successful business.

Computer Science, Coding, & Business

I love coding and I love technology!

Technology is beyond fascinating! What we have achieved with computers in the past 20 years has been truly revolutionary! Shout out to all the homies that made this happen: Albert Einstein, Nikolas Tesla, Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds, Alan Turing, and countless others who advanced the field and allowed us to indulge in the digital playground that now touches billions of lives daily!

So, now that I've started my own business. I’m seeing a lot of analogues from my Computer Science studies to running my business.

Here are the top 4 concepts:

Software Design

Building your product or service is completely analogous to writing a computer program. In both instances, you have to be aware of the all of the following: Target Audience, Problem Statement, and the Most Effective Solution.

Target Audience

You can’t write a program without knowing who you’re writing it for. What are they going to do with it? How are they going to be using it?

The same applies to business. Figuring out your target audience is one of the core tenets of business. It’s tough to market a product or service without knowing who it will be targeted to. It just makes things that much more difficult.

Problem Statement

Most computer programs are written to create a solution to a problem. Whether that is curing boredom (games), increasing productivity (MS Office), or connecting with people (social media). There typically exists a problem, and code is written to create the solution.

In parallel, every business must figure out the exact same thing in order to be successful: the problem they are trying solve. This is also known as the pain point for your target market.

Problem solving has always been one of the ideas that attracted me to writing code and is now attracting me to the business world..

The Most Effective Solution

Whatever solution a business provides, one thing has to be clear. It has to produce a profit. Otherwise, the doors close, it’s game over, time to shut down and restart!

So a business needs to ensure they’re providing the product/service taking into account that it is cost effective for them.

Coding is very similar. It’s concerned with finding the path of least resistance, the most optimal solution, and getting the best results with the least computing cycles.

Testing

It’s one of the banes of my existence, but it’s a necessary evil! You skim through code, finding bugs, fixing anomalies, making sure the program runs as it’s supposed to. It’s necessary evil.

I find the same thing is true for everything in my business. From testing the best productivity tools to use, to testing marketing strategies, to testing out different service offerings. Business, is ALL about testing! Test! Test! Test!

Scaling

And finally one of the most important things you learn in writing programs. Can it scale? What’s that mean? Basically, can it grow without needing to re-code it. You have to take into consideration that your code will not just run one one computer or with one user. It may need to adapt to hundreds of users at one point. Will it be able to handle hundreds or thousands of users at some point? It must scale!

And with business, it’s exactly the same thing. You can provide a product or service easily to a handful of customers when you first start, but if you REALLY want to make your business grow, you need to be able to scale it. You need to be able to put processes and resources in place that will allow you to handle hundreds and thousands of customers without burning yourself out, and by ensuring delivery of your products and services is on time and in a cost effective way.

Everyone Should Code

As I progress through my entrepreneurial endeavors, I am constantly thankful for having pursued coding and Computer Science.

I feel so prepared to take on challenges with a framework of knowledge that I would not have obtained in any other field. So I think everyone should study coding, and at least learn the basic concepts of Computer Science.

I’m obviously biased. But not wrong! There is a demand for it, as exemplified by the oodles of online and offline coding classes and bootcamps.

Software development is truly the job of the future. And not only will it teach you how to build a decent software program, it will also give you a foundation to build a business.