The Entrepreneur's Guide to Study Success

Because entrepreneurship is a quickly growing career option for people from all over the globe, more and more students apply for business programs. But what if these same skills were applied even sooner to the entire academic experience? Let’s take a closer look at seven ways today’s students can put entrepreneurial principles to work to maximize academic success.

1. Opportunities Await

Today’s academic offerings are anything but cookie cutter. Students have a breadth and depth of opportunities both inside and outside of the classroom. If the chance arises to pursue a different kind of course, independent study, or group project, it may be opportunity knocking: entrepreneurial-minded students are ready to answer.

2. Collaboration Counts

Entrepreneurs aren’t successful in a vacuum: they know how to surround themselves with the best and brightest people. Students who take advantage of chances to collaborate with other students can leverage these experiences into enhanced learning opportunities.

The door between faculty and students swings both ways now more than ever before. Students who reach out to professors may reap the benefits -- in terms of study success, enhanced learning opportunities and future networking connections.

3. Manage Your Time

Students aren’t exactly notorious for effective time management; unfortunately, this can make smooth entry into the real working world a challenging. Entrepreneurs adopt a mentality that goes far beyond the typical nine to five day.

Need a push in the right direction? Many successful entrepreneurs swear by the 80/20 rule: the belief that 80 percent of your results derive from 20 percent of your activities. The trick is identifying the area that produces these returns and focusing your efforts on that during your studies. This is largely individualized: some students may derive greater returns from preparing for exams while others will benefit from focusing on research.

4. Follow Your Own Unique Path

Just as students who want to be doctors don’t necessarily need to major in pre-med to reach their career goals, neither do students who plan to be entrepreneurs need to major in entrepreneurship. While this field of study certainly lays the groundwork for professional success as an entrepreneur or in the business world, alternate routes can also lead you to your goals.

5. Embrace Failure

By now everyone knows that Steve Jobs was fired from Apple before returning and helming the company to now-legendary success. Had he not had the resilience and commitment to bounce back, iPods, iPads and other innovative devices might not be part of our everyday existence.

So what’s the takeaway for today’s students? Failure is part of the process, and some coursework will be more challenging than others. While this may mean repeating a class during the summer or devoting extra time to a particular subject, but a commitment to pressing onward can yield unexpected results. Read more about Summer courses here.

6. It’s Never Too Early to Build Your Brand

Entrepreneurs understand the importance of their personal brand: they’re not just selling a product or service; they're also selling the idea of a product or service. This begins with a marketing strategy. Differentiating yourself from the field of competitors is important, and can begin in the classroom. For some students this means specializing in a newly emerging or underrepresented field; for others it means diversifying their portfolio in order to encompass a comprehensive and diverse field of study. What and how you study now can determine your future marketability so think of this process as an investment.

7. Be Healthy, Wealthy and Wise

You’re in school so you’ve already got the “wise” thing down, and with any luck your entrepreneurial vision will help out with the “wealthy” part. So that leaves “healthy.” From poor nutritional habits to lack of sleep to high stress, many students don’t led the healthiest lives. Many entrepreneurs are rigid in their commitment to treating their bodies well in order to optimize productivity.The sooner you learn to prioritize your physical health by taking control over these unhealthy lifestyle habits, the more energy you’ll have to devote to your studies and goals.

Whether you’re at the beginning of your academic career or taking graduate coursework to advance your career, applying entrepreneurial skills to your studies can have promising results. And don't forget to visit Masterstudies.com to learn more about entrepreneurial programs offered both online and all over the globe, in renowned schools such as the Team Academy.