What Running a Small Business Taught Me About School

As a student entrepreneur, I’ve noticed that I see things differently from other people.

People see collecting bottles as a waste of time, while I see a business opportunity.

This mindset has started to change how I see something else, too: school.

My recycling business revolves around both me and those who want to support collecting bottles, cans, and glass bottles.

Most adults hear about this and are often impressed. They see a young entrepreneur trying to solve a problem and build something of their own.

My peers, however, are not so much. They mostly see it as a waste of time and are always just saying, “Get a job, and you’ll make more money.”

I’ve already decided that I don’t want to work for anyone. I want to build something for myself. I try to explain the money in the business and how it’s more common than they’d think, but no one understands the money aspect of it.

I usually see value in little things like bottles. Most people don’t really acknowledge them and just throw them away. But I see potential profit.

Sure, the bottle bill doesn’t give you a hundred dollars off of just a few bottles. That would be too easy.

I value the hard work it takes to get to where you want to be in life, instead of just settling for less and taking the option that’s considered “better.” Why do something I hate just because it pays more, when I could spend that time trying to build something I actually enjoy? Overall, I try to look for opportunities rather than just “doing what's easier/better” because that isn’t how I want to live.

So, where does my view on school come in? I’m never going to quit school. I want to graduate, but honestly, sometimes it feels like I’m learning just as much outside of school as I am inside it. I don’t see many real-world situations where I’ll really get to apply what I’m learning. I’m starting to value the things that will allow me to succeed now more than later when I get my graduation certificate and go to college. It feels like I could be doing more than just sitting in a building for seven hours listening to my teachers talk about a topic I’m only ever going to use on exams. Back in middle school, I always heard that these topics would “help you in the real world.” But personally, I don’t see how. I sometimes wonder when I’d actually use my knowledge on these topics in real life, like remembering what an isotope is. I’m starting to focus more on the things that benefit me both now and in the long term. I want what I’m learning to apply to something. If it isn’t, then what’s the point of learning it in the first place?

However, I still do learn from school and still think it is valuable.

Reading and writing are obviously important. If you can’t read or write, it’s hard to get to where you want to be in life.

The same goes for math — unfortunately. It’s everywhere, money, cooking, even video games, and you need to know how to do it.

But it goes deeper than just the essentials. School teaches you how to be structured when you have priorities. It teaches you organization and how to get most of what you need to do out of the way so you can do whatever you want. It also teaches communication skills(mainly through your teachers telling you not to talk when they talk). It can teach you how to talk to different people in different ways.

I’m still going to finish school, I want to graduate, and probably also go to college.

But entrepreneurship just changed the way I think about school.

School teaches very important foundations, but the real world teaches you lessons that you can’t get from a classroom. School will always be a big part of my life, even when I eventually graduate and never have to worry about it again.

Becoming an entrepreneur doesn’t make school useless.

It just opens your mind to bigger opportunities.