Why It’s Never Too Early to Start a Lemonade Stand

Having read Ben Mezrich’s The Accidental Billionaires which profiles the rise of then 20-year-old Mark Zuckerberg’s social networking innovation called—you may have heard of it—Facebook, I started to think about the relationship students have with their aspirations, specifically pertaining starting their own businesses while they are still in school. This led me to the question: Why is it so hard for many students to actually turn their big, bold, entrepreneurial thoughts into action?

Upon entering university, I have never met as many bright, young students who have dared to dream as big. Become CEO of a major corporation, start my own my business, be my own boss—these are the common goals I hear from my peers. And then I ask, “When will we start?” The response? “When I’m older, when I graduate, after I get work experience, after I start a family.” Why? “I have no time. Plus, I’m too young.” Cue in now 28-year-old Marc Zuckerberg of Facebook, 21-year-old Brian Wong of Kiip or 25-year-old Glenn Clayton of AppletonLearning—the list goes on. Each of them were students, barely a few years my senior, when they started their first ventures. What stops people like them from starting now when they had such big dreams? Nothing.

As students of the Sauder School of Business at UBC, we’ve been given so many resources and as cliché as it sounds, we really do take it all for granted—at least I have. As I slowly ease into my transition to university, I now realize that I have the real opportunity to chase my dreams. I may not know exactly what I’ll be doing, but there’s one thing I do know: I dare to not only dream big but to also pursue these dreams with fearlessness.

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