Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share College Drop Out to Entrepreneurial Success Route, with Mike Zhang
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
College Drop Out to Entrepreneurial Success Route, with Mike Zhang
Discovering your purpose almost always involves making some hard choices.
First and foremost, there’s the opportunity cost – saying yes to your purpose necessarily involves saying no to something else.
So what happens when the opportunity cost is a college education, and what if following your gut instinct means that your parents might disown you?
This is exactly the choice that our Awesome Office guest Mike Zhang had to make early in his entrepreneurial career.
Today, Mike is the CEO of The Drip Club, a booming e-liquid retailer whose mission is to be the Coca-Cola of the vape space. At just 25, he has multiple companies and a solid exit under his belt.
But before his success with Drip Club, Mike was a student trying to juggle his coursework with the obligations of a growing airsoft e-commerce business.
Less than a semester into his freshman year at UC Berkeley, Mike realized that he couldn’t give his all to both school and his company. Deep down he knew he had to choose one or the other. Against the advice of friends and family, he chose to drop out of college and run the business full time.
A successful exit a few years later eventually put his parents’ anxieties to rest, and Mike learned the power of trusting his gut instincts.
Mike shared what he learned during these formative experiences, as well as the role of gut instinct in business strategy and the benefits and challenges of partnering with friends.
Key Takeaways
Recommended Reading
Links
This is episode is brought to you by the fine folks at SnackNation.
SnackNation is a healthy office snack delivery service that makes healthy snacking fun, life more productive, and workplaces awesome.
To try a free SnackNation discovery box (featuring 15 delicious snacks your team will love), visit get.snacknation.com/ao. You'll also receive a complimentary copy of the 2016 Ultimate Guide to Creating An Awesome Office.
View all episodes
By Sean SpearDiscovering your purpose almost always involves making some hard choices.
First and foremost, there’s the opportunity cost – saying yes to your purpose necessarily involves saying no to something else.
So what happens when the opportunity cost is a college education, and what if following your gut instinct means that your parents might disown you?
This is exactly the choice that our Awesome Office guest Mike Zhang had to make early in his entrepreneurial career.
Today, Mike is the CEO of The Drip Club, a booming e-liquid retailer whose mission is to be the Coca-Cola of the vape space. At just 25, he has multiple companies and a solid exit under his belt.
But before his success with Drip Club, Mike was a student trying to juggle his coursework with the obligations of a growing airsoft e-commerce business.
Less than a semester into his freshman year at UC Berkeley, Mike realized that he couldn’t give his all to both school and his company. Deep down he knew he had to choose one or the other. Against the advice of friends and family, he chose to drop out of college and run the business full time.
A successful exit a few years later eventually put his parents’ anxieties to rest, and Mike learned the power of trusting his gut instincts.
Mike shared what he learned during these formative experiences, as well as the role of gut instinct in business strategy and the benefits and challenges of partnering with friends.
Key Takeaways
Recommended Reading
Links
This is episode is brought to you by the fine folks at SnackNation.
SnackNation is a healthy office snack delivery service that makes healthy snacking fun, life more productive, and workplaces awesome.
To try a free SnackNation discovery box (featuring 15 delicious snacks your team will love), visit get.snacknation.com/ao. You'll also receive a complimentary copy of the 2016 Ultimate Guide to Creating An Awesome Office.