In business it's called an "undervalued market."
In reality, it's millions of students worldwide putting days and weeks into research papers, only to throw them away after they've been graded.
And people wonder why university is starting to be frowned upon.
Three years ago I re-enrolled in California State University, Los Angeles with one mission: start my website, Papermache.
Until that point, I had tried starting Papermache, an (breath) academic publishing platform for university students that allows them to curate personal portfolios of completed academic work and share them with a peer community for mutual benefit (breath).
Until then I had struggled connecting with the resources necessary to make it happen. There was a metric ton of things to accomplish and it was me standing alone in a room.
I had dropped out of university back east two years prior, unsatisfied with my life course: International Affairs major then New Zealand Diplomat in America so I could speed and do nothing but sign wool export documents and play video games. The reality was the recession was in full swing and my entire life was crumbling. Diplomacy were connections and grades I just didn't have and the world seemed more interested in war anyway.
So I quit. Fuck it. "Where will you go?" "What will you do?" I don't know, I don't give a shit. I stayed at home, didn't work, and researched. A lot.
Until that point Papermache had been a single sentence in my head that was immediately forgotten, only to be wrought back into my head with a metric ton of other ideas that couldn't be farther from Diplomacy. A membership-based music studio called The Hymnasium where people pay $30/mo for unlimited access to every kind of instrument possible. A continuously variable transmission that used forward momentum as a source of power. A social network called elephanttoes.com where you made your friend's profiles, and they made yours (say elephant toes in the mirror and it looks like you're saying "I love you."). A forex trading expert advisor that used algorthyms to control leverage and assure profit.
And, of course, what would eventually become Papermache. That one stuck. The concept had stayed in my head, nameless but for a sentence I repeated over and over: "shared graded research papers."
One year later I'm in a loft downtown failing at Papermache. My van had died with all my belongings after driving the country so I packed a backpack with what remained and stayed in a hotels until finding 980 square feet of live/work space for $1400 a month was a perfect headquarters. The ideas keeps circling but the resources werent available to put the pieces together.
A year to the day after starting my lease I'm moving out after getting not much else aside from a name while washing my hands in the bathroom and the confidence to take risks I have never taken before.
Starting small, I reenrolled in a business law class at LACC and started transitioning back into academia, going to Meetups and taking public transportation EVERYWHERE.
At the behest of those close to me, I reenrolled in CSULA's entrepreneurship program with the sole intention of being "in my market."
Three years later Papermache is live (beta.papermache.cc), the business plan is complete, and the vision is clear. I have never worked so hard and been so proud of something in my entire life.
These days the talk about "don't go to school, it's a waste" completely misses the ample opportunity and environment that is a university.
People wonder how on earth they can get into an incubator, quit their jobs, and start their dreams when the answer has been there all along. Universities, specifically business schools, are just that: the original incubators.
Go back to school. Enroll in an undergraduate business program. It doesn't matter the institution, but the smaller courseload the better. This will give you more opportunity to work on your passion.
You'll be in an environment of mentors: professors, experts, and different fields that directly relate to your dream. You'll find classmates with majors applicable to you: accounting majors can keep track of expenses, finance majors can value your company, computer science students can code, etc.
Oh baby. And the best part? STUDENT FINANCE. All costs (however already low due to "freesources") could be covered by beautiful student credit cards and student loans. These have comparably lower interest rates than their business or personal counterparts, and nothing is due until graduation!
They say "stay in school." What they don't say is to stay in school you must fail. If you pass everything, you graduate and leave school! So don't worry about the grades. Worry about thinking thoughts you've never thought before and taking risks you've never taken before. Use these experiences to contribute to your classes and further these thoughts or behaviors.
I'm going to use this blog as a soapbox for preconceived ideologies that come to me as I stand alone in my room. I will couple them with no work until I feel compelled and then I will accomplish that which needs to happen. I hope you do the same!
