Breaking Bad Habits through Entrepreneurship

Coming to college can often be shocking for many people because of the unparalleled freedom we are granted. Although incredibly busy, this freedom does allows us the opportunity to have a lot of free time. Often, I’ve tended to notice that we waste it in the most unproductive ways. Personally, my freshman and sophomore year consisted of me zoning out whenever I had the chance in front of a TV, in any attempts to shut my brain off. This year, I had a lot of free time abroad, and instead of falling into the same routine, decided to change this bad habit.

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A few weeks ago (pre-election results), my college roommate and I had the pleasure of meeting up in Greece while we were both studying abroad. On one of our “let’s walk and talk until we get really lost” type of adventures, we dove into yet another countless conversation about the lack of education focused on female leadership, specifically in high school settings (yes this is actually what we talk about in our free time!). We recognized that this leads women to shy away from speaking up later in life specifically in the workforce, especially in male-dominated industries such as business or tech. On a personal level, we both identified with this issue and expressed the drastic change that took place when we began attending an all women’s college. Recognizing the power and influence our voices had, led us to flourish as female leaders in our community, and not be afraid to express our opinions in both classrooms and in our work experiences.

In very classic form, Madeline and I got a bit carried away and began developing a concept for an organization focused on fixing this problem; we both had the passion, and when putting our skillsets together, we already knew we could do just about anything we set our minds to. It wasn’t until two weeks later, when we had returned to our respective study abroad countries, that the election results sent shockwaves throughout the world, hitting us harder than we could’ve ever imagined. HerFutureFor the following sleepless hours, we cried, screamed and stood in denial of what had just happened. “Will I feel the impact of sexism more so when I enter the workforce under a Trump presidency?” we feared. Yet, immediately, Madeline and I began putting our heads together to make our two-week old concept, a reality. Now more than ever, we recognized, was the moment to make Empower HerFuture come to life.

“Don’t mourn, Organize”. And that’s exactly what we did. Although we were in different parts of Europe, in a matter of weeks, millions of imessages and whatsapp calls later, we had conducted extensive research, sent out surveys, developed thorough, original and engaging curriculum, planned out budgets, designed and launched a website, Facebook and Instagram pages, and reached out to several schools across the California region. By the end of 2016, we had several jobs lined up for the upcoming school term, and were determined to make this vision a reality. Facilitating our first workshop two weeks ago, and the astoundingly positive responses we received, has made us more excited than ever to continue on our way with this venture.

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Our 1st Workshop!

Having invested so much of our free time into this entrepreneurial venture has already paid off. When speaking with a number of professionals through the connections we have made at schools throughout California, and in recent job interviews, demonstrating that I have spent much of my free time dedicating myself to a project that means a lot to me, and has an impact larger than myself in my free time, shows a lot about who I am. Taking the time to zone out is absolutely valid and I am a huge promoter of self-care, but if you’re anything like me and develop bad habits quickly, I would recommend finding a project or small venture that you can work on in your free time, that would make you more productive and help break those bad habits. Whether this is a small-scale idea, such as volunteering for a local organization, or larger scale such as creating your own venture, showing employers that you are a curious, passionate and hard-working individual, even in your free time, is incredibly valuable to standing out and for them to get to know you a little better.

 

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