We’ve all been there.
An idea to create a new business, new content, ortake some sort of novel initiative pops into your head. You grab your phone and google the rough concept to see if anyone is already doing the same thing. The few results at thetop of the page appear, each with outdated websites, poor content, or simply differentapproaches than what you have in mind. You begin painting the picture in your head – people reading yourcontent, buying your product, and improving their lives because of your brilliance.
And then, crash. Your new idea is destroyed as quickly as it was built due to one simple, yet extremely overwhelming question: where do I even start?
As a college student, I found myself frequently hitting this wall. I could tell you how the strategies present in game theory could impact a decision maker in some fictional world; or how John Locke’s philosophy of the social contract impacts civilization to this day. But when it came to capitalizing on any original idea, I lacked the confidence and the wherewithal to begin.
Entering my senior year in the fall of 2019, I knew a friend from my study abroad program in Sweden had just co-founded a company called Apprentice providing remote mentorships for college students with serial entrepreneurs. So just before the end of the summer, I reached out to him to apply and ended up being paired with an entrepreneur based out of NYC.
Over the past 9 months working for my mentor, I have tackled projects covering marketing, advertising, website building, personal travel, operations, research, fundraising, event management, social media, and most recently have played a part in the launch of a new business specializing in home-cooked meal deliveries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, Apprentice also arranges weekly meetings with the two co-founders, Dave Kerpen and Rob Berk, teaching us soft and hard business skills never addressed in a classroom setting. Being surrounded by such creative minds and entrepreneurial spirits, the answers to the “where do I even start” question becomes increasingly clearer.
Apprentice has boosted my self-confidence and for the first time in my life allowed me to turn my ideas into action. Having always been interested in the connection between music and visual arts, I was interested in creating a platform that did exactly that. With the technical and people-oriented expertise learned in my time at Apprentice, I knew exactly how to take the thought inside my head and build it into a tangible platform for new content.
After a month of website constructing, interviewing, outreach, and strategizing, my best friend and I launched Wayveform, a content platform designed to increase appreciation for the creative processes of our favorite artists. It features interviews with musicians from around the world, shares new music, and provides a lens into the transformative experience of connecting visual art and music.
Working as an Apprentice gave me a fresh perspective and supportive network that would never have been attainable in the classroom. I feel empowered being around such a creative group of people and have established newfound confidence in my ability to create original content. If you ever find yourself hitting that wall of uncertainty as I did, the key to overcoming it lies in developing a mentorship with a serial entrepreneur either through Apprentice or in your own life. It will provide you with significant experience, but more importantly, that unconditional support to do whatever makes you happy.
Be sure to check out Wayveform to hear some amazing stories from musicians around the world about their connection to visual art and the incredible journeys to where they stand today. Also, be sure to follow us on social media for a new song every day and on Spotify for the best new music updated every Friday!
Website: www.wayveform.com
IG: https://www.instagram.com/wayveform/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/wayveform/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wayveform