The 7 Things I Did to Crush My Goals In College

A little over five months ago, I posted an article on LinkedIn titled College Entrepreneurship, that got me a job.  This article was designed to showcase the fine line between an entrepreneur and a wantrepreneur, a topic I am still especially passionate about today.  The article was highly successful.  My inbox became flooded with kind words from friends and family, including one special message that asked me to visit Norfolk for a spring internship opening at an accounting firm.  A firm I had previously been denied from twice.  

From that opportunity grew tens more, and it’s hard to imagine how different my life would be, let alone my final undergraduate semester, if I had never taken the initiative to post.  From that boost of confidence onward, I recognized how sharing my opinion instilled a new value within myself, amplifying my writing capabilities.  The article led to my most exciting and productive semester of my undergraduate experience, as I was confident to see how I could further push my boundaries, and crush goals I had always wanted.  

In one semester, I worked practically full time as an intern for an accounting firm based in Norfolk and as a student ambassador for my university, while owning and operating my own service-based DJ business. I served in a pinnacle leadership position for my fraternity, in addition to acting as the Chaplin chair for our chapter’s weekly bible studies.  I received academic dean’s list honors, all while finally popping the question to my best friend, getting engaged, and being excited about wedding preparations for a soon-to-be determined date within the year.  In other words, I did a lot because I implemented the ideologies from my previous article and stopped wanting and started doing. 

I don’t write these things to sound cocky, but to instead share my confidence, along with ideas I learned along the way that helped me crush each and every one of my goals.  My last five months have been an undeniable blessing, and I wouldn’t change a thing about them.  Since the moment I posted that life changing article, I have been overwhelmed by the power of doing.  This article is my letter of encouragement for those looking to achieve their goals, whether that be finally making money doing something they love or winning that leadership position they have been wanting to hold for years.  Nevertheless, wherever your passion lies, I posted an article that eventually proved to me that my opinions and ideas have value, which led to various other mediums where I further pushed my mindset.  If I could do it, so can you. Here are the seven ways I crushed my goals during my undergraduate experience.  

Plan for Everything (Or at Least Try To)

            College students basically have total control of their schedules, and what they do with their time.  Obviously, academics comes first, but no one wants to be controlled by their course load, and I know from experience that there is no worse feeling than personal time becoming impleaded by school.  I used to go days on end without having time for myself or my business and I recognized that these were the times I was the most unenthusiastic. Planning and time management is the essence to everything in my opinion, because projects won’t get done if time hasn’t been allotted to them.  Regardless of what you want to do with your time, academics will always regain control of your life and time if you don’t take advantage of it.  It is important to ensure that your course work is getting completed in a timely manner, refraining from the frantic catching up game that only comes from procrastination.  

            When planning my schedule, I measured out all the things I wanted to do on a weekly basis and allotted the time I thought It would take weekly for each activity.  These activities included everything, including class and study time, time out with friends, the fraternity, at the gym, and the moments I needed to myself.  I decided how much time a week I was willing to spend for each activity, and stuck to it regardless.  Notice I said willing, and not neededin the previous sentence. By allocating time I am willing to spend, opposed to the time I think I might need, I am required to push myself harder because of the need to complete a task within my individual time constraints. Had I allocated time per the latter, I would misuse perfectly good time that could be spent elsewhere on a project that could probably be done in less time.   

            Once all my activities were assigned a per week quota, I had to tailor my time as if each time chunk was a puzzle.  Though this took about a week, I had pieced together my entire schedule for the semester prior to start of classes.  I tried to plan and account for everything I could, realizing that things come up, and plans change.  I continued to adjust my schedule on a weekly basis, preferably Sundays, to note any cancelations or additions.  Though it might sound like my time was too controlled, I felt more in control, because I could budget my time around what needed to get done and devote my full attention to a project when need be, inevitably freeing up my time to live my life during the time my assignments, studying, and work was completed. 

Automate the Boring Stuff

            When you’ve allocated time out of your day to study, the worst thing you can do is spend those hours catching up on emails and answering texts.  Instead, these should be updated at a specified time (I would devote thirty minutes twice a day, once at noon and again at four), or better yet, automated. You’ve probably heard it before, but there are endless opportunities for email automatization, along with every form of social media imaginable.  In doing this, wasted time sending emails can be lumped into a once a week hour long ritual, and replying can be digressed into something that happens only twice a day. There are countless online opportunities for automatization services that are free, or close to it.  Each designed to be specifically tailored to your liking, automation was the number one way I regained control of my time, fully taking advantage of my work time instead of trying to multitask.

            I allocated one hour a week to set up email and social media automation.  During this time, I made decisions about what emails I wanted I send throughout the week, including journal entries I was required to write and submit weekly, and social media posts I wanted to use to promote my personal brand.  In automating both channels of communication, I could spend one hour of my 168-hour week, thinking, writing, and scripting the perfect messages instead of feeling rushed by in the moment pressure.  I also could decide the exact time I wanted my messages sent or posted, so if I was typically busy during that targeted time, I wasn’t confined or unable to utilize its optimization.  

Start a Business and Stick with It (Regardless if it’s Good or Not) 

            Starting a business was hands down the most fun decision I ever made during undergrad.  I’ll never forget that heart beating moment I felt when I was deciding whether I should buy the domain for University DJ or not.  Since then, my profits have risen more than forty times my initial investment, and I haven’t turned back once.  Every day I think about ways to expand the business, and I’ve learned to love networking even more, because I feel that I am spreading value and helping others throughout the process.  Operating and owning a business also taught me how to utilize an online store, manage employees, and communicate with clients, all things that I would have never learned in the classroom.  The hands-on experience has been something special, that truly evolved me as a student, and as a person, because it attached my name to my passion all while becoming my identity.  A huge responsibility; nonetheless one I believe every student should make the decision to inflict upon themselves during their undergraduate experience.  Be sure to read my article College Entrepreneurship if you haven’t already, for a more in-depth perspective on ways to use a college community’s network and resource to help build your business and brand.  

            University DJ is where my passion lied, which made operating a business fun for me, a place where I found joy in the time I devoted to it.  I believe everyone should pursue whatever their passion might be, and learn to find a way to market it, promote it, and monetize from it. As I often say, college was my entrepreneurial playground, where I could challenge myself in a multitude of regards that had a small financial impact if they didn’t work out.  Moreover, many found interest in what I had to say, only furthering my business to what it is today, and encouraging me during every step of the process.  

            An idea isn’t anything until it has a website, and we live in a day and age where owning a domain couldn’t be any easier. That was the hardest decision for me, getting started, and still this day that couldn’t be any more laughable, because that was the easiest part.  Take your passion and find a way to make money from it, documenting your story along the way.  Regardless of the outcome, making even just one dollar is a success within itself, and it’s something too many college students aren’t taking advantage of, refraining themselves from experiencing one of the greatest American opportunities there is to be offered.  

Create a Brand for Yourself

It’s been said a thousand times before, and it can be found in probably every business book ever written but finding and developing a personal brand for yourself is so important.  The key word here is finding, as this can be the most difficult part of the whole process. Branding yourself takes many forms, including the everyday exchanges you have with people on campus, and the way you showcase yourself on social media.  Heedless of the platform, every interaction with the world leaves a mark on your personal brand, so it’s time to define and understand what impressions you want those marks to leave.

First start off by defining who you are, and what you do.  A big indicator of what a person’s about is by their associations, and the organizations they are a part of.  People affiliate with people they know and are interested in, so it’s important to only be part of communities you’re engage with, and passionate about.  If you’re a part of something that is meaningless to you, disband from it, it’s as simple as that.  

I started sculpting who I wanted to be specifically during my final semester of undergrad.  I wanted to leave a legacy as the student entrepreneur who found the love of his life and was excited for what the world had to offer.  I tailored to this brand in all my social media posts (which were automated weekly), and it overflowed out of me due to the passion I had for my affiliations and the projects I was working on, whether that was a new business model for University DJ, or a new fundraiser idea I was working on with my fraternity. Regardless of what I was doing, I was having fun, and that showed throughout my actions and day to day conversations.  I documented my story, and shared free content whenever possible to those who followed me online.  

Starting your personal brand starts by understanding what makes you unique and recognizing the value you can instill on the world by exposing your ideas and perspectives.  How you choose to do this is up to you, but it’s important to find out what you have that is worth talking about, and then talk about it.  University DJis interesting, so I talk about it.  I also create content that is worth reading or listening about, share it on platforms that are more utilized compared to others such as Facebook, and then break the content into smaller informational chunks for my other social media outlets.  It’s important to do this with your personal brand also, to get your stories and documentations out into the public, connecting with as many people you can. Find out what you want your story to be, then come up with a plan to share it with the world.

Form a Personal Marketing Plan, and a Business One

            Your business should bleed into your life and be directly associated with you and your personal brand.  In other words, you should be able to freely talk about your business on your social media accounts, and in your everyday language while having it sound natural.  It should never be a surprise that you own and operate your own business.  Just like any business, yours needs to have a marketing plan, where you have carefully thought-out the content you want to provide for your audience, the dates you plan you to deliver, all the way down to the posts to plan to create across all your online platforms.  Come up with something to talk about, and then talk about it, working hand in hand with your personal accounts to further push your brand to its fullest potential.  

            I tweaked my marketing plan monthly, automated my posts, and stuck to my plan religiously.  You should too.  I didn’t waste time being ambiguous of what I hoped to accomplish with University DJ, and my other endeavors, and set clear path goals for myself and business that had clear stepping stones in place to see that I crushed all that I hoped to.  If my goals resided more on the personal level, I made sure to properly market it, so I could juice the content of all that I was hoping for.  What I mean by this is that I wanted my audience to fully capture every component of the story.  This often-meant multiple posts, numerous photos, and recap information that helped my followers and friends fully identify with all the emotions and viewpoints I felt could be found within my content. 

For example, when I got into graduate school I had two main waves of content that shared the moment, the memory, and the thankfulness I had for the support and love of those who were interested in my achievement. It may sound unconventional, because one might think that thinking in this way could take away from the moment. On the contrary, it enhanced that experienced.  Wave one was a stream of photos from the proposal, where I had my big news moment showcased on Facebook.  I used my other social media outlets to share different photos, that told the same story, but in a different way.  Wave two readdressed my love for the communal support, which was all true feelings of joy I faced from the first wave of documentation, where I was congratulated and indulged with only the kindest of compliments.  The final wave was utterly “thank you” content of appreciation that came from the interest and engagement many people showed because they too felt a part of the event.  Every life event can be handled this way, most of which that can be foreseen, only to be marketed and shared in a way that sheds light onto your personal life and brand. 

It’s important to realize people follow you online, because they are interested in you.  They want to be involved in what you’re doing, and this is the same with your brand. If they follow your business, they want to hear about it, so stop wasting time promoting other individuals and organizations that don’t mean anything to your followers.  Though this isn’t a bad thing, it shouldn’t be the core of your content because that’s solely not what people care about. Document when events happen and create content and market it in a way that delivers an insight to all the emotion to which it is capable.  Plan accordingly and think long and hard about what you want your followers to juice from its source.  Creating a marketing plan is the best way to never miss a beat, and implement a way for your followers to access exactly what they are interested in.  

Make Friends, Never Enemies

            Networking is reiterated everywhere in the business world, because its honestly one of the most important takeaways from college. It’s not about what you know, but who you know.  I couldn’t agree more.  Every conversation has information nuggets that can be applied to your life, and it’s important to they don’t go unnoticed.  Every person has goals and aspirations, and they have struggles and obstacles just like you.  Talking to people with the sole reason to get to know them is powerful, and it will reshape the way you think and live in ways you may never truly understand.  I have always said that if you greet someone three times when the opportunity presents itself, then you’ve made a friend.  Don’t be that person who scares themselves away from making the first move, take the initiative and acknowledge the other person when appropriate, and you’ll be surprised by how fast they are willing to open up to you.  Use every opportunity to engage and conversation and meet someone new.  You will never know how powerful a relationship can be unless you try.

            I made so many friends in college by simply remembering their names, and when I forgot their names, (which was more often than not) I’d ask for it.  This showed that I cared about them, which I do, and it inferred that I wanted to get to know them more than just a casual acquaintance.  If I was in a class with someone, and saw them out in public somewhere else, I’d make the conscious effort to meet them, using that class as the initial basis for our conversation.  Think about all the relationships you’ve ever had, and then pin point the exact moment you sparked that first conversation.  They all had to start somewhere, so why limit yourself to a handful of people you can have a conversation with, when the opportunities are endless.  

            Never burn bridges, because you seemingly never have to.  Making friends is far more productive than the contrary, and far more fun to say the least. If you come across someone you just can’t agree with, ignore them, as it’s not worth the fight trying to engage with someone you have difficulties with anyways.  Friends help friends, and they also support them.  They support their goals, their personal and business brands, and their decisions.  Expand your network, enjoy the companionship, and set aside differences to work and pursue success and the greater good.  I’m sure I missed a slew of opportunities because I was nervous to engage with another an individual or felt that it wasn’t my place.  Don’t have those regrets when it comes time for graduation. 

Enjoy the Ride

            In everything you do, I’m a firm believer you should enjoy yourself.  If you’re a part of an organization or club as merely a resume booster, and you find no other satisfaction from it, then I’d say you’re wasting your time. College is the perfect opportunity to explore and learn about what you enjoy, and more importantly, what you don’t enjoy.  I started my college career with a completely different end goal in mind than I ended up with, but I couldn’t be more thankful for the opportunities I test ran to get me to where I am today.  Everything I did my final semester of undergrad provided me with a brigade of emotions.  There were good times, and many, many times of difficulty and challenges.  However, throughout it all I was happy, because I was doing things, and I was part of things that I enjoyed.  

            Four years of undergrad was crazy, but as I approach my graduation date, I can truly say I have no regrets.  I did everything I wanted to do, and learned from everything I could, and you can do the same.  Seek to juice every endeavor of all its contents, and keep notes, a journal, and documentation of all that you accomplish.  College is a time to experiment and engage in an entrepreneurial playground of like-minded individuals that are also trying to find their fit.   Push yourself to be bigger than you originally thought you could be, and then keep going.  Meet people you never thought you would meet, and then meet more.  Try things you never thought you would try, and then try more.  

            I wrote this article to encourage those like me to try, fail, and then try again, because that’s exactly what I did.  I hope this was a small insight into my life, and a proud ode to the beauty of communal engagement and entrepreneurship. Be who you want to be and be proud of your personal and business brand come graduation.  If you’re not, then I’m happy to tell you that you’ve still got your whole life ahead of you.  Make the changes you need to make and try the things you’ve been dying to try.  Go forward and crush your goals, and make your stamp on this world, putting your best foot forward.  Thanks for reading!