Jeremy Young

I enrolled in Goldsmiths in 2012 because I had an idea, a seedling, for a business that I wanted to create. But I was scared, lacked confidence, and felt lost at sea in terms of where to start. The story was there, but I wasn't really sure how everything was going to come together. Over the course of my MA, aside from learning how to overcome that lack of self-confidence, learning to embrace risk and uncertainty and turn it into opportunity, and acquiring the necessary tools to start a business without a tried and trusted model out there, what I realized inevitably was that "I" am how it all comes together. I don't think this is something that's really teachable in a typical classroom, it takes immersion into one's field, collaboration and a pair of bootstraps, to learn that what comes from so deep within that it belongs only to you is the strongest asset an entrepreneur can bring into a creative enterprise. And honestly, that's something that I find to be unique to Goldsmiths as an education institution. The classroom is embedded into your life as a creative worker, not the other way around. 

Whether you're a brick and mortar with 500 years of capitalist history to support your business model, or a pioneering new form of commerce that doesn't exist yet, I think in this new, shapeless and experientially-biased economy, one of the most important lessons an entrepreneur can learn is to follow their gut. Don't sell toilet paper, and don't try to sell me "smart" bluetooth toilet paper, sell me toilet paper that reflects where you came from, what your values are, and that supports an overlooked global community with whom you've personally spent time. Remember that people invest in people, people support people, and people inspire people. Your business is only as valuable as your ability to communicate your passion and personality through it.

I used to think I needed to learn how to build a thing, I had to learn that it's better to know how to break it.

Editor-In-Chief, Soundfly's online publication Flypaper and Freelance Curator, Sonic Artist