What The Real World Teaches You About Business

What The Real World Teaches You About Business pexels.com Throughout our lives, especially in high school and college, we ultimately learn what the right thing to say is. Whether it is through enemies, friends, or serious relationships, the way you communicate with them will turn into your communication style with clients or coworkers in the business world. The way you communicate with someone can really affect what kind of position you land in the work environment. And, remember, in order to get that job you need to ace the interview. Last time I checked, there wasn’t a “How to Talk to People” class offered at any schools. Finally, jobs frequently come from knowing people. The more (positive) relations you have, the more likely you are to connect with someone of importance. According to businessinsider.com, “As author-investor Ben Casnocha likes to say, opportunities dont float down from the sky they come attached to people.” Organization and prioritization are necessary business skills that tend to especially develop during college. This means managing your time to get homework and projects done while also balancing a social life. Even sports in high school forced students to prioritize assignments. According to forbes.com: “The ability to analyze each of your tasks and rank them in order of importance is a skill that can set you apart in the workplace. On a related note, learning how to say ‘no.’ As you grow in your career, an influx of opportunities will come your way, all placing demands on your time. You’ll need to prioritize what matters most, put some on the back burner, and decline others altogether.” When it is finally your time to start your business career, you won’t go very far if you cannot properly organize your obligations. This also counts towards money management. Yes, there will be classes specifically designed to teach this skill, but I am talking about your money management. Paying taxes, building a retirement fund, and paying for insurance only marks a few of the tasks you will have to endure in the real world. If you cannot handle your own finances, how will you be able to handle an enterprises finances? Believe or not, email tends to be a major resource used for communication between business coworkers or company and client. However, emails are not the same as an English essay or a scientific research paper. And they are definitely not the place for APA citations. pexels.com According to forbes.com, “What matters is being able to communicate in a clear, concise, professional, and personable way. This also applies to memos, reports, and cover letters …” The only way you get to teach yourself this “skill” is by practicing. It also doesn’t hurt to get a second opinion of your email’s entirety. All you have to do is ask a friend to look at it and determine if it is professional and informational enough. If you get a passive-aggressive reply back, or maybe not one at all, that is the time to look over what you sent and make sure not to write another email like it ever again. Furthermore, failure is the best teacher. And failure is a pure experience that cannot be taught, only endured. The cliché is true: everyone makes mistakes. In the business world, the best of the best started out small and messed up every so often. But they learned from it. For example, according to americanexpress.com: “For small business owners of all stripes, making a big investment in some sort of professional solution, product innovation, or outsourced help can be a real boon. But if it isnt, and the investment isnt worth the return, many small business owners tend to stay with the investment for too long.” What can be learned from this experience? Drop something that turns out to be a flop, and do so quickly. Staying with something that doesn’t work does more harm than good. As a matter of fact, it probably doesn’t even do any good. According to americanexpress.com, “You may not be able to recover that investment, but the more time you waste on trying to make something worthless into something worthwhile, the more money you lose in profitability and growth.” Sometimes experiencing a failure is just a lesson in disguise. Simulations of business failures in a classroom do not compare to actually suffering from a real one. And that is what you will only get in the real world. So college courses may teach you typology, international business laws, or statistics, but the world teaches you much, much more. Truly taking in each and every one of your life experiences, success or failure, will enable you to bring your knowledge into the world and make a difference. Learn more about Kaplan’s test prep options and start building the confidence you need for Test Day.