How Founding a Circus Arts Club Laid the Foundations of My Entrepreneurial Journey

At university I studied mechatronics engineering and joined a lot of clubs. I was on the dance club's management team within my first months, mostly because hardly anyone else wanted to do management and I had plenty of free time in the prep year. So I took on a lot and showed I could get things done. On that executive board I learned to lead teams, organize events, find sponsors, handle crises, and plenty more.

The club that shaped me most, though, was the one I founded: the Contemporary Circus Arts Club.

It started at a festival, where I saw people performing with fire. I was a dancer, and (a little drunk) I asked myself why I had never tried this. It looked so cool. So I got some poi and started practicing, the unlit version, and learned from videos online. I loved it. I'd put my headphones on and try the same trick for hours. That surprised me more than anything: I had never stayed with one repetitive thing for that long. Many hours and a lot of basic tricks later, I decided I couldn't be the only crazy person in town into this, and went looking for the other lunatics. Eventually I found a Circus Arts Workshop.

There I discovered other props and got even more hooked on how meditative and collaborative the whole thing is. People were nice and helpful. Sharing a niche interest made everyone supportive and excited, and nobody got competitive the way people do in music or dance. Everyone just wanted to learn more and share what they knew, because the same trick looks different on every person. Learning from each other is also more fun and a lot easier, and we became really good friends.

At university I wanted to bring this culture in and show people what circus arts could do for them. The biggest problem in starting the club was getting people past their preconceptions. Some were worried about looking like jesters. The ones who weren't thought it was too hard for them, that you needed a talent they didn't have. So I practiced on the campus lawns, showed passersby what I was doing, got them to try, and found ways to build up enough confidence for a few basic tricks. Everyone has their own flow, so each person feels more at home with a different prop. That's why I learned the basics of every prop, enough to get anyone started. It made me better at learning and teaching, and at seeing where a person's insecurity came from and how to get them past it.

Getting the club officially recognized was a separate fight. The administration was very skeptical. They doubted anyone would be interested and cited safety concerns, and for more than a year they kept putting bureaucratic obstacles in my way. I wrote proposals, held meetings, and organized events to win support. They wouldn't approve a single event, not even a small workshop, so I stopped asking and organized them behind their backs. Some got shut down halfway through, and I kept organizing anyway.

At the same time, the big student clubs had been fighting each other for years, with massive problems. I had a good reputation and got along with the executives of nearly every club, so I offered them a joint event: one big workshop where each club had its own area to run workshops for students, which gave all of them more presence and reach. I took full responsibility for every interaction and for running the whole thing. Over time, after enough successful events and work with the other clubs, the administration came around. They didn't have much choice, since we had ended the fight and made campus culture better.

Running the club gave me more memorable moments than I can count. Some were funny, like setting my hair on fire mid-performance. Some were emotional, like handing the presidency to the next generation. As my final year got closer, I decided not to stay on as president. I mentored a new leader instead, so the club would keep going after me, and helped the new members learn how to grow and manage a small club. The handover ceremony was a very emotional day for me. It was when I could see that what we'd built would last.

A student club works exactly like a professional organization. The only difference is that you get paid in experience, fun, and memories instead of money. Running this one sharpened my leadership, problem solving, and organizing, and it shaped my professional life directly. As an entrepreneur I need those skills every day just to survive: putting a team together, getting through bureaucracy, closing deals, landing partnerships, getting people behind a shared vision and values. For all of it, I keep going back to what I learned running a circus club.