Becoming an entrepreneur is often one of the dreams of young people in our country, apart from pursuing higher education. However, sometimes only a few of them can lead a successful life as a businessman as well as an academic with degrees. 

Here is one of the youths who runs their businesses while getting scholarships to continue their education to a higher level. Let's follow The S Media's conversation with Dwita Andini, the owner of Gandhok Coffee and also an LPDP awardee.

Being an LPDP awardee is the ambition of all young people. Is getting a scholarship something you really want to achieve in your life?

Honestly, I doubted myself at first. What I imagine is that the ones who get scholarships are only geniuses. But, deep in my heart, I'm still really curious to try applying. You know, there are many who offer scholarships and there are big opportunities. If we don't get this scholarship, we still have the option to apply for another scholarship. And this really happened to me. When I get to the point, okay, I want to pursue education again to add insight, skills, experience, and especially value for myself.

And after I went through it, I think that in the end, the people who get the scholarship are people who already know what their “goal” is, it doesn't necessarily mean only to those geniuses. Now, after 6 years of being involved in entrepreneurship, I have a more focused goal. I realized what I was missing during these 6 years, what I could improve on, and what I needed to have in order to achieve all my visions for the future.

Finally, I made a decision, I'm pursuing my education again, and specifically according to what I needed, I choose to learn entrepreneurship. This September, I will go to Lancaster and attend a Master's program in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Lancaster University Management School under the LPDP scholarship program.

In what ways will this scholarship change your life and career?

I found myself as an entrepreneur, and it will be my lifetime career. I am sure that my Master's study will upgrade my entrepreneurial competence and capability, beneficial both for myself and the people around me. I believe this scholarship can broaden my horizons and perspectives. 

The master's education that I will pursue will also provide experience in studying in a multicultural environment and interacting with people from different backgrounds and different cultures and personalities.

This will certainly hone my interpersonal and leadership skills amid diversity. While from a business point of view, what I experienced would be inspired me to form a more solid and compact work team.

Why do you think young people need a master's degree or even a doctorate?

I decided to take the master's degree because I felt I still needed more knowledge. A little story, currently, my business in the F&B industry is not only limited to selling food and beverage products. But I also provide services. F&B consulting services. This service is targeted at MSME entrepreneurs and early-stage entrepreneurs.

Of course, providing assistance to clients with my consulting services is a big responsibility, even though I have more than 5 years of direct experience in the F&B world, but I realize that I can't always assist them based on my first-hand business experience. I still have to increase my knowledge and insight as well. So I feel like I really need to pursue higher education for this.

Why do you think young people need to get a higher degree?

Education is important, yes. It has also been proven that education is not only able to provide knowledge and add insight, but education can also open perspectives and our mindsets.

How would you react if someone said, "women don't need to go to high school, they'll go back to your husband afterward"?

A wife, especially one who has become a mother, has the same important role as a husband. Even if one day I decide that I don't want to take care of business anymore, I want to focus on taking care of my children. I will never regret that I spent a lot of time pursuing my Master's degree. Because I can pass the experiences that I got to my children, and I also can inspire them to pursue their future education.

Do you still have goals after earning a master's degree?

Of course. I am a big dreamer. Indeed, after I finish my studies, I will continue to realize my other dreams and goals. What's the point of living without a goal? For me, a goal is a stimulant to make something unreal into reality. As for the closest target after finishing my studies, I will return to Indonesia and apply all the knowledge I got during my studies to improve my business. I also want to share my knowledge and experience with people around me.

How does it feel about managing a business together with your spouse? 

Mixed-feelings. Happy and very grateful. Building a business is not easy. It requires a strong support system. Because being an entrepreneur is not everyone’s job. Doing this job is not just thinking about money and profit but requires the heart to take the meaning of a process of pioneering, growing, and developing.

I am very grateful to find a partner whose vision and mission are in line with mine and who has the same calling in life, both of us wanting to be entrepreneurs. We understand each other, complement each other, and remind each other.

It's tough for us to bear it together, but we always enjoy it because we believe that all the problems we face are part of the process. In my opinion, the business that we build will also not be what it is today if we run it alone, not together.

The way you market Gandhok Coffee on social media is also very smooth. Are you also involved in storytelling as one of the marketing tools?

My husband is the person behind the scenes of the Gandhok Group social media. Starting from making photo and video concepts, taking pictures, shooting videos, editing, and storytelling in captions. It's all him!

He spends one hour per day, specifically making captions. Sometimes we talk about things that he wants to write only to inspire him. But, Gandhok's social media is 100% still handled by my husband, and Gandhok has never hired an agency for our social media marketing.

Sometimes, we see that you are busy trying out a new menu for Gandhok Coffee on your Instagram account. Do you like to cook? What's your favorite food?

Yes. I like cooking, and so does my husband too. All the products in Gandhok are developed by me and my husband, both food and beverage products. So that's why I dared to mention earlier that one of the differences between Gandhok compared to other similar businesses is that we as the owners have such a high product knowledge. Because we develop all the menus by ourselves. So far, what we haven't made is just pastry.

I have many favorite foods, but what I like the most above everything is lontong sayur Medan made by my mom.