Architect Dara Huang says that young creatives should use their time working at other companies to make their most significant mistakes, before starting their own business.
"When you're working for a high-profile company, or any company, it's very easy for us to slag it off and feel like we're being overworked and underpaid," said Huang during a panel on entrepreneurism at Dezeen Day.
"But if you're smart, don't make mistakes on your own company ? learn from where you are and absorb it."
"Stay late and ask questions"
Speaking alongside Roksanda Ilincic and Benjamin Hubert, Huang explained that their early experiences at work will prevent young architects and designers from making blunders when they're "completely alone" and running their own business. "What you're doing now and what you've done before ? these are your formative years. Don't sit there and say 'I hate my job' ? embrace it, stay late and ask all the questions you want," she continued.
"When I got tired of the company I was working for, I spent a year photographing the supplier library, asking questions about planning...I was 29 years old when I decided to start my own company, what did I know about anything""
Huang ? who established her studio DH Liberty back in 2013 ? cut her teeth in the industry by working with Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, as well as with designer Thomas Heatherwick.
She has since gone on to launch a lightin...