Book Review: From Student to Entrepreneur - Aileen Gilani

By Kim and Lea

When we think ‘student deals’, our minds definitely don’t jump to ‘luxury membership service’ featuring deals on companies like Harvey Nichols and personal assistants. But this is exactly the niche market that The Luxury Student has decided to target. And also exactly why we were so intrigued when the founder of the company, Aileen Gilani contacted us to review her book ‘From Student to Entrepreneur’.

The Luxury Student is a membership service created to offer students interested in luxury products and services, the opportunity to build a relationship with luxury brands and benefit from unique deals. The pocket-sized book is all about Aileen’s honest experiences whilst starting this business, whether positive or negative.

The book offers a great insight including some aspects of being an entrepreneur that aren’t always widely covered. For example, gaining knowledge in many areas - even those outside of your industry - taking on the constructive parts of criticism, and being adaptable to external changes in your environment. All of which can be considered beneficial for your everyday life, even if you aren’t considering becoming an entrepreneur.

At the same time though, Aileen’s “lessons” as she calls her chapters, were sometimes over explained. Her anecdotes, although quite relatable at times, were also a little random and contradicted her points. Despite this, we found the book inspiring and valued the backstory to Aileen’s success, even though the membership isn’t something that either of us could afford in the long term, with prices starting at £50 per month. But this review’s main aim was to spread the word to students who could see this membership becoming a part of their routine. And although Aileen may have had some advantages that helped her throughout this journey that others may not have, like financial availability, she still struggled and worked hard as she pursued her dreams and created a business she is greatly proud of… which is something we can all learn from in one way or another!