A-Level results aren't the be-all and end-all: there's more than one path to success

This week, thousands of young people will be receiving their A-Level results. For a lot of them, it's felt like the biggest test of their lives so far - not just of what they know, but of who they're allowed to become.

Get the grades, get onto the course, get on the path.

Everyone means well when they say it. But it puts a huge amount of weight on just one day.

It’s one day, not a verdict

Here's the truth that gets lost in all that pressure: it's one day.

It's not a verdict on your potential, your intelligence, or your future. It's a set of grades - nothing more, nothing less. Even most parents agree: two-thirds (66%)* told Virgin StartUp that the most important thing is that their child enjoys what they do, not that they follow the most impressive-looking path.

If results day doesn't go the way you'd hoped, it can feel like the plan has collapsed.

It hasn't.

It just means the very specific plan you had in mind - maybe that course or that university - needs a rethink. And a rethink isn't a failure. It's an opportunity to ask a better question. Not ‘what grades did I get?’ but ‘what do I actually want to spend my time doing?’

Building something of your own

For a growing number of young people, the honest answer to that question isn't sitting in a lecture hall. It's building something of their own.

When you start a business, it won’t ask what you scored. It asks what you're willing to try, what problem you want to solve, what you're stubborn enough to keep going with - especially when it gets hard. It rewards curiosity and grit over exam technique.

And crucially, it gives you something a results slip never can: control. Control over what you work on, how you work, and who you become while you're doing it.

That's not a consolation prize. For plenty of founders, it was always the plan, and university was just never going to teach them the thing they most wanted to learn, which was how to build something that mattered to them.

Some of the best businesses we've backed at Virgin StartUp came from people who didn't get the grades they expected. So, they took a breath and went and did their own thing instead. Not despite the setback. Sometimes because of it. Because it forced a question they might never have asked themselves otherwise.

Easier than ever to give it a go

It also helps that starting something has never been more within reach.

In fact, almost two-thirds of the parents we surveyed (62%)* say advances like social media and AI have made it easier for young people to start a business straight out of school.

A young person can test an idea, build an audience, design a product or take payments with barely any money behind them at all - no shopfront, no funding round, no permission needed.

That's a huge shift from a generation ago, when starting a business meant a needing a huge amount of startup funding and a leap of faith. Now you can find out in weeks, not years, whether an idea has legs, and adjust it just as fast if it doesn't.

It's a far gentler way to fail, learn and try again than most people realise.

If it doesn’t go to plan

So, if this week doesn't go to plan, that's genuinely ok.

Take the day, feel whatever you need to feel, and then remember there's more than one route to a good life.

University is a brilliant one, for those it's right for. But it isn't the only one. Sometimes the best next step isn't a course at all - it's an idea, some stubbornness, and the nerve to back yourself.

That's exactly what we're here for.

Ready to take the step into entrepreneurship?

It all begins with taking that first step. The Virgin Startup team are here to support you from day one. From a community of founders with mentoring opportunities and free networking events, to startup funding with support from a business advisor.

👉 Learn more about our founder community here

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- Written by Diana Greenhalgh, Operations Lead, Virgin StartUp

Research conducted surveying 1,000 UK parents of children aged 13–21, July 2026.