One of the earliest ways I remember entrepreneurship in my life was when I was in middle school and I came up with the idea of making and selling bracelets that were trending at the time. Everyone else bought already made ones from stores but I found that I can have it for cheaper if I just bought a kit and the supplies myself. And with the help of my brothers I did. Soon after, we started up coming up with the coolest designs and patterns for these bracelets that no one else had. At that point, our ambitious young selves decided to make a small little neighborhood business out of it. We would make a bunch of preset designs, take pictures of them, organize it into a catalog and packed all of our designs in a sectioned off box that would separate all of our little patterns. Then, we would go around the neighborhood, door by door, showing our neighbors the catalog we had made. Then when they requested a specific design pattern, we would pull out our organized box and pull out their desired bracelet. It was so satisfying at the time because it felt so professional. By the time our business was dying out, we had made a couple of hundreds of dollars and it had been way more than enough to pay off the kit and supplies, as well as our own bracelets. Best of all, it was such a fun experience.

Another way entrepreneurship has been in my life, (I think you can call it that, at least) is in middle-school when I used to mine doge coin (a type of cryptocurrency) on the school computers overnight. During the second half of PE class, which we had every day at the end of the day, we would be put in a computer lab where we could do homework. Instead, my friend and I set up some mining programs sourced from the CPU of the computers to run overnight, since we were the last people using the computers throughout the day. Then, we'd turn off the monitors so it looked like the computers were off, while they were secretly mining some coins for us. It was more fun for us than anything since we really didn't make much off it, but I'd still consider it entrepreneurship since we were able to make a little gig out of nothing.
The source of most of my inspiration was my father, who makes a pretty decent living off selling ads to luxury brands that would be placed in hotels. The business started off in a single island, and has grown to a world wide company in over 15 countries, which is why entrepreneurship has always been a big part of my life. I have seen my dad go through many ups and downs before he got to where he was and I feel like it has shown me a lot about the field.
The primary reason why I enrolled in this class is because I've always given thought to the idea of becoming an entrepreneur. I know I have it in me and it has always been in the back of my mind, although it is not something I actively pursue since it's too risky for me invest everything into it. Nonetheless, it's still a field of business that interests me immensely and I would love to learn more about it since I've probably only scratched the surface of it. What I want to get out of the class, more than anything (except maybe an A) would be inspiration. I've seen how passionate the professor is and I find it really moving. That being said, I'm really glad I decided to take the class.
Hey Samuel,
ReplyDeleteI had a similar experience making paracord bracelets to sell to my class in middle school. The use of the catalog and pre-made inventory is also an ingenious idea for a middle school aged student to come up with. I would almost argue that setting up the dog coin mining is not necessarily entrepreneurship because it is not solving a problem, but rather taking advantage of an opportunity. I admire that you find entrepreneurship risky, yet are still enrolled in this class in an effort to find inspiration for entrepreneurship (and of course that A that i want as well).
-JJ