
When I was growing up, and whilst at high school, I had no idea what I wanted to be. I did really like sports and thought I might do something sporty, but career counselling back then basically involved providing you with a bunch of pamphlets on anything remotely in your realm (in my case becoming a PE teacher or personal trainer) and having a brief discussion about the career paths that were available to you post-tertiary studies. So basically, how to go to University and get a job.
I’ve started 5 businesses and sold 2.
The first one I sold was a newspaper which I started when I was at school at age 17 and sold after its first issue to an American entrepreneur. The second was an online teeshirt business called tikangatees.co.nz which I ran from internet cafes around the world from 2002 to 2006. When I got bored, yet knew it had more potential to go, I decided to sell it, which I did for a five figure sum.
You need to come up with ideas, get them off the ground with next to no money, and perform every function of the business until your business is at a level where you have the benefit of starting to either sub-contract or hire people to assist you with the tasks you least like and don’t have the skills to perform and drive your business forward.
You need to market like crazy, solve problems, be flexible, innovate, play on your strengths, outsource your weaknesses. It’s a game and it’s a journey, not a destination. But hey, so is life.
Do you think becoming an entrepreneur is a career that should be encouraged in schools? Or that we should encourage our kids to pursue.
Do you think becoming an entrepreneur is a career that should be encouraged in schools? Do you work on sideline entrepreneur projects whilst holding down a full time job?
Do you think the term entrepreneur still has negative connotations or is that stigma now gone?
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.