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It! Story

Entrepreneur Confessions

Page 2

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A Confession From My Past

When I first started out as an entrepreneur I was unfocused.

I didn't know what I really wanted or how I was going to get there.

I just new that I was magnetically attracted to the options that rich people could access and that I wanted to make and invest money in the same way.

Naturally, I was prone to look closely at any and all manner of opportunity that floated past me.

In 2003 I was at a business networking event and met a young woman promoting a network marketing opportunity.

From Illegal to Entrepreneur

At 24, Carlos Castro fled poverty and El Salvador's bloody civil war, paying about $800 for a coyote to smuggle him into the United States. He was caught at the border and deported, but snuck back into the United States almost immediately.

Now 55 and a U.S. citizen, he's the president of Todos Supermarket, which specializes in foods and services to immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa at stores in Woodbridge and Dumfries.

Young Entrepreneur Success Story -

Dameion Royes

My story is a story of hope, struggle and luck. It is a story of a young boy left behind in Jamaica after my mother and father split up. My mother was left alone with two kids and suddenly was forced to make a hard decision to leave her homeland.

I was only two when my mother left and the next time I saw her I was seven. By that time she was truly a stranger to me and when that cold day in February arrived and it was my brother's and my turn to join her in Canada. There was a strange and disconnected feeling that was shared by all of us.

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Mike Geary Interview - Confessions of an

Internet Marketing Superstar

Barry: If you were to go back to where you were at the beginning, what was the thing that made the big difference from year two to three? What was the thing that eventually made the big breakthrough? What item of knowledge did it take?

Mike: I can be honest and say that I was about to give up, after about a year. I had made the product, made the website, and I kind of had these false hopes that I would just build it and they would come. I had built the website and I would just start getting these massive amounts of sale and everything would take off.

I didn’t realize that actually you had to work really hard to drive traffic and get exposure for your site. So it took a while to learn that. And because I didn’t give up, a couple of years later things started taking off.

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My Biggest Problem as a Startup....

This is extremely hard to boil down…

I could easily write about acquiring new customers, my problems with implementing things quickly, our lack of project management skills, my need for an assistant, my problem of focusing on non-money making ventures or even the fact that we have 3 dogs at our house that contantly interrupt me through out the day.

But I don’t think any of those are the actual problem…

I think the biggest problem I have (and this is incredibly hard to admit) is a mental block. The fear of becoming uber successful.

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The Secret Confessions of a Happy Entrepreneur

Over the last eleven years, I have spent a lot of time and money educating myself on how to build businesses. A university education, my own business coach, 100’s of books, online courses, weekend workshops – it never ended. For years, I strived to always know more in order to keep me ahead of the next business. I was the poster-boy for professional development.

But over the past couple of years, it is fair to say that I have mellowed considerably. While still learning, I have made some small changes in the way I see things and these changes have given me a general feeling of happiness and contentment. No matter how good my business, relationship, bank balance or footy team is doing; life is good.

Who would have thought that you could achieve internal happiness that was not reliant on a big bank balance or having a great business? Defiantly not me.

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Confession Of An Entrepreneur:

Don't Feel Too Lonely, You Are Not Alone, Not At All

At 25 Years old I had no idea what I would do with my life, I was completely lost. I was playing Chess online for few years at that point, and although at the time I inquired about a networking/tech degree, it didn’t make much sense to me. I did not like it that much, and I was definitely not passionate about it. As the story goes, I started domaining, again not because I cared to, but because my mom pushed me into it. Once I started I got hooked, highly passionate, spent every breathing moment learning the ropes, chasing domains, talking to colleagues, and figuring out how others do it, so I can get better at it.

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An Entrepreneur's Greatest Fear

It’s the night before my big launch. My big rebrand. The unveiling of the new me and the new business I’ll be running. My latest Frankenstein.

And I feel like I’m going to puke.

It’s natural… It happens to me every time I launch something big. Before I launched Scratchback, I felt the same way. Everyone does.

It’s the curse of a serial entrepreneur. Yes, we’re very good at taking criticism, and dealing with failure, but it doesn’t mean we don’t have fears like everyone else. It just means we’re good at letting it go after we’ve failed or succeeded, either way.

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Entrepreneurship: Five or More Failures to Success

For example, my first entrepreneurial endeavor was in modeling. I did runway and high fashion in Europe. I gave it my all because I truly loved it. I had some great success, but also way more rejection.

As a model, you deal with rejection daily - even hourly. I knew that out of 10 casting calls I’d go to during any given day, at least nine would say “no” or even all 10. Phew! And I was a model for three years. I dealt with a lot of failure and rejection for three straight years.

With my modeling career, I learned to just shrug it off and keep on going or else fail for sure.

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A True Start-Up Story

Back in 2005 I’ve decided to change jobs, from Project Management to Sales, which ended up as changing Employers as well. Taking out the reasons to change jobs, somewhere in the process I’ve came to realize that no matter how many jobs and employers I will change, I will never probably become really rich (or at least rich enough) as an employee only – I needed to start a business. Later I’ve discovered that having a business doesn’t necessarily and automatically make you rich, but it gives you the opportunity to be rich. Anyway, until I wrote that post about “Entrepreneurship as an Opportunity enhancement” I was really sure I’ve started a business to become rich.

Ok, let’s stick with the story. Once the idea about starting a new business lurked from somewhere, I tried to “sell” my idea to 2 of my best friends – both programmers. We set our goals to make and sell software products, Web Design and other Internet related things, while keeping our day jobs. We created our site in English – we wanted to conquer the World as any Entrepreneur does when it gets past the Entrepreneurship fear- .

Are You Happy? A Personal Exploration of

Women’s Declining Happiness

... In my infinite wisdom, I decided that the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression and one of the worst real estate crises on record would be a perfect time to launch a new division of my business, marketing services for real estate agents. My business has always been my “third baby” and I’ve always worked long days and weekends. But now, it seems, no matter how hard I work I fall farther behind.

“When I’m working, I feel guilty about not being with the kids,” one client – a woman with a high-powered career and two kids in school – told me the other day. “And when I’m with the kids, I feel guilty that I’m not working.” Her sentiments, I would bet, echo the feelings of our generation.

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Tough Lessons to be Learnt in Business Failure

In early 2007 we were working a huge convention with nothing more than a big idea and a lot of nerve. We were hot, and we were flaunting it. We had extraordinary talent and our product was immediately perceived as best in class. Through a flashy presence and sheer force of will, of which I had great reserves, we convinced the market we were the next big thing. Our customers were so engaged with our ingenuity that 20-minute sales calls turned into two-hour brainstorms. At our launch party, our customers came in Lamborghinis and our investors arrived in Bentleys.

Then the first economic tremors hit in early 2008, when fuel topped $4 a gallon and Wall Street wrote off its first round of toxic billions from the bursting of the mortgage bubble.

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The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship

For the last 25 years, entrepreneurship has been widely heralded as the path to fame, fortune, and following your own vision while avoiding working for “The Man.” It’s nice when it works. More times than not, it doesn’t.

Some 70 percent of businesses fail within seven years, according to the Small Business Administration. In the worst cases, the result is not only business failure but also complete financial failure. What I have learned is that the damage doesn’t stop there. I share this with you as an attempt to bring some reality to the conversation about entrepreneurship. It is not just about passion and innovation and bringing your dog to work. It is also about risk, tenacity and fear. It is also about the repercussions of bad luck, bad decisions and bad economies. I know of four business owners in Chicago who have taken their own lives since the economy turned.

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The Hidden Pain of Being an Entrepreneur

Last week, I got a call from a friend of mine who's an entrepreneur that was probably one of the hardest calls he's ever had to make. He was calling to tell me that he hadn’t raised a dime for his fledgling company in six months, hadn’t taken a salary in almost a year and was about to miss his mortgage payment on his house for the third month in a row (after three, the banks tend to begin the foreclosure process).

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Never Say Quit:

VANOC Chairman Jack Poole is a Born Survivor

Today Jack Poole is in the pantheon of B.C. business leaders. He was a pivotal figure in ensuring the Olympics came to Vancouver. To get to this exalted position, he’s had to go through unimaginable hardships: a destitute childhood, an alcoholic father, the loss of a son and the collapse of both his marriage and business. But as he faces his greatest challenge yet, there’s one thing that’s certain: Jack Poole is a born survivor.

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Confession of an Entrepreneur: Friendship

A question was posed to me… what was one of the disadvantages of starting a business when I was so young? I had to think about it… perhaps because my second Budweiser Lime Light got my mind a little hazy, but off the top of my head and maybe because of the social event we were about to have, I exclaimed, “You lose friends and you lose them fast!”

What people don’t tell you is that once you start your business, when you live and breathe your business, you literally become a social outcast in your close-knit circle of friends. You can no longer relate to the complaints about a nasty boss, long hours in cubicles and crazy co-workers. I find myself having little patience – if you have such a problem then find a new job or start your own business! Those were not satisfactory answers and it usually gets me in a lot of trouble with my friends. In replies, I usually get the “I can’t believe you would trade a regular paycheque for little or no money”, why would you work from the basement or even worse “get a real job”.

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From Rags to Riches:

Chris Gardner Lives the American Dream

In this seemingly short period of time, not only would Gardner’s girlfriend run off with their son and all of his belongings, but Gardner would also find himself penniless and in jail. After running Gardner’s car license plates, a police officer discovered that he had $1,200 worth of fines for unpaid parking tickets. Gardner was sent to jail for ten days, with his release date just one day before his final interview with Dean Witter.

Gardner showed up for his interview in a T-shirt and dirty jeans. He could have fabricated some heroic story to explain his appearance. Instead, Gardner decided to tell the truth. In plain terms, Gardner told his interviewer that the mother of his son had ran off with his child, that he was broke, and that he has just gotten out of jail the day before. As luck would have it, the interviewer had recently been through a nasty divorce and could sympathize with Gardner. He was immediately given a position in the company’s training program.

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Pathological Optimism of The Entrepreneur: Steve Jobs

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

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Listen to Your Dreams: Jeff Taylor

[In the shower], your mind, body and spirit are all moving into your subconscious, where you invent new things, solve problems and potentially create opportunities or big ideas. You have to pay attention to your subconscious. Learn to focus on your idea and maintain that idea long enough, so that when you get out of the shower, you're able to capture your idea on a nearby pad of paper.

An Entrepreneur's Diary: Getting Personal

By Vijay

...The one thing that you miss, being an entrepreneur, is the social life. Bootstrapping can be a long and painful process and the only thing that will make it much more worse is the realization of the fact that the journey of an entrepreneur is a lonely one. The lines, being alone even when you are in a crowd resonate to be true than ever.

Making that big leap to chase your dreams is all about passion right? Do keep this in mind though: They say and I often quote that the philosophers of Rome started getting busy philosophizing only when there was peace around, bread to eat, and wine to drink. Until such time there is no time for philosophy. One is much more occupied fighting the everyday struggles of existence. There is a similar parallel that runs with one that is crazy enough to chase dreams.

Mark's Story – The Story of a Filipino Entrepreneur

By Scott Scheper

...One night as I lay in bed, I wondered to myself if there was a way, just a small, simple way to make a little cash in order to purchase something new, like say, a cell phone.

As a typical Filipino would, I thought about selling food. Filipinos love food. You can't walk five steps in this country without walking into some kind of restaurant or canteen.

After some deliberation, I decided to sell cashew nuts. Cashew is plentiful in my province, and there was plenty of stock to ship and sell to the capital. It was a sound idea, so I used a little money from my savings, bought a few kilos, and tried selling it to my neighbors and officemates.

As it turned out, the roasted cashew was delicious. People bought it up, and I myself had a hard time keeping my hands off the merchandise.

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The Inspiring Rags-to-Riches Tale of Sarathbabu

By Shobha Warrier

Childhood in a slum

I was born and brought up in a slum in Madipakkam in Chennai. I have two elder sisters and two younger brothers and my mother was the sole breadwinner of the family. It was really tough for her to bring up five kids on her meagre salary.

As she had studied till the tenth standard, she got a job under the mid-day meal scheme of the Tamil Nadu government in a school at a salary of Rs 30 a month. She made just one rupee a day for six people.

So, she sold idlis in the mornings. She would then work for the mid-day meal at the school during daytime. In the evenings, she taught at the adult education programme of the Indian government.

She, thus, did three different jobs to bring us up and educate us. Although she didn't say explicitly that we should study well, we knew she was struggling hard to send us to school. I was determined that her hard work should not go in vain.

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After Lengthy Struggle, Fortune Smiles

on Young Entrepreneur

By Margie Quimpo-Espino

MANILA, Philippines—Allan Capulong’s high school summer vacations were not like that of most teens.

For two weeks after classes end, while his friends were bumming around or playing basketball, Allan and his brother Lance were literally building roads in the family’s housing development project in Cavite.

The 26-year-old bachelor, who now manages the family’s construction firm, Homewell Development Corp., recalls going to work at 8 a.m. and, under the scorching sun, he would mix concrete and bring the material to the site using buckets. He would work on the structure until 5 p.m., just like the other workers.

“That’s why I can really say up to now I built those roads,” says Allan.

But the Capulong family’s initial foray into real estate was a failure.

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How Monster Cable got Wired for Growth:

Noel Lee's Story

As told By Will Safer

Even after I got started, I had trouble getting enough credit to keep moving forward. When I was about two years into the business, one Canadian distributor wanted to buy about 35,000 units of my product - the biggest order to that point - but would pay me only once the wires had shipped.

The problem was, I needed the money to actually make the product. I went to the bank, and the bankers said, "Show us the product." So I mocked up a stack of boxes, putting boxes full of packaged wire on top and empty boxes below. The bankers saw the large stack and said, "Okay, you're good to go." Thank goodness they didn't open the bottom boxes.

Read More: Noel Lee's Story

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How I Nearly Lost My Company -

and Then Got It Back

By Scott Wainner, as told to Brandi Stewart

In the months after the sale, I thought I was set for life. After I got the initial cash payment, I began spending recklessly.

I bought a $65,000 Porsche Boxster and an $11,000 piano. I have never taken piano lessons and can't read music, but I discovered a new talent when I learned to play Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" by ear. I also rented a $4,500-a-month house in Sausalito, Calif. for 10 months and let a money manager invest my funds in risky telecom stocks, which were hot at the time.

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Confessions of an Entrepreneur's Wife

By Phaedra Hise

She was proud to support her husband's dream of building a great business. But five years is a long time to watch someone focus on his company at the expense of everything--everything--else.

We were on vacation at the lake when my husband decided to start a company. Our five-year-old, Lily, was napping, so we had some rare adult time to talk about the opportunity Bill was considering. He wanted to leave his job as general manager for an industrial laundry plant to partner with a guy who had invented a drink that was carbonated but also 100 percent juice. It seemed to Bill like the chance of a lifetime, given that he had worked for a number of entrepreneurial companies before, most notably a few beer businesses. And I agreed. As we aged it would only become harder for him to take a big risk like that. We had some money saved and had recently relocated from Boston to Richmond, Virginia--a pretty affordable town. Why not go for it?

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If I Have To Work For An Idiot, I May As Well Work For Myself:

Tony Lawrence

By Akemi Gaines

We often take the perspective of “me vs the rest of the world”. It’s an easy way of thinking. If you are employed as professional, you probably have indulged in the “I’m wasting my time and talent working for an idiot. I’m victimized.” thinking. Nobody understands you. Nobody appreciates you.

And some of you start your own businesses thinking you are now on top of the world — only to find that your customers are now your foe who don’t appreciate you! You wonder what went wrong . . .

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The Entrepreneurial Addiction:

Confessions of an Entrepreneur

By Hesh Reinfeld

I told my family that I finally accepted that my passion had become an obsession and you could even call it an addiction. They all laughed. What had taken me 25 years to recognize, they had known for years.

My wife detected my addiction as early as our honeymoon in Paris. All I wanted to do was spend time at the Bourse trading francs on the spot market. She kept on nudging me to see some old picture in the Louvre.

For my daughter it became clear when I demanded that her prom date be an officer in Junior Achievement. I thought it was a good way to ensure that she dated a young man with career aspirations. She saw it differently.

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Confessions of a Boutique Owner

By Sarah Wizemann

By drink #4, what started as a deep conversation about life and the pursuit of happiness has left me reduced to tears, bemoaning the state of the universe. Despite their best efforts, my drinking companions can never quell my laments. What, you may ask, has anything of this to do with life in lingerie? Well, I’ll tell you…

I harbored under the misconception that owning a retail store would be a lucrative endeavor, unlike say, for example, a career as a Classical Japanese Dancer or a Documentary Filmmaker, two pursuits I’ve long since abandoned due to their inherent artistic (and consequently unprofitable in this country) nature.

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Confessions of a Small Business Owner

By James Fowler

It has been over six months now since I quit my job and started my own business. Like most people who want to be entrepreneurs, I think I’ve always had a need to own my own business. Having the freedom of being your own boss is an incredible feeling, but it is accompanied by terror that makes most people hesitate.

I remember the day I came home and told my wife that I finally made the move and that the next Friday would be my last day of work. She freaked out! I assured her that there was nothing to worry about. I had some customers and we had money saved up. I needed her to trust me to do this.

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Confessions of a "Woman-Owned-Business" Owner

By Tama Starr

Well, I finally did it. I bit the bullet and got certified as a WOB: a woman-owned business. It took a roots-up, religious-type conversion -- I'd walked in darkness, then I saw the light. And now that I am a proud -- or do I mean "humble"? -- official victim, my company is entitled to all kinds of preferential treats. Whether ordained by law, as in government contracting, or as an example of aggressive good-guy-ism in the P.R.-conscious private sector, or even as a hopeful prophylaxis against employee or shareholder lawsuits, a passel of lucrative work is reserved for those with the best-crafted claims to prior oppression.

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True Confessions:

What's It's Really Like to Be a Franchisee?

It was scary," says Dick Shea, describing his first few nerve-racking months of franchise ownership. After 23 unfulfilling years in real estate sales, a recent divorce, and the realization that he was quickly nearing age 50, Shea decided to purchase a franchise from McLean, Virginia-based Chesapeake Bagel Bakery. "It was a major undertaking," he acknowledges, "but I finally decided I was going to do something that made me happy."

It's this yearning to take control and head toward the future with something you've built that's yours-all yours-that leads many entrepreneurs into franchise ownership. When Shea and his 46-year-old partner, Tim Parker, opened the doors to their Richmond, Virginia, bagel store on March 17, 1994, they joined a long history of entrepreneurs who, just like them, decided being a franchisee was exactly what they wanted. But what actually happens after you buy a franchise?

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Entrepreneur Page 1

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