My Entrepreneurship Story
I remember my first time hearing someone answering the question of "What's your job?" with "I'm an entrepreneur". I was sitting at the sign-in desk for the holiday party thrown by the State Representative I was interning for. On the sign-in sheet, there was a place to put your name, contact information, and job. The woman in front of me turned to her friend and laughed, saying "What should I write? I'm not working right now. I guess you can say I'm an entrepreneur". After that experience at the holiday party, I had formed a negative connotation of entrepreneurs, thinking that being one means being full of ideas but not able to follow through with them, or being someone who isn't able to have a career.
However, this perception drastically changed when I went to the Women's Entrepreneurship Symposium at UF this past year. I was able to hear incredible speakers who led even more incredible lives through their hard work, creative thinking, and persistent aspirations. They came from all different fields of work and shared stories of failure, success, and dreams. I also was able to meet many local entrepreneurs and hear their stories as well. I realized that entrepreneurs are not deadbeats or underachievers. Entrepreneurs are individuals who pull something from their dreams and make it into a reality, working hard despite all obstacles and building their creations into something that not only becomes a business, but also something that impacts those around them.
After that symposium, I felt a bunch of ideas come rushing at me and I felt a glowing spark to be an entrepreneur. The funny thing was that the spark was familiar and comfortable. I came to realize it was comfortable because I was really into entrepreneurship as a little kid. I am an only child so I often had to play by myself. Books are what exposed me to entrepreneurship because the stories I read were often of kids who put their own dreams into action such as The Boxcar Kids or Nancy Drew. I would often act out those stories or come up with my own dreams, such as opening a big restaurant like Tatiana or running a farm or inventing a robot that takes care of people. Looking back, I was an entrepreneur-in-the-making (or even a baby entrepreneur) back then, and I am glad to have gotten back in touch with that side of myself. Little things always pop into my mind that make me think "What if I do this" or "What if I start that". It's been pretty fun, and I'm excited to see where those little things take me.
However, this perception drastically changed when I went to the Women's Entrepreneurship Symposium at UF this past year. I was able to hear incredible speakers who led even more incredible lives through their hard work, creative thinking, and persistent aspirations. They came from all different fields of work and shared stories of failure, success, and dreams. I also was able to meet many local entrepreneurs and hear their stories as well. I realized that entrepreneurs are not deadbeats or underachievers. Entrepreneurs are individuals who pull something from their dreams and make it into a reality, working hard despite all obstacles and building their creations into something that not only becomes a business, but also something that impacts those around them.
After that symposium, I felt a bunch of ideas come rushing at me and I felt a glowing spark to be an entrepreneur. The funny thing was that the spark was familiar and comfortable. I came to realize it was comfortable because I was really into entrepreneurship as a little kid. I am an only child so I often had to play by myself. Books are what exposed me to entrepreneurship because the stories I read were often of kids who put their own dreams into action such as The Boxcar Kids or Nancy Drew. I would often act out those stories or come up with my own dreams, such as opening a big restaurant like Tatiana or running a farm or inventing a robot that takes care of people. Looking back, I was an entrepreneur-in-the-making (or even a baby entrepreneur) back then, and I am glad to have gotten back in touch with that side of myself. Little things always pop into my mind that make me think "What if I do this" or "What if I start that". It's been pretty fun, and I'm excited to see where those little things take me.
Great job! It's great that you were getting active in a community before taking this class. It's also cool that you've had dreams of becoming an entrepreneur. I think there's a lot of talk about it with people like Steve Jobs and start ups being so easy to launch right now. Anyways, it's good that you've found something. Also, the text is white in the post, I'm not sure if it's suppose to stand out from the blog's background.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed that fact you admitted to having a poor first interaction with an entrepreneurship. But it is great to hear that getting involved with the Women's Entrepreneurship Symposium changed that for you. In addition, I agree with the idea that entrepreneurs are people who make change when given the opportunity not just in business.
ReplyDeleteHello Thuy-Linh,
ReplyDeleteThis entrepreneurship story was detailed, well-written, and over all very cool. Thank you for sharing this wonderful story with us. I especially appreciated your honesty pertaining to your feelings about entrepreneurship throughout your life. Also, I agree with your opinion on who an entrepreneur really is, hard workers that follow their dreams and make them into a reality. Lastly, I never knew opportunities like this existed at UF, and I am glad it helped you this much.