Entrepreneurship is defined as the activity of setting up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit. While that seems like a simple definition when you take it on the surface level, that couldn’t be much further from the full complexity that is the world of entrepreneurship.
I wrote an article about a month ago about entrepreneurship and three takeaways that I have learned about it over the course of this semester. Annette Kendall’s entrepreneurship class has been my first entrepreneurship class since going to school at the University of Missouri in Columbia. It has taught me so many valuable lessons and have sparked plenty of interest in this new field I have gotten into.
So, since getting to 1300 words was extremely hard the first time around, I want to give a little background on what got me into the world of business-starting and why I want to own my own business one day.
My father was a broke college kid (just like me) who didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life. He worked off of an entry level position at a beverage distributor company in St. Louis for a couple years. I asked him why he felt like he needed to change and chase his dreams and he said, “I just had a little moment of reflection, sat back and thought, ‘What the hell am I doing with my life? Am I happy?’ There wasn’t a giant intervention, a tragic accident or anything like that, I just kind of had a realization that this wasn’t where I wanted to be ten years down the line.
So, he started his own packaging and labeling company for Anheuser-Busch. He has told me stories of how tough and how challenging it was to start a company from nothing. He actually said that he lived in a hotel for a couple months because he had to be close to the warehouse so he could be with his drivers. I could never understand why he took on those struggles and hardships, but I slowly started to understand why when I got older.
Now, four kids, a wife, two dogs, and a thousand memories later he got his dream. The man loves his job and it has become part of my life as well. I’ve been going to his office since I was born and now over the last couple of years I have been working there as an intern. I started with filing paperwork and taking phone calls. Then I did more important work like office needs, going on runs to the banks, and doing more managerial needs. Finally, last summer I worked doing accounts receivable. This summer I am working over 30 hours and will be doing more things with my dad and his coworker. It will be more of a shadow program rather than a positional job with daily duties. I am extremely excited to see where this goes and like I said I got some big shoes to fill!
So, business has been a part of my life for forever and now I have some big decisions to make. I still do not know what I want to do. I wake up every day wondering if I am behind on my life track but I soon realize that everyone is wondering the same thing. I have especially learned that I am not alone through Mrs. Kendall’s class.
That leads me to my first lesson that I have learned in this business management class and that is that you are not alone.
All entrepreneurs struggle with many things. It is a really challenging, rigorous, and defeating career path that takes an exponential amount of courage, persistence, and hard work. In this entrepreneurship class, we have heard countless interviews from current and former business owners and they all tell their stories on how they have had to persist through different and challenging endeavors. Struggles with making money, having enough time for other non-work-related hobbies, or finding a balance between work like and having a family have all been highlighted by these hard-working people.
I have also learned that entrepreneurship is a tough challenge for not just me, but all my fellow classmates too.
We have done plenty of small group discussions in breakout rooms at random. That is something that I have surprisingly loved about taking college head on in the midst of a global pandemic. It has allowed for more contact with students via breakout rooms.
It has been somewhat encouraging to know that my friends and companions are going through the same struggles that I am going through too. It makes it a little bit better and more available knowing that I am not alone in this- for lack of a better term- “shitshow”.
The second lesson that I have learned, and it goes along with the first one (kind of), is persistence.
I believe it was my second lesson in my first article about facing rejection. Well yeah this is the second part of that.
Sticking with the suit… persistence is defined as the ability to stick with something. If this is your first-time hearing about the word persistence, well I wouldn’t recommend starting your own business. You better get used to having to be persistent. All the entrepreneurs say that it took them x number of years or x amount of tries to get it right.
It seems like these people go through a lifetime of hardship to strike gold once and the rest is history. It is kind of like playing a bunch of games of roulette and finally at the end your bet hits and you figure it out. Now it takes an absurd amount of hard work, dedication, and passion but I wanted to make a gambling reference so there it is.
And finally, drum roll please… my last lesson is that there is no real “right” way to start your own business.
Business isn’t like biology, or physics, or psychology. There isn’t a certain path that everyone takes to become a doctor or a lawyer. Everyone has a different path to wherever they go. It is such a broad field and such a broad range of careers that there isn’t a concrete path to take in school.
Everyone’s path is different so stay true to yours.
It will take a lot of persistence, you will question yourself and if you are cut out for it, but it will pay off… so stay the course. If your buddy graduates faster, if your friends take better classes, don’t worry about it- they are just taking a different path than you. Don’t get discouraged by these things.
So, for my conclusion, let me just go over my three lessons:
1. You are not alone. Plenty of other young entrepreneurs struggle just like you.
2. The skill of persistence. Definition given. How persistence will take you a long way in your business track.
Finally, 3. Everyone’s path is different so stay the course. As Joel Embiid says, “Trust the Process”.
These three things stack right on top of the three other and they are, again as I have mentioned before, just a tiny amount of information I have learned in my business course this semester. There is much more to learn about the field of entrepreneurship and I have so much more I want to learn but I know that Mrs. Kendall’s class has sparked a flame in my passion for this subject. I cannot wait to see where it takes me because I think I can do great things with it. Besides, it is in my blood…
