Why do YOU start a business (so early)?
Topics: General Business
Last Saturday was my college class’s graduation (I graduated early last year) and I had lunch with some of the co-years that I entered the college with. In the middle of conversation, a sister of my friend asked me this question:
“Dominic, most people work for a corporation for a couple years after they graduate before they start a business, why do you start a business so early?”
That’s a great question and she’s perhaps the first person that has asked specifically about it. I gave her a true but partial answer because my full answer would bore any human being and drive them insane.
Thinking about it, it is a FUNDAMENTAL question and will dictate:
1) Should you even start a business?
2) What kind of business should you start?
It is a question each and every entreprenuers need to address to themselves, so I invite you to visit my thought process as to why I start a business, why I start the type of business I had, and in particularly why I chose to start one so early (while I was at college).
Reason #1 - Opportunity
You can want to be an entrepreneur all you want, however strong your desire is, if you have not yet seen an opportunity, you would not start a business. My opportunity (and my 1st business idea) came when a “guy” literally called Guy, approached me with a business plan to buy and sell used books on campus during my freshman year of college.
One thing leads to another, we recruited another partner into the venture and started this thing called Owlbooks at our school and that kind of get my feet wet in selling college textbooks (yea I’m still selling college textbooks now) as well as entrepreneurship. I went on through several other opportunites shortly after including real estate investing (inspired by Robert Allen) and Senior Care (saw some business plan online), both failed miserably, and now finally successfully settled in E-commerce and internet marketing.
Reason #2 - Take my fate in my own hand
This is the partial reason I shared during the lunch conversation - 2 of the schools I really wanted to get into for college rejected me when I was at high school. Being the same confident Dominic, I thought to myself, “I’m the greatest person you can ever admit, why am I rejected?”
So I came to the conclusion - institutional admission system is subjective and flawed!
So, ok, if I were to try to get a job, wouldn’t I fall back into this flawed system? Having a couple people decide whether I’m good enough for their company? Having a couple other people decide how much I’m worth?
No thank you.
That’s why when I started my online business, I’m determined to make it B2C. In my consumer retail business, whether or not my customer buy from me have absolutely NOTHING to do with what they think about the owner of the site (me), which school I went to, how brilliant I am, or what I have achieved in the past. ALL they care is the product quality, the price, and the customer service. All of which I have 100% control over and my success is a direct consequence of my every single decisions and actions.
I love it: if I succeed, I’m not just lucky; if I fail, I have no one to blame.
Reason #3 - We can all be winners
Being brought up in a competitive environment, I was taught at a young age that (not just through teachers and parents, but through the environment) there’re winners, and there’re losers. If you win, it’s kind of cool; if you lose, it kind of sucks.
Success, in that world, is measured in terms of scarcity. It’s always true that if you’re successful, you’re doing it at the expense of others - directly or indirectly, more or less, sooner or later. I.e. If you get an A, that means someone else will be pushed out of the curve and get a B. If you get into Harvard, that means someone else didn’t get into Harvard.
Since I get into starting my own business, man is this a different world. In this world, you are NOT trying to win by making someone else lose (contrary to popular believe)! Here, you want to create value in your industry so that you, your vendors, and your customers all benefit from your venture and the relationship.
I urge you, all entrepreneurs or aspiring business owner, to think hard about why YOU start(ed) a business and if its the right thing for you. Share your story with me!
Technorati Tags: entrepreneurship, start business, Outsource internet marketing, Internet marketing consultant
