Young ENTREPRENEURSHIP (A Road Less Taken)

[Sol_Itaire]

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3 years is definitely honeymoon period, bro. but glad to know your business is doing well.

i am for entrepreneurship. i am for employment. IF those fit you.

This i can say for certain: there are employees who are well-paid and happy and stimulated by their work. there are also miserable employees, stuck in the rut. and there are struggling entrepreneurs, some of whom might just be too proud to admit it and consider being employed again. and there are also successful entrepreneurs.

i wouldn't necessarily say that entrepreneurship is the answer. i believe it's a matter of matching your personality/skills/inclinations with the right income-producing vehicle, be it being being a chef in the White House, a chef in your own restaurant, or the capitalist-partner of your industrial-partner-chef friend.

[cirext]

3 years is definitely honeymoon period, bro. but glad to know your business is doing well.

i am for entrepreneurship. i am for employment. IF those fit you.

This i can say for certain: there are employees who are well-paid and happy and stimulated by their work. there are also miserable employees, stuck in the rut. and there are struggling entrepreneurs, some of whom might just be too proud to admit it and consider being employed again. and there are also successful entrepreneurs.

i wouldn't necessarily say that entrepreneurship is the answer. i believe it's a matter of matching your personality/skills/inclinations with the right income-producing vehicle, be it being being a chef in the White House, a chef in your own restaurant, or the capitalist-partner of your industrial-partner-chef friend.

Of course. Anyone can be successful in any path they want.
But this thread is dedicated to encouraging entrepreneurship.
And that's how it is being promoted here.

But mind you, i completely understand you sis.
This thread is presenting an alternative in finding a good career.
As you have known mostly in this category are discussing companies.
Let me be an instrument in thinking..."Why work in Lexmark, when you can build your own Lexmark?"
"Why work as a director in PeopleSupport earning 100k..when you can create your own call center and earn millions every month?"
Of course its a dream. But all great things started from dreams.

And I strongly disagree with the word "Honeymooners" or "struggling entrepreneurs, some of whom might just be too proud to admit it"
Because nobody has the right to criticize somebody who is struggling.
Nobody has the right to criticize somebody to dream high.
And nobody has the right to criticize an ambitious person.
Because you can lose everything, just retain your self-confidence that you can make your life better while struggling.

[cirext]

Sent to me by a friend from US Peace Corps, Lynn Debilzen. Im sharing it for the interested:

Great opportunity with an award for Filipinos with social entrepreneurial ideas...Be a changemaker!
Check it out and start a social enterprise!

I Am a Changemaker

[cirext]

I AM A CHANGEMAKER
Social Enterprise Business Plan Competition


THE CALL

We are looking for a new breed of entrepreneurs who dream up innovative solutions to help solve problems in their communities.

This new breed of people are called Social Entrepreneurs - a distinct group of individuals with a definite and more positive attitude towards entrepreneurship.

Social Entrepreneurs* act as change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss and improving systems, inventing new approaches, and creating solutions to change society for the better.

They change the face of business by spotting social problems and issues and find innovative ways to address them.

They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas for wide-scale change.

Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors, social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system, spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to take new leaps.

Are you a social entrepreneur? Do you have a groundbreaking idea in mind? Do you have what it takes to mobilize people and resources to create wide-ranging social change?

If so, we invite you to join now. It starts with an idea to make the world a better place. There is nothing as powerful as a new idea in the hands of a social entrepreneur.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

I am A Changemaker operates like a business plan competition, awarding seed capital directly to the best social enterprise idea that best meets our criteria.

It provides a vehicle for taking innovations from idea to reality, and is a real-world exercise for improving your skills in:

Starting a Project/Business

Pitching ideas to possible investors

Building networks

No matter what your idea may be, we challenge you to unleash your ideas, energy and idealism to affect positive social change in our society. The only limit to the range of projects eligible for the award is your ambition and imagination.

[Sol_Itaire]

And I strongly disagree with the word "Honeymooners" or "struggling entrepreneurs, some of whom might just be too proud to admit it"
Because nobody has the right to criticize somebody who is struggling.
Nobody has the right to criticize somebody to dream high.
And nobody has the right to criticize an ambitious person.
Because you can lose everything, just retain your self-confidence that you can make your life better while struggling.

no one's judging. just telling it like it is. there are employees who are stuck and there are entrepreneurs who are struggling.

that's what we call realistic.

[cirext]

Why start young in business?
1. Because the risk is lesser.
People became too coward to be in business once the have their personal family. It is very understandable because when no money comes in, you'll be sacrificing all the members of the family. When you are young, when your primary responsibility is just yourself, you'll be confining the risk and its effects to yourself.

2. Because creativity is at its peak during youth.
Creativity is one of the keys in successful entrepreneurship. At your youth, all the wild ideas are there. Why not take advantage of it?

3. Because you are bolder when young.
Another key in business is courage.

4. Because the years to grow is longer.

[Stargirl]

I have read and digested the words exchanged on this thread. I just want to share my story before sharing my thoughts.

I was like cirext who first thought that employment was the way to go. I mean, that's what we were taught - go to school, get a diploma, find a job, earn a living. I graduated AB Linguistics and Literature from USC. I was going to be a teacher, take up my masters. I was going to earn money and save up till I was ready for retirement.

6 months after graduation, I got my first job as a project assistant for an international conference. The pay was low, the work was tiring, the company's management didn't really know what it was doing, things were a mess. I experience anxiety attacks. I hated my job. (But after the event, I did feel accomplished. I would do it all over again if the company had better management and the pay was better.)

During my stay in that company, I discovered a blog on self-development. This blog talked about living on your own terms, getting paid to exist. I was intrigued.

While I was working as a project assistant, I was also working as a freelance writer. Even though I was tired from work, I did my best to find time to write my articles, to submit on time. And the thought of writing excited me. Even if I was writing product descriptions.

I lasted 4 months in my first job. I continued my freelance job even after I resigned my day job.

I spent a month after that lounging around, working as a freelancer, exercising, relaxing. I was also looking for a writing job because I thought that was what I was all about.

I eventually found a job at an ESL center. It was a routine job - copy/paste content into powerpoint slides, write simple sentences that were supposed to have some substance, think below my capacity. I hated it. I was bored. The manager was a pervert.

The only nice thing about that place was I made a friend. He and I are like-minded so we connected. (I think...) It was nothing romantic. He took time to teach me what he knew about esoteric arts and mind power and stuff like that. We talked about things that I was never able to talk to anyone else about. But one day, the manager did something i couldn't take. I called in the next day and said I was quitting.

All the while, I was still working as a freelance writer. And I was still reading that self-development blog... and a couple more I stumbled upon.

I am once again employed. I'm two months into my job. But the night shift is killing me and the job, while comfy, isn't exciting me. I know a lot of people would kill to have my cushy job.

But my mind no longer thinks in terms of comfort and discomfort. Of earning a high salary. Of having a nice resume to present....

[Stargirl]

I believe in striving to live a life of passion. Be it as an employee of a company or as an entrepreneur. (I hope I am able to stay within the lines of the discussion.)

In order to live a life of passion as an employee, I have decided that I am going to aim for a job that I love. For me, the money doesn't matter much. What I want out of life is simple. I just want to run, do Yoga, eat healthy, and just be engaged in my passions. For the past two weeks, all I've been doing after work is run and train for a 6k. I noticed that I barely spent any money! That tells me something. What I want to do with life won't cost me much. Sure, there's the lodging and food and the necessities. But I'm going to have a job. Kaya ra na.

Now, the path of being an entrepreneur is what I really want to follow. I want to be paid doing something that I absolutely love. I have my plans and I still have a long way to go. But at least I'm on the way. Or at least I have my plans that I'm going to act on within the week or early next week. Yes, I have been thinking about this for a long time.

I'm so excited to be in this stage of my life. I agree that going against the norms of society, especially about money and being practical, is something hard for some people to grasp.

My mind is not brilliant. I do not claim to have the most marvelous and original ideas. In truth, I'm just a simple girl with dreams to live her own life. To own her hours. I don't know if cirext feels the same way about this. But this is why I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to do what I love, when I want. Sure, having a lot of money would be awesome... But honestly, this is secondary to me.

I guess entrepreneurship is a path that not everyone is meant to follow. I just hope that if you choose to stay as an employee, you pick a job that you feel passionate about.

[bhason]

can you give us the link of that blog?

[Stargirl]

The blog URL: http://illuminatedmind.net. =D Hope you can keep an open mind when reading the stuff there. Let me know your thoughts.