Aboard the Entrepreneurship Journey
TiEcon 2011, www.tiecon.org will be hosting 3500+ attendees
this weekend at Santa Clara Convention Center, at what has now
become the largest annual entrepreneurship conference. Scores
of others will be checking out new products and technologies at the
expo. As a self employed individual, it got me thinking about
challenges and rewards of being an entrepreneur. And boy,
have there been challenges, especially during 2009 and 2010 as
small businesses such as mine, got a serious beating. But
then there are rewards tied to the knowledge that the buck stops at
you. Wikipedia describes an entrepreneur as a person who has
possession of a new enterprise, venture, or idea and is accountable
for the inherent risks and the outcome. Just the definition
is heady enough to want to get aboard the train and try the
opportunity to paint the canvas of life with one's own creative
enterprise.
As I trace my professional journey, when I completed my PhD in
Psychology, the path I visualized was in academia. However,
about 3 years after completing my doctorate, based on some multi
cultural research paper, I got a call to participate in diversity
trainings. In my very first diversity training project for a
large global corporation, I facilitated 100+ trainings, of one and
two day duration, all over theUS. The organization also
became a recipient of Ron Brown Award for Corporate Leadership in
Diversity, presented by then President Bill Clinton. By then
I was hooked. At that time, I gave little thought to
entrepreneurship per se. But I enjoyed diversity of my
work. I began facilitating various different kinds of
trainings for many organizations. I enjoyed traveling,
meeting people, being able to sail through difficult flight
schedules and more significantly through difficult
conversations. Here are some examples of how entrepreneurship
often does not involve routine days. I was flying out of
Atlanta in 2002 when a man ran past security and the entire airport
was shut down causing national and international flight
delays. I spent 24 hours at the airport to catch my flight
out of what had become a zoo. Similarly I was stuck at
Houston airport during Hurricane Rita, another time I missed my
flight home at Chicago airport as I dozed off sitting by the gate,
and once I got off at the wrong airport at Boston while I was on my
way to Vermont and then adamantly demanded an explanation why my
car was not there when I had pre-booked it. Regarding
difficult conversations, I can enlist as many examples.
Training midnight shift crew, I walked into the room at midnight,
and a man stood up, pointed his finger at me and angrily said he "
will not appreciate being told that gays have equal rights at his
workplace and if I was there to tell him that then I better leave,
before I even open my mouth". Another time, a man got up and
said, he liked to tell crude jokes on women and other groups and
challenged me to try saying anything that would stop him. And
another time, two men turned their chairs around towards the wall
and sat talking with each other (albeit quietly) but refused to
turn the chairs around and participate in the class. I love
all these challenges and love the feedback and reward of often
being able to make a real and positive difference in the short
time.
A few years ago, as traveling was becoming challenging due to
security concerns, a friend of mine was looking for a job and
another friend was looking to hire someone. I suggested they
meet and from that encounter one friend found a great employee and
another one found a great job. My hiring friend suggested I
do that for a fee and find people for him. Voila - that was a
start of another career as a professional recruiter. I
focused on the niche market of medical device and biotech.
Once again I was hooked. I loved the challenge of meeting new
people, learning about rules and regulations, learning about new
industry, new products and technologies with great potential to
impact health and well being of humankind. I attended trade
shows, conferences, expos as much to meet and network and develop
my business as to learn about this absolutely fascinating
industry.
After all these years has the ride been worth it? Friends
advised me to "quit the madness, and take a real job" when I had
difficulties getting sitters after my divorce and needed to travel
for training, and other friends again advised me to give up
recruitment and get a real job when the market crashed in
2009. Sometimes friends assumed that I was available any time
during the day because I was not doing a "real job". And
surely at times the challenges seemed immense, the toughest one
being the market downturn in 2009. But hey I have enjoyed the
ride, the dreams, the possibility of making as much money as the
work I would put in and I enjoyed the possibility of taking time
off and travel when my kids were out of school. I don't
believe any job would allow the dreams that you can dream (well
within reach) as your own business. A job is a job that
allows the possibility of promotions. If you are an
entrepreneur you can dream and dream big and chances are much
better than similar dreams you can have when you buy a lottery
ticket. Unlike a job, you can dream of 2X, 3X, 4X and more
income. Entrepreneurship is challenging, it is fun, it is
exhilarating, and it is inspiring. Entrepreneurship takes out
the boredom, gives meaning to life, gives an opportunity to
exercise your creativity to the extent you can reach out of any
given box, and makes life worth living. Gotta try it at least
once in a lifetime. Even those who have tried and not
succeeded and gone back to regular jobs say that it is
exhilarating, gives a different perspective, and is well worth a
ride.
Along with many successful entrepreneurs, many wannabe
entrepreneurs will be converging at TiEcon this week, with big
dreams in their eyes and will hopefully walk away with strategy to
translate them into reality, knowing that just one ride makes life
a worthwhile adventure.
Register for TiEcon
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