What Your Parents Told You: The Winding Road to Entrepreneurship

Growing up in a household with a librarian and an engineer, I was ‘fortunate’ enough not to be pushed into a specific career path. It probably helped that I didn’t show a tendency towards any particular field either.

I did however, engage in a few activities that, in hindsight, were displays of an inner entrepreneurial spirit, such as: Set up a juice stand on my quiet dead end street, so my only customers were the lolly man or mailwoman (at least they indulged me). 🍋

Got in trouble for renting books in primary school after I realised the school library was a little lacking.

Fast forward to my professional life, Masters in Consumer Psychology with Business in tow, and I worked as: a FMCG Business Development Officer, Advertising Brand Strategist, Marketing Consultant and Startup Business Unit Manager.

Now, I own a restaurant 🥡 and a maternity🤰 clothing company. Yeah, didn’t see that coming, eh? Neither me. But that’s life, especially in these covid times.

So why give all this story?

Because I’ve picked up a good few lessons along the way and in the next few articles, I’d like to share some insights and resources that may benefit you in your own pursuit of entrepreneurial success.

To kick things off:
Your parents/teachers probably taught you not to be an entrepreneur.
(I know – what a way to start!)

No offence to them – I’m sure they’re great people who did their best to raise you ‘right’, but unless they are businesspeople or entrepreneurs themselves, there’s a big chance that they may have influenced your life AWAY from entrepreneurial success.

From teaching you to put your money in a generic savings account 🏦 to guiding you into a nice, safe 8 to 4 job; between their quest to give you a comfortable life devoid of risk and them genuinely not knowing any better, your parents, teachers and social circle while growing up may not have given you great lessons on entrepreneurship.

But that’s okay, fortunately it’s not too late. Here are some helpful links:
https://www.youtube.com/user/patrickbetdavid
https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/building-the-machine/
https://startupill.com/

And some really useful books (yea, part of being a successful entrepreneur is reading, sorry.)

‘The 4-Hour Work Week’ by Timothy Ferriss
‘The Startup Playbook’ by David Kidder
‘The Art of Non-Conformity’ by Chris Gillebeau