Becoming an Entrepreneur
Let me tell you a tale from my life. When I was approximately 12 years old, I single handedly made the yeast dough, braided the Challah bread, baked it, and then packaged it into large brown paper bags. Then I walked down our southern Manitoban paved village street and knocked on doors. I remember selling a large, fresh loaf for $9.00 – and this is 16 years ago. There, I've dated myself. I even sold half loaves to folks that didn't need a whole loaf. Our village was small. The village several miles west of us had way more people. So I enlisted one of my older siblings to give me a car ride over where I employed the same sales pitch: "Fresh bread that my mother taught me to make."
Would you buy bread from a 12 year old boy?
The following summer, we signed up for the farmer's market in the small city of Winkler, MB. I baked and sold many loaves of bread that summer.
I wonder if the making of an entrepreneur begins early in life. For the sake of this article, an entrepreneur is simply a person who organizes and operates a business.
My parents could have stopped me from trying. They didn't. Would they have purchased bread from a 12 year old neighbour kid peddling it on the street? Probably not. But I never heard them knock my entrepreneurial idea. This, I think, is impressive.
I learned that I can act on an idea, "market" it to people who need what I create, and trade my creation for money. Ideas are worth a dime a dozen. I still produce a ton of them. But actually acting on an entrepreneurial idea. As a twelve year old boy. How does that experience not impact a person for life?
How I will respond to the entrepreneurial whims of my growing boy – that test is in the making.
