Matts Media

Becoming an Entrepreneur

The first time I heard the word Entrepreneur. Yep, I actually remember it. It came to me tonight as somewhat of a flashback, when I really haven’t thought about it for years.

It was 1998 and I was in Grade 8 sitting in CAPP class (Career and Personal Planning). We were in a small class of less than 20, and I was the class clown. The teacher was at the front of the room explaining the day’s assignment. Each of us would be given a career roll and we would have to assemble the steps it would take to achieve the goal. Before folding up the titles and placing them in a hat (actually I think it was my hat because I wasn’t allowed to wear it in class) the teacher explained each of the careers. Nearing the end she got to Entrepreneur (I specifically remember her making a big deal out of it). She wrote the word on the board and asked the class if anyone knew what it meant? The class giggled (haha “manure”) and one girl put her hand up “a business man”. “No no” the teach said, “it’s not limited to men, more and more woman are becoming business owners these days” she went on.. As the class clown I wanted so badly to put up my hand and say “someone who poo’s a lot (hahahha)”. It just wasn’t creative enough.

Now here was the neat twist for the person who got the Entrepreneur roll. You got to choose to do whatever you wanted. You could just make up your career path. EASY. I want that one! The teacher went on to say that a percentage of the class (I forget the percentage but I recall it was high) would go on to become Entrepreneurs. She separated the class to show us the number of people who would go on to become Entrepreneurs, “most of them men, but many woman” she mentioned relating back to some statistics she found.

So finally she puts all these career paths into the hat and asks us to come up one at a time to draw out of the hat (kind of an ironic way of deciding your career path). I open mine, Entrepreneur, Entrepreneur.. Doctor. DOCTOR! Well hey, Doctors are successful people, right? So I research this Doctor Career. Shit. That’s a lot of school to go through.. Did I mention I wasn’t a big fan of school? But hey, lots of money for the average doctor. I didn’t have much fun mapping out this career. The girl sitting next to me ended up getting Entrepreneur. She created a cool little story where she gets to run her own business and bla bla bla (when she gets sick she’ll need me).

So that’s it.

That must have been the day I decided I was going to follow my dreams. I ended up following the path of film and theatre for the next 10 or so years and am still very passionate about the art of storytelling. How that evolved and connects to my vision of Internet Marketing is for a later post.

Do you remember the first time you learned what an Entrepreneur was? Do you love/hate your career path right now? What memory can you recall that may have set you on the path you’re on now. Tell me about it in the comments below or shoot me an email, I’d love to know.