Child Entrepreneur
As a child entrepreneur myself (my various businesses and
schemes are occasionally reported in the Unusual Ways
newsletter), I can relate to the "deliciously flavorful
profit" Ana refers to below. Her story of childhood businesses
is the latest entry in my Most Interesting Money Maker Contest.
Other entries are listed on the page Interesting
Ways to Make Money.
Ana Ce
Ecuador
Nurture or nature. You wonder sometimes about that. One
is born to be something or on the other hand become something?
Is an entrepreneur one from birth or is she made one through
the influences in life? In my own experience, since I can remember
I have always had the entrepreneurial bug in me, making his way
into my mind.
When I was a child I used to have a big collection of comics
and children’s magazines. After I read them it seemed a
big shame just to throw them away or to store them on a shelf
to make company to the dust, so I decided to start a little business,
and by the time I was 10 years old I had my own "mini comics
rental store," which I ran out of my room.
At a young age I noticed the demand for a product and/or
the need for a service. There were several kids in my neighborhood
and at school who were not lucky enough to have two grandparents
who bought for them as they did for me all the comics available
at the time. Even some adults - like my older cousins - wanted
to read some of those comics. So I started renting them out for
a few cents each. It was a fun little business and it provided
me with some extra cash for ice cream and candy.
At that age I did not understand the principles of capital
and profit. I did not have to. The magazines were provided monthly
by my family, so I only understood profit, deliciously flavorful
profit - and that was enough. Only later and over the years,
with further knowledge, my entrepreneurial mind developed to
understand those concepts and to put them onto practice.
I tried and somehow succeeded - success at a young age
has lower standards - on several little businesses and mini ventures
of youth, like a sandwich shop from the front porch of our home,
a little popsicle store out of the home fridge, selling blessed
water with magical powers, being a homework provider, writing
love poems in other's names and more.
Now, many years later, after working as a teacher for several
years and trying with my husband a few businesses of our own,
we decided to combine our writing talents with our entrepreneurial
urge. We became infopreneurs on the internet. It is a valid,
profitable and reputable career, but selling information in cyberspace
sometimes - just sometimes - seems like selling magic water again,
a profession of alchemy.
Who knows what will come after, from nurture or from nature.
It does not matter. Just that once an entrepreneur, always an
entrepreneur.
Great story Ana. It has me wondering about the nature/nurture
debate as well. I was not the only child entrepreneur in the
family. My father worked normal jobs, my mother was a housewife
most of the time, yet their children (there were five of us boys)
have all been involved in various businesses, many at a young
age.
Note: Subscribe to the newsletter, where I'll announce
any new competitions. You can also send me any story you have
of an odd way you have made money. If I put it on the site I'll
send you an e-book (I'll let you choose from several I publish).
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