Some people will say “I did it because I didn’t want to work” or “I didn’t want to have a job”. Other people will say “I found an opportunity and I just ran with it”. Other people will say “I wanted to go out and change the world”. The answers can vary. My reason for starting my business was because I thought it was incredibly romantic. As a young person, I read a lot of business biographies and was always captivated by the idea that somebody could take an idea and turn it into a physical product or a service that ended up changing the world – people like Henry Ford, JP Morgan, Rockefeller, Bill Gates, Richard Branson. The idea of having autonomy and freedom resonated with me as a young person. I didn’t come from means and so my “why” wasn’t really about money as much as it was about pursuing something that I thought was romantic and very (very) interesting.
How has it changed since I’ve started? The autonomy that I enjoy every day and the freedom that I enjoy every day continues to be why I do what I do. But if anything has changed, it’s that instead of using autonomy and freedom for myself, I try to invest it back into other entrepreneurs who have businesses that are in trouble. Having started my business in 2001 and making a lot of mistakes and being a part of situations that haven’t worked out, I find that I naturally gravitate to problem-solving. I continue to enjoy autonomy and freedom, but I try to use it in a way that’s going to help another entrepreneur fix or solve the problems in their business. I’m a Christian and that provides a lot of my why also and that keeps me going every day as well. But everything I do centers around the same general idea which is: I’ve been given a lot of freedom and autonomy and I want to make sure that I’m the best steward of it that I can be. I use that freedom, that autonomy to help other business owners.
Why did you start a business? Why are you still in business? What are you hoping for? Once it’s all been said and done, what’s waiting for you? What’s the prize waiting for you at the goal line?
