The first time I was truly exposed to entrepreneurship was in high school. During my freshman year my friend Sarah asked me if I would be interested in coming to hear about a mission trip her youth group took to St. Suzanne, Haiti. Sarah is a good friend of mine so I thought, "Sure, why not?" After the presentation, Sarah announced that she and her fellow youth group member, Rachel, were going to try to raise money to replace the village's two broken generators. This collective desire to raise money for the two generators soon formed an organization called Teens for Haiti. I helped start this group, and in doing this helped come up with the idea for how we would raise this money. We collectively decided that we would create and sell different forms of art. We painted canvases and made stained glass pieces, and we sold them wherever we could. We started out selling them at local markets, but we soon moved on to start a store on Easy. This allowed us to reach a bigger audience, and as a result make significantly more money. We raised over $15,000 in our first year allowing us to buy the two new generators and have money left over to start our next project, building a chicken coop. This experience showed me how it takes more than a good idea to get a business started, but it also taught me that when you put your mind to something you can achieve it.
I enrolled in this course because I want to gain a better understanding of what is involved with being an entrepreneur, and more specifically how to succeed as an entrepreneur. I hope that throughout this semester I learn the tools I will need to be successful in creating a business.
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