Are You the Only Entrepreneur in the Family?
I used to think that I was the only entrepreneur in the family. My parents never ran their own businesses. Actually, I found out years later that my father ran a small clothing business at one point in New York City before I was born. And over the past 2 years or so, two out of my four brothers suddenly became extremely entrepreneurial.
I was very happy to see my brothers step into the world of entrepreneurship. Like me, they always had it in them, but just unleashed their desires to create a company a bit later than I did.
My older brother, Darius, launched his own mortgage company on Long Island at the age of 24. He’s doing a phenomenal job and he’s becoming more and more established as the weeks go by. It’s his aim to become a full-fledged bank within 3 years of operation.
The brother below me, 21 year-old Danny, jumped into the entrepreneurship scene just over a year ago as he started his film company by creating music videos for famous rappers such as Wu Tang Clan and interviewing people such as “Fat Joe” (yes, he lives up to his name).
I was truly impressed when I found out that he was able to network with these well established artists. Sometimes even being invited to their homes to hang around and relax. Over the past year, he’s built up a list of clients and fattened his portfolio by creating free and low budgeted music videos for these artists. He eventually wants to break into feature films.
Sure, it’s awesome being an entrepreneur. But it’s even greater when you have brothers, sisters, or parents who are also entrepreneurs. It gives you that extra boost of confidence knowing that you’re not in it alone and that your family members understand what you’re going thought — the bumpy journey to success.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve always been big on trying to coax my siblings to become entrepreneurs. Yeah, people should be able to choose their own route in life. But if you’re an entrepreneur and you see that same sparkle in the eyes of your brothers or sisters, then help them unleash that desire!
You will have family members who are so caught up in “playing it safe” that they’ll suppress their entrepreneurial spirit their entire lives without ever giving it a shot. If you can do anything to prevent that, then do it now.
Educate your family:
- Lend them books of entrepreneurs who made it big.
- Sit down with them and share your plans and offer ideas on how they can build a business.
- When you accomplish something big, show them how you did it.
These things, and many more that you can think of, may help fan that flame towards stepping over to the world of entrepreneurship. And if it doesn’t, well, at least you tried, eh?
Do you have any family members who would make great entrepreneurs but just don’t want to give it a shot?
4 Comments
William
November 15th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
Great article David, wow your family members really have some really successful and cool business ventures. I can relate to what your saying, I use to think that I was the lone entrepreneur rider, but then I found out one of my brothers has his own travel agency, real estate company and his wife started her own business consulting firm a couple of years ago.
My other brother decided to enter into the commercial cleaning arena and I recently heard of one of my close relatives who is the President and Owner of a successful “Moving” and “Furnishing” company in L.A. for all the Hollywood stars.
Apparently when a big time star wants their new mansion fully furnished, they call him, I thought that was pretty cool! I heard he’s like a Cazillionaire, so maybe he can give me a low interest-never-to-be-paid-back loan. And like you, I’ve been pitching all my little cousins and nephews who are in high school and the early stages of college on entrepreneurship, I really do believe that it’s the key to success in such an unstable and shaky economy. Good article my man!
Flee The Cube
November 16th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
Thanks for the article David - I can definitely relate. My immediate family has never been entrepreneurial until recently. All throughout my youth the only stories of entrepreneurship I heard were the spectacular rise and meteoric falls of some business-minded relatives, with the implication that it was better to play it safe and get a job. It’s been a hard belief to overcome, and I think the catalyst is finding supportive people. They’re there if you know where to look, and your family will eventually come around
David Askaripour
November 16th, 2006 at 2:36 pm
William: That’s awesome that you were able to find out that you did in fact have family members who were / are into entrepreneurship. I know that I was definitely glad when I found out!
Yeah, you should definitely contact your relative who works in Cally; maybe he can become a mentor of sorts.
Ceasar: Glad that you can relate as well. Indeed, the “playing it safe” belief is truly hard to surmount for many people, especially family members who are so ingrained and set in their ways.
But it takes people like us to pick away at that school of thought and instill alternative routes of life for people who otherwise thought that they were/are destined to a life of the 9 to 5.
The Best Movie In The Best Week For A Long Time | Timelooser
November 24th, 2006 at 11:29 pm
[...] Accepted was the last movie I saw, but the first I enjoyed for quite some time. It looks like entrepreneurship is coming to the cinema. Is it result of the whole entrepreneur wave hitting the Internet, was it inspiring to watch. If people get inspired by the zillions web 2.0 sites coming out every week why not a teenager comedy be too. I haven’s come across a decent movie for quite some time and before watching this one I was expecting some laugh before having a nice long dream to mark the end of the working week(Yes Thanksgiving is a holiday only in the US and being part of an American company still keeps me creative while spending the workdays without a single phone call or email).Coincidence or not I spent the last two days reading bloggers talking about starting your own business, being you own boss and how to be the person you want to be not the others do, even when your own parents don’t really understand your wish to stop attending work.I actually plan to discuss this article to my parents in the weekend once I got home since I’m having less and less time to have a nice chat with them. I mean they’ve come through some hard times with but always stood firm behind me whatever I decided to do. I don’t blame them, I don’t even want to force to do something they’re not comfortable with because their time was way too different to fully accept the idea, I just wanna show them the other way to live. Unfortunately I’m not the best example to illustrate this way of life. I believe that running the thing my own way, to experiment and to object the customer by saying him that he is wrong(they’re always wrong you know) is the only way to feel totally satisfied, but I also believe that spending time in an environment where there are people, not only computers is a part of the learning curve. Someone has said “Once you know that this job has nothing more to give, it’s time to hit the road” or something like that and this thought was always the reason for leaving my previous jobs, somehow I’ve been doing my last job way too much time after realizing the fact. Receiving money in time for spending a few hours per week on new projects and having my time to spend on orientation in the Net world was a fair deal to me. Actually thanks to this job and the lack of sensible things to do I started reading blogs and I’m thankful to my employees for that. Reading Guy Kawasaki saying that once the employees start blogging at work something is wrong with company just confirmed the thoughts in my head and what I did - I kept doing it, this time even harder.I was so anxious lately today I asked for some time off so I can have some time to further develop my thought on the matter. In the end it has been a very inspirational week so far and that may be the reason why I enjoyed the movie so much, or may it was because the Mac played in it, seriously I didn’t even knew he’s playing. I’m writing this at 5:00 AM but I feel so good and I wanted to spread the joy. [...]
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