Good or bad, entrepreneurship is in my blood. Long before I was born until about 2010, my Nana (my mom’s mom) ran a balloon company, Balloons to Go. Her long-term investment wisdom was impressed upon me through her typical birthday and Christmas gifts of sports memorabilia. To this day, I am the owner of a 2003 LeBron James rookie card set that seemingly will be worth even more than it is now in another 15 years. I have basketballs signed by Hall of Famers James Worthy and Dennis Rodman.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have much of a grasp of all this stuff’s worth at the moment of reception. By 10 years old, I could be found going door-to-door soliciting basketball cards (of less value, thankfully). After a few sympathy purchases from neighbors, my well ran dry, and somewhere in the shuffle I began selling Pokemon cards. Even now, I have absolutely no clue about Pokemon cards or characters. What I did know is that they sold better on my elementary school campus than basketball cards had.

And so it began: the feeling of security and accomplishment that money provides males of all ages. By 19, my two best friends and I started our streetwear business: The Art of Success. We knew nothing about fashion besides what looked cool to us. I knew nothing about marketing except that I was going to do it myself. I also didn’t understand the entrepreneurial lifestyle I was signing myself up for.

Having a business so young almost felt like having a kid or a pet. Social media and everyone posting their highlights tended to make me question how hard I was working. It got to a point where I felt that if we weren’t improving, planning, brainstorming, and working everyday, another business would thieve our customer or opportunity. So we grinded; day in and day out until our exit from the industry this past summer. And it paid off! All three of us received a 10x return on our initial financial investment.

With all this being said, there is always a flip side to the coin. Along with the beauty that is investing time, money, and energy into something that you love, comes the opposite side of what I calmly referred to earlier as “working everyday.” And so the question is presented: what is the bad that is to be accepted in the midst of all this good? Despite what the social media gurus may say, working for yourself is not all peaches and cream. My tendency to avoid complacency at all costs has made me hypercritical of myself. It’s hard for me to simply enjoy downtime. I like to think that I’m slowly developing financial literacy, and have recognized money for what it is: a tool. Money is neither a character trait nor a signal of your productivity. Once I finally developed the discipline to do (or not do) the same thing for days to weeks at a time (exercising, reading, meditating), I developed a new gratitude for the ups and downs of life. It’s less about the results and completely about what you learn about yourself in the process. The results are truly just a byproduct.

Alongside the journey of finding money’s actual worth in a capitalistic society, entrepreneurship has provided me with an atypical view on work/life balance: it is an unrealistic fantasy. In middle school I became an avid gamer, spending entire summer days on NBA 2K scoring hundreds of fictional points with a fictional character that looked exactly like me. As a college student, pawning my PlayStation 4 was symbolic as one of the very first sacrifices I made to feel as if I was finally adulting. With 20/20 hindsight, I’ve recognized that it was less about video games in particular and more about my comfort zone. Anyone that wants to grow must intentionally seek out discomfort. And the people that don’t understand or partake in sacrifice will unfortunately remain stagnant in most cases.

With all this said, each individual will have to figure out the processes of entrepreneurship for themselves. I am by no means a master that has everything figured out. I hope that I never lose my desire to learn about myself or the feeling of not knowing that that desire stems from. Everytime I learn something about myself, I realize how much more I still don’t know. I understand my youth, and the fact that we as soon-to-be college graduates are only “starting Act 2 of a 5 Act play,” in the words of Dr. Hendricks. I’ve learned to attack each day singularly and remain as optimistic as possible. The power of meditation cannot be exaggerated, and my ultimate dream is that everyone in our world can embark on the journey of spiritual awakening.

But that is another topic for another time.

Similar Reads