The first time I had been exposed to the entrepreneurial experience occurred when I was in the seventh grade. My experience occurred during a group project in my science class where groups had to create an energy saving oven, shown in the picture below. For groups to earn a passing grade, they had to show that the oven could get hotter, and possibly even cook food, when placed in the sun. My group and I worked hours to create the perfect oven, which we constructed using a shoe box, black spray paint, tin foil, and an egg timer. After days of hard work, my group and I finally finished our project, and after some trial and error we were able to construct a final project that was able to cook a small piece of chicken after several hours. At the time, I didn't see any value in the project, and I especially didn't see any real entrepreneurial value, but now looking back on it I can see there were parts of the project that became incredibly valuable. For example, my group battled with several different designs and parts to build our oven, before finding that perfect combination. Entrepreneurs deal with consistent trial and error in order to create a product or service that is new and useful to the public. Our oven was created to provide an energy efficient and cost effective way of cooking food. Our oven was built to hypothetically benefit society, as well as the environment. After reflecting on the project, it was clear that I did benefit from that assignment, and even though I may not have seen the value in the project right away, I certainly see the entrepreneurial skills that the project helped me develop now.
The reason I enrolled in this class has a lot to do with my family, as well as some of the rumors that I have heard regarding entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs. My father had always told me that it was impossible to become a successful entrepreneur. He had always said that becoming a successful entrepreneur was a lot like playing a professional sport. A lot of people dream that they have what it takes to actually make it, but few actually really do. That has always weighed heavily in my mind, so I felt the need to take the course to see if what he said was actually accurate. I also, personally, wanted to take the course because I have had a growing suspicion that the entrepreneurial spirit possessed by most people is slowly dying. The reason I say this is because I often sit around and think about what life was like 50 years early. There was still so much to be invented and created. There were still so many profitable business ventures that had yet to be found or created. Now I feel like in order to become a truly successful entrepreneur, one pretty much has to be lucky or a genius. I was hoping that by taking this course, my theory, and my fathers belief, could be proved wrong.
