When was your first entrepreneurial encounter ??

[babyboy808]

Hi,

I started working when I was 11yrs old... (Well sort of.)

When I was around 11yrs old, I recall being in the Shopping Centre with my Mam 1 day. Now what's funny about me remembering just that occasion apart from several others times was as follows:

I was standing outside a Decorating Shop while my Mam was talking to someone she bumped into and was having a chat. Since standing around was no fun for anybody (esspecially a kid), I began looking at all the customers going into and out of the shops.

After a few minutes, I noticed 2 men entering the Decorating shop with a Hand Truck full load of boxes each, delivery supplies. After the men came back on the second run, 1 of them dropped a box from his Hand Truck and the box ripped open and some Wallpaper rolls spilled out.

I hesitated at first, but soon went over and picked up some rolls for the men. I'm sure they were extatic, some kid was annoying them...

Anyway I brought the wallpaper into the shop and placed it down next to where the men put theirs (I think I managed like 2 rolls or something :) And when I was about to walk back to my Mam, 1 of the guys stopped me and said thanks, and handed me 1 pound, then the other guy came over and put 20p into my hand.

That moment, however miniscule, I think somewho altered my future path. From then I think I associated money with praise, happiness and well money :D .

So when was your first "entrepreneurial encounter" ??

[moojj]

That's an interesting story babyboy.

I will have to think about my story and get back to you.. :)

[Slevin]

I think ive had 3 defining events which have lead me down this path

1) When i was 5 i wanted to travel the world. Unfortunately 5 year olds usually dont possess the wealth or the means to do so. This lead to me writing to a number of Rich/Famous people, asking for some kind of transport. I wrote to the Queen (england) asking to borrow her yaught, I think I wrote to somebody asking for a submarine, and I wrote to Richard Branson asking to borrow his hot air baloon. Richard branson (unlike the Queen :P) replied with a hand written letter and a toy plane. Of course this lead to an interest in who the man was, and i discovered what an entrepreneur did ("they sell stuff").

2) When I was 12 I spotted a huge box of strawberry pencil sweets while walking through the local market. I love them so i enquired about the price. They were £1.50 for 72 (i think) strips of 3 laces. I sold each strip for 30p in school, and I came out with around £17 (i ate quite a few :P).

3) I used to play an online multiplayer game. As time went on i got into cheating circles and noticed cheaters sold the currency from the game they accumalated macroing at $7 for one million. A bit later I was browsing the web and realised that this same one million was being sold in e-stores at $30, over 3 times the price! I bought a domain, set up a paypal shopping basket and started to sell. Although, as i was to find out in the form of a C&D, this was not exactly legal, it showed me how easy making money was. In the first week I made just short of $900 (marketing through ebay), buying and selling these millions at a $14 profit per. I was working perhaps 2-3 hours a day, answering queries, buying millions, delivering millions. I was earning (or would have been earning) above the average wage, working 2 hours a day, at the age of 16. This definitely changed my prospects on what i wanted to do after college/university

[Bryan Le]

My first encounter would be when I was 11 - playing the Pokemon Card Game semi-professionally (for my age at least).

Me and two friends got good - good enough to where we'd actually travel throughout the county and win tournaments. Weekends became work days since they were tournament days. We'd play in one tournament, and drive to the next, and win them all during the week.

We were paid in prizes which were booster boxes. We'd open them, and then resell each of the cards individually. We then began to pack our own booster packs (20 cards, with assorted things within them) and sold them at $5.00 a piece.

A good weekend would net each of us at least $200.00. And at 11 years old, I didn't even know what to do with that sort of money.

[babyboy808]

$200.00. And at 11 years old Wow... that is amazing Bryan.. I'd say you felt like a millionairre or something :)

[Tyler]

There are two memorable events I can recall.

The first one I believe I was in grade 2 or 3. It was more my dad's idea, but I was the one who actually did it. I used to live in a trailer park (it's true!) and it was mid-summer and very hot out. They were doing construction on part of the trailer park, expanding it, and thus there were a lot of construction men about.

My dad bought a bunch of pop from the store, got a cooler, put a lot of ice in it, and then the pop. We attached this to a type of wagon on the back of my bike, and we made signs saying "Cold Pop: $1". I'm shy, but I rode around the park to where the construction guys were and I was surprised that they actually bought some. Root beer was a popular choice :)

My second entrenpreneurial memory at a young age is when I had accompanied my dad to Cost-Co (a large warehouse of food, usually where small stores buy their food from, requires a paid membership). We had walked past the candy isle and I had bought a container of these strawberry things with the intent of selling them at school.

And that I did. I inflated the prices a bit and sold them individually to my classmates, hoping for a small ROI at the end. Unfortunately, not many kids bought them as they were $0.25 each and you could eat them in about 7 seconds. I ended up eating the majority of them and lying to my dad telling him "Yes, I finally sold them all" when he asked me how I was doing.

[Quicksilver]

When I was about 6 or 7 I was trying to figure out ways to make money in the summer time. The weather was sizzling hot out so the first thing that came to mind was selling lemonade, my mom had alot! With the help of my brother and friend we setup a stand and sat outside most of the day. If I can remember correctly I think we made about $20, not much but I thought it was a blast and it lead me to many other things in the future.

[aloksingh]

Good story, babyboy. Unfortunately, I don't think that I have ever had any entreprenurial encounter yet. But if someday I recollect something I will surely post it in this thread.

[Submerge]

My first I remember was when I sold my first web design for $15 I believe. That was a great experience, I think I was 17 at the time, almost 4 years ago. :(