Assignment 3A - My Entrepreneurship Story

My entrepreneurship story begins when I wanted to have more allowance to buy sneakers. After getting money from selling concert tickets to under-age kids, I realize how satisfying it was to make my own money and have my own freedom. As I grow older, I promise myself that I will work as hard to be able to retire at 40 and have all the freedom that I could have. However, the more I was into finding the way to have my freedom in the future, the more I realize that hard work is not enough, it is a long, challenging road that I have to take to be able to reach the promised land.

In 2017, I founded an online clothing shop called Cocaine & Caviar, something that is addicting and luxurious. I managed to find a source of cheap clothing from China, that has a low price but really high quality. From it, I made a few money for myself, and my brother that helped me a lot. But, after the source of my goods was taken down by the local government, I left with nothing; I lost my comparative advantage to a large number of online clothing competitor.

During the summer of 2018, I was planning on making a homemade healthy food after joining a seminar on healthy living. I feel like there is a huge opportunity in my city, where the gym culture is growing, to have something that tastes good, yet healthy. However, it never went through because I was scared of failing since my plan was having it in most local gyms, which was a huge step from having a business online. And right now, I really regret not doing so.

However, during the summer, I'm very fortunate to open the TV and watched Teddy Rachmat, Indonesia's 8th richest man, talked about his experience and what he sees in the future. I remembered when he cried on national television saying that "I will never stop working as long as there are still poor people in Indonesia", I still have goosebumps remembering what he said. After a long time reflecting on my goals and what he said, I come up with a conclusion where I feel like everyone in this world is selfish, even Teddy Rachmat, but you could use that selfishness into something that not only benefits you but benefit others. Think of it this way, if you are able to provide jobs, education, healthcare, mental support, and so on to the people, it would benefit the people for sure, but it also would benefit the economy of the country which indirectly impacts the business. Indeed it is selfish to say that I will help people so that my business will be better in the long run, but it is also selfish to donate money to a cause that they don't really know about, impacting people a million miles away. Why is it selfish? Is it selfish because you don't even know if the money will be used properly, all you know is that you donated money, and you feel better for doing so. In conclusion, I believe that entrepreneurship could benefit myself and my community, plus the core of entrepreneurship is basically providing people with what they need, so if it doesn't do both, then the business will be a failure sooner or later.

The reason why I joined the entrepreneurship class is not only to complete my general education, but I also want to be inspired, helped, and pushed to finally create a business or organization that could benefit myself, and help as well as provide the community. I basically want the class to spark an idea in my head, and make it turn into a reality.

Although people say that everyone is an entrepreneur, I totally disagree with that statement, because you are not an entrepreneur until you actually make it happen.