Young Entrepreneur: My First Business in 9th Grade

Second period math class.

An observation.

A bit of previous knowledge.

And an enterprise was born.

And then eventually killed.

In 1984, "entrepreneurship" was not the hip topic it can be now. We were decades from Shark Tank and the rise of the tech innovators. Business ownership more often had to be something you were exposed to by your family or as in my case, my father used to encourage me to consider it, being my own boss. Why? For the control. 'Sharon, no one can tell you what to do if you're in charge.' I imagine it was clear to my dad early on in my life that I liked to be in charge.

Side note: in school conferences that looked like "bossy", "strong-willed", "talkative", "she's always talking", and "she continues to talk when she shouldn't". My dad got to the point where he'd show up at conferences and start with, "I know she probably talks a lot. How else is she doing?"

And so the whisper of a possibility of owning your own business existed in my head as a concept, for some people, it certainly wasn't a life goal for me in 9th grade. But I had no money. And as I needed money for PE clothes, school yearbooks, and the periodic junk snack between classes, I was always hustling some gig after school hours to make a buck or two.

Note: cutting your neighbors front yard roses and then trying to sell them to the neighbor on the other side is NOT a good idea.

However, sometimes brilliance comes when you least expect it. In my case, that was second period geometry in 9th grade. Watch my video below to learn exactly what happened and my 3 take away lessons.

Connect with me if you see immediately how my adventure would end. I was completely blind to the possibility at 13.