Start-Up: The importance of putting yourself out there

Start-Up! is weekly column on entrepreneurship, start-ups, technology and innovation, powered by the Adams Hub for Innovation.

From the time I was very young, it was quite apparent that I would start my own business one day. Nobody knew what it would be or how things would turn out, but my family could recognize a certain drive in me that would one day lead me down an entrepreneurial path.

My first small, yet defining taste of entrepreneurship came around the time I was in the second grade in a relatively small town in Kansas. While all of the other kids were out playing cops and robbers, my fun was creating a business. It all started when my grandmother needed her shed cleaned out. She had wanted to clean it out to make room for something else, and she wanted to get rid of a lot of the old junk that was just lying around.

After some rudimentary negotiations on my part, she agreed that I could have the things she didn’t want any more if I cleaned the shed. It was a win-win because she was just going to get rid of it anyway, and I had a strong belief that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. So I cleaned the shed, which my grandmother made sure was up to her standards, and she made good on the deal and gave me her unwanted items.

Now, I knew just having possession of the items was not going to make me “rich;” in order to do that I needed to find someone to buy my goods. My second grade mind came up with a marketing strategy that focused on building value through convenience. I decided to load up what I could in my wagon and go door to door. And of course I enlisted my little sister Beth as my first employee. The HR (aka employee) cost was a really good deal. She got the fun of participation, and I got somebody to pull the wagon.

So I loaded it with old bottles and “stuff,” and we set off. I wasn’t scared of putting myself out there and talking with people I had never met, and I wasn’t afraid of rejection. When someone wasn’t interested in buying our products, I thanked them for their time and simply moved on to the next house. I got way more no’s than I did yes’s, but I stuck with it and never let it get to me.

Eventually, with a lot of perseverance my little entrepreneurial venture was a success, I was able to sell all of my grandmother’s unwanted stuff and buy the cool toys I wanted, which appreciated more because I earned them myself.

Most businesses never start because the potential entrepreneur does not put themselves out in the market to take the risk. Coming up with the idea for a business is difficult, but actually executing on the idea is 100 times harder. Having the perseverance to see the creation of a business through to execution is what differentiates a true entrepreneur from a dreamer. Mowing lawns, walking dogs, lemonade stands, and babysitting are just a few of the first entrepreneurial businesses kids start and don’t even realize they are entrepreneurs.

The lifeblood of the American economy is built upon dreamers who turned their ideas into businesses and in fact over 50% of new jobs are created by small businesses. In a country and economy where it is easier to start a business than anywhere else in the world, we need more adults to take their dreams and run with them as they did when we were children.

The take away from the story is that to be an entrepreneur you can’t be afraid to put yourself out there. Don’t be so terrified of rejection and failure that you take yourself out of the game before it even starts. If I had been too scared, people wouldn’t like my products; I would never have even tried, and I would have been stuck with a bunch of stuff that I didn’t want.

Instead, I went out there and ended up with the latest toy that all my classmates were jealous of. Successful entrepreneurs need to have the drive and determination to do everything they can to make their venture flourish no matter what. The drive and determination to thrive led me to eventually open up my own successful marketing firm as well as several other businesses and still motivates me in my role as Executive Director of Northern Nevada Development Authority. I am thankful I learned those lessons at a young age and never let the fear of failure get in my way.

Rob Hooper is Executive Director of the Northern Nevada Development Authority.