Humble beginnings...

Life is full of learning opportunities, especially from this young generation. So you can imagine my surprise when in the weekend after harvesting fresh lemons and mandarins from our backyard, my ten year and five year old decided that they wanted to take this ‘free raw material’ and make some cash out of it. The immediate next question was, how much should we sell it for and like any enthusiastic five year old, my younger son boldly claimed that we should sell our fresh produce for ‘millions and gazillions of dollars’, his elder brother on the other hand was a bit realistic and corrected him whilst still slightly optimistic in saying that they would sell each piece for 5 dollars. So I finally got involved and suggested that if they are thinking of selling in ‘as is’ condition, they probably wont get more than couple of dollars for about 5-7 fruits, hoping that they would ask with a follow up question and ask they did. So dad how can we sell it for more? Well I said, you have to make it attractive, package it well- make it pretty so that people feel happy to pay more for it. And so off we went to buy a paper tray, a film wrap, some ribbons on top, with some marketing material drawn by themselves convincing their customers that they should consider paying premium to buy this pretty product which is organic, fresh and good for their health. It wasn’t easy, some people on the streets liked the initiative and paid them their fair share (we actually sold it for $3), whilst in some houses they got the rejection, this is the part I was more curious to observe, how do my young entrepreneurs take their rejections, It was particularly heartening to hear my five year old say to his elder brother after their first rejection, “that’s okay Shiven, lets try someone else”.

As life progresses, the scale might change, the selling price might change from $5 to fifty million dollars, but the philosophy still remains the same. Perseverance and focus, even in the face of rejections coupled with a strong belief in the product is the key to success. This is where organizations like #Enterprise Angels prove to be so valuable, because they not only provide young enterpreneurs the neccesary capital, but most importantly provide the wisdom and guidance that helps keep the faith of these enterpreneurs during difficult times and keep them focussed on the end goals.

As for my story, its fair to say that they did get some reward for their hard work, afterall a couple of hours worth of sales job definitely warrants a visit to the nearest movie cinema for a round of 'The Lion King'.