Entrepreneurial Spirit

I am an entrepreneur by heart. Not by practice mind you. Just by heart. Whenever I see a real estate sign advertising commercial space for lease or an empty lot, I begin dreaming about what type of business I could put there that would make a fortune. I can picture the layout of the business and the decorations I would use. I dream about cash registers and sometimes deep fryers or coin laundry machines. Occasionally it will be a business with a service and then the dreams are more along the lines of computers, telephones and scheduling books, but rarely that is the case. Usually it is some sort of goods that I will be selling. It will be something that someone walks in and purchases or does right there in the rented space. They of course will pay a fortune for the product and they will tell all of their friends how wonderful the experience was.

I can usually picture the advertising process and how people will arrive in droves. They will be amazed at my brilliant ads and they will compliment my wonderful business sense. I will be rich from the experience and in my old age I will explain the exciting lifestyle to my grandchildren while they sit at my feet glued to my every word.

I come up with a new business at least once a month. I have only followed through on a few of them and all of those were the do-it-from-home, very-low-up-front-cost kind of businesses. So far, they have all failed. But I am sure that was just circumstance or climate or something and that if I were to try them again now they would be successful.

I also come up with business ideas for my friends and family. They have not once taken my advice, despite the pictures of grandeur I paint for them.

I am sure they will all be successful and I can imagine how wonderful it will feel to say to others “that was all my idea and it made them bajillionaires”. I can picture the strangers I will be talking to and how impressed they will be with my brilliance. People will come from miles away to ask me what they should do with their lives and I will look them over and say “hmmm, you should be a baker and open a little shop over on Winston Street. Hang on and I’ll get my notes.”

Sometimes though I am relieved that they do not take my advice since it might create resentment when they buy their first mansion or take their first ski trip to Switzerland all because they followed my advice. I don’t like to envision them drinking champagne on their private jet and laughing while I sit in my little apartment watching the travel channel.