My Entrepreneurship Story

A few years back I was a personal manger for a catering company.  There was a gentleman working with us that was constantly thinking on a different level than most others.  Not necessarily having better, or worse, thoughts than those around him.  Just different, he reminded me of the father in the movie "Gremlins".  We'll call him "Sam".  Sam traveled a lot with the specific purpose of increasing his world view.  In many of his travels he slept outdoors. He did this for economic reasons and because he truly enjoyed it.

One of the things that bothered Sam the most while sleeping outdoors were mosquitoes, something many of us can relate to I'm sure.  He would always complain that no matter how much bug spray he used or increased the quality of mosquito netting used he could not have a buzz free sleep in certain areas (need identified).  At some point he acquired a battery operated fan, placed a very fine pool skimming netting on the front and face the rear of the fan towards the most frequent mosquito access point of his tent.  The fan would pull in the mosquitoes and collect them in the netting.

Over the course of the year Sam made adjustments to his contraption to make it more effective.  At some point he got together with an engineering friend of his and they made a formal prototype of his contraption.  They built a fan, and netting, that was specifically designed for the purpose.  Sam was ready for test runs and feedback.

I introduced Sam to former colleague of mine that did equine studies.  She managed a large barn with about 25 equine head (mosquito magnets).  She agreed to allow Sam to place four units in her barn, including an industrial sized prototype he had developed.  Sam knew this was exposure and feedback that could be game changing.

Success and great reviews!!!  The traps had worked better than expected.  The amount of mosquito catchings from the industrial model could be weighed in pounds in only three nights.  Sam took feedback given from his new "testing facility" (the horse barn) and made more adjustments.  These included being able to adjust the face of the fan vertically to allow the user to point the fan at vertical angles.

After about another year of testing and tweaking Sam had a finished product.  He was able to sell units, however, the opportunity cost of the time involved in production could have been considered negative returns.  Sam stopped assembling and began taking production orders instead.  While taking production orders he found a company in China that would manufacture his product at a price he was happy with.  He did some calculating and determined the number of units ordered that would produce profits that were acceptable to him.  When he hit his magic number he ordered production and was able to deliver his product two months later.

Sam did this two more times before he left the company we worked for.  After he left we keep in contact on a minimal level (one of those coworkers you are really good friends with at the workplace but spend little time away from work together).  He comes up with ideas and products fairly regularly, some are gold some are mold.  But, the kind of thinker he is he is never going to stop thinking and developing.

Why I am here

I am a Family, Youth and Community Sciences major.  I am minoring in Nonprofit leadership and management.  In the fall I will start my grad work in Public Administration at Penn State.  Unlike Sam my creativity is more geared towards ideas. I enrolled in this course because I felt like it would really get me thinking in different ways.  I really believe that doing outside your comfort zone is when some of the most beneficial personnel growth can take place. This course sounds like it will have plenty of that.