[ENTP] ENTP entrepreneurs. What made you/would make you do it?

[EcK]

Hey,

I was wondering about ENTP's entrepreneurship experience, what made you do it or do you think would make you do it. Do you have any plans to do it?
What about more experienced entps: Did you have plans to try to go in business for yourself? Have these plans/temptations turned into something concrete and if yes or no how and why ?

 

[Yussa Tampon]

Me and some friends of mine last year were throwing around an idea I had called "Fries in a T-Shirt"

what is "Fries in a T-Shirt" you ask?

It's where you sell french fries to people in a T-shirt rather than a regular fry cart. The gist behind it was we'd sell the fries based on the size of the shirt (Large shirt = large order of fries, ect) and if they were to - get ready for it - wear the T-shirt around our university campus for about 1-2 hours then their next order would be half-priced. The theory was that if they were to walk around campus with in grease-covered T-shirt, it'd result in others asking "man where did you get that greasy shirt from?!" and the guy wearing it would say "I got it from Fries in a T-Shirt you should check it out they got good fries!" and as a result of this conversation(s) more customers would be attracted and we'd get more sales.

Essentially the customers would do the advertising for us while we gave them a discount the next time around, and it seemed a swell idea at the time. Whatsmore, I make some damn good french fries if I do say so myself (I'm into cooking largely because of my pop's influence) so the problem of whether they'd come back for seconds or not wasn't anything that crossed my mind.

The ridiculousness of the idea was what was supposed to attract our target audience: college students (preferably rich ones looking for a new fad).


The only issue, and this was brought up a lot by a certain someone in particular, was the health-and-wellness aspect of the idea; wearing a greased-stained T-shirt ain't healthy, we all knew this, and the chances that the Student Service Department and Fire-Marshall's Department would approve of my idea were very slim less' we changed a few things around. On friend of mine suggested we just sell the fries separate from the T-shirt, with the T-shirt having a grease stain drawn on it instead for aesthetics (she's a really good artist to boot) but we haven't gotten back to that idea yet.

I want to say the real reason the idea never got off the ground is because of how said idea lacked proponents. Out of about 8-10 only 3 of us were committed to making it work, and I was more than ready to make it happen however to start these kinds of projects you need at least 5 people to propose it to the Student Services Department to get things worked out, like scheduling and whatnot. Not everyone was committed, so it didn't happen (yet). I hate when others aren't committed, but I'm used to it and I've learned from history books that the only way to get these people motivated is to lead by example, which is my next step in this giant scheme of mine.

How am I going to do it? Don't know yet. We'll see.

 

[EcK]

you had me at

what is "Fries in a T-Shirt" you ask?

yeah the same issues popped into my mind. Fun idea though. But yeah the grease thing could be an issue with fad attracted individuals. If someone started 'ewing' it it could just ruin the whole thing. Though for a business based on basic needs is there really such as thing as bad advertising?
I would probably insist on the cleanliness of the cooking and staff itself to be quite public as to limit the whole 'grease bit' to the marketing aspect

 

[yenom]

These are the reasons:

(1) I don't want to work with and obey stupid aggressive people (namely EXTJs) for the rest of my life. I want to be my own boss
(2) I want to get rich
(3)I love to take risks
(4)I want to challenge myself and do something that has a high risk of failure
(5)I want to have an impact on the world with my products
(6)I want to test my limits and see how far i could go

 

[EcK]

These are the reasons:

(1) I don't want to work with and obey stupid aggressive people (namely EXTJs) for the rest of my life. I want to be my own boss
(2) I want to get rich
(3)I love to take risks
(4)I want to challenge myself and do something that has a high risk of failure
(5)I want to have an impact on the world with my products
(6)I want to test my limits and see how far i could go

That's inspiring
I'm currently at a job I see as a stepping stone to test my ability to see something new become 'part of the cool kids'. So basically I'm taking all the shit with little of the rewards that will be seen down the line. I doubt that I'll be staying there past that initial impulse even though the possibilities for advancement would probably be quite dramatic. The whole reason I did all I've done this year is to make myself into a better me, to take the good and trim the bad away. Again I'm not basing my judgment of my own personal good\bad on anythign but my own vision for who i want to be and where i want to be. As an ENTP i must say I kind of suck at projecting myself 3 years down the line and stuff, it took quite a bit of work and my 'planning' is probably more of a Ti 'that's the shape of it' rather than a bullet point type of planning.

There's this story about the monkeys on a tree. It's a dumb joke sure but frankly it's very true.
It's about how the work place is like a tree full of monkeys. All the monkeys at the top look down and see only smiling faces. The monkeys at the bottom look up and see nothing but assholes.
Well as I was saying to someone yesterday, I'd rather be an asshole than feel like a failure for lack of trying. Excuses are for losers.

Right at this moment I still want to pick up more experience. Then I'll see whether I stay in Dubai or move to somewhere else. The World's a big place and I'm not feeling particularly anchored in any one location. I would probably like a business which could easily be moved around or to work based on a truly global scale with telecommunications and cloud computing solutions so i'm not stuck with heavy capital investments in any one place. It would probably involve several small offices with some kind of constant 'conference room' solution to avoid a) people feeling like they're being spied on while b) creating a 'physical' long distance work environment.

One advantage of such a structure would be that I could move it around based on the variable competitive advantages of specific places at specific times and create a much more fluid approach to setting a business and dealing with country risks

 

[yenom]

As an ENTP i must say I kind of suck at projecting myself 3 years down the line and stuff, it took quite a bit of work and my 'planning' is probably more of a Ti 'that's the shape of it' rather than a bullet point type of planning.

Yea, I suck at tunnel vision planning as well. I just don't give a fuck about it.

Do you have an inspiration model? Mine is Larry Ellison.

Its better to target the emerging markets (Brazil, Russia, India , China) as there are plenty of opportunities there.

 

[EcK]

Yea, I suck at tunnel vision planning as well. I just don't give a fuck about it.

(1) Do you have an inspiration model? Mine is Larry Ellison.

(2) Its better to target the emerging markets (Brazil, Russia, India , China) as there are plenty of opportunities there.

(1)No, I'm more of a 'My inspiration is me' kind of guy. I remember this lady I've met at some event years ago, she was basically a high-end career coach and wanted me to sit down with her and such. At some point she asked me who was my model and I just couldn't imagine an answer to give to her. I might see some people and think to myself 'I'm glad for that guy', 'well, that's awesome', 'good thinking' etc but to actively use them as an inspiration seems alien to me. Look at all the biographies and 'be as successful as I am, signed billionaire with hot wife and his own T-Rex': if it was as easy as that we'd all be at the top of the world (and mount Everest would be a very crowded place)

(2)Issues with emerging market stuff is that they tend to be presented as places full of opportunities in and of themselves. Opportunity is relative, there's both lots of offer and demand on the market. The real question to me is: How can I justify my end product in terms of competitiveness/differentiation and quality to my clients if I go there'.
Take the place where I am at now (Dubai). I know that my western education and culture is needed here in terms of management as the exceedingly word-of-mouth, nepotistic and delays-prone culture that is traditional in this particular spot of the world is maladaptive on the global market. (simplifying but that's a whole other conversation).

However as an European educated professional I have more ease with the local management culture than would (on average) an American or Japanese graduate as the gap in management culture is even wider in lots of developing Arabic countries.

 

[funkadelik]

Well, I officially own a company in the United States, but I don't do anything out of it. I got it in the first place when I was living there to bypass the whole "not having a SIN" thing so I could get a bank account, etc. I'm not living in the States anymore, but I still have that business so I guess I could still go back to it if I thought of an idea good enough to invest time and money into cultivating.

My roommate and I have seriously discussed starting up a bug farm. We were going to breed bugs (like pill bugs) to be around 5 times larger than normal and advertise them as an alternative to sea food. Our whole idea was that shrimp/lobster/etc. are essentially "bugs" of the sea, so why not try and carve a market for land bugs? Their production cost is lower for sea bugs and the carbon footprint of growing one pill bug is astronomically smaller than raising a cow. Not to mention they're high in protein and probably pretty tasty (in theory).

My roommate is way more serious about the idea than I am, though. I really enjoyed fleshing it all out, but man, it would take a lot of time and resources to actually do and I'm just a poor student (and probably will be for a while). Maybe one day, though. The idea of being an entrepreneur and my own boss is appealing, but perhaps I'd go with something a little more marketable.

 

[Swivelinglight]

Heh...

was just thinking recently about going back into affiliate marketing to make some spare cash.


the first time I did it I made roughly 350/10hrs of work. This time if I put up more hours theoretically I should make a decent amount.

 

[A window to the soul]

Hey,

I was wondering about ENTP's entrepreneurship experience, what made you do it or do you think would make you do it. Do you have any plans to do it?
What about more experienced entps: Did you have plans to try to go in business for yourself? Have these plans/temptations turned into something concrete and if yes or no how and why ?

I started a business a few years ago, but I don't want to show off, so how about I tell you my childhood entrepreneur stories?



It all started with a lemonade stand on a hot Texas day in July. I liked this thing they called money. I wanted more...

I eventually moved on to selling photocopied lyrics of the top songs for a quarter to the suckers at my elementary school.

Yeah, I was on the fast track to financial freedom until I walked past a pet store window with my Dad, then every dime went to building the most awesome hamster cage of all time. Yes, it was sweet!

In Junior High I became restless and my pockets empty. Tired of the boring clubhouse pool games during the summer break, my friends and I were going to construct the ultimate slip & slide in my parent's spacious backyard, but I needed cash. My dilemma, my parents would buy me one slip & slide, but that would not be sufficient for this project. Oh no, I wanted more. I always wanted more.

I began shuffling through my subdivision's newsletter, when I came across listings of kids like myself (at the time) advertising their babysitting services. So, I called and requested to have my name listed in the next publication. Man, I didn't want to sit back while the other older babysitters got called first. I didn't have patience to wait it out in hopes that someone would think to look in the newsletter for a babysitter. I wanted customers now! I was determined to figure out how to make it happen.

Suddenly, I had a brilliant idea. The subdivision puts out a telephone directory and lists the birthdates for every child in every household in my neighborhood. I was going to call every house in my subdivision with kids of the appropriate ages and solicit my services! And I did! For several days straight. Almost immediately, the calls for my babysitting services started pouring in. Apparently, none of the babysitters thought to telemarket. That's right, winning!!

I had more business that summer than I could handle. More cash coming in than any junior high kid I knew. I even had enough business to share with my ENFJ sister. I thought heck, she loves kids, kids love her, she loves money, she saves her money; I want her on my team. If she would take on my extra business, I could keep my customers happy and she would be saving the extra money, and if all goes well I'll sucker her out of some of that money to help with the project that she would also enjoy.

Good times.

 

[entropie]

In german the phrase "a big deal" actually means that you have to go to the toilet for a "big deal". So in that sense I am an entrepreneur all my life

 

[Winds of Thor]

Let's leave my sex life out of this (;

 

[DeductiveReasoner]

Quite frankly, I was just bored and looking for some dough.

 

[Winds of Thor]

Hey,

I was wondering about ENTP's entrepreneurship experience, what made you do it or do you think would make you do it. Do you have any plans to do it?
What about more experienced entps: Did you have plans to try to go in business for yourself? Have these plans/temptations turned into something concrete and if yes or no how and why ?

Seriously? The thing I see ENTPs needing to hurdle here is their value of caring too much what others think of them...which I think stems from their early feelings of social awkwardness.

Get around that crap and hit the afterburners!

I started as an entrepreneur when I was like 11. It's easier than being an employee. It's also much more rewarding and feelings of truly being alive are worth the price of admission alone.