My Entrepreneurial Passion
The word entrepreneurship holds more power in my life than anything else. Ever since I could remember, my dream was to operate my own business. I have chased this dream with a burning passion my entire life. I have never feared being passionate about chasing my dreams, even if that means walking alone. I believe that trusting yourself to have the capability of taking calculated risks by using the knowledge of yourself as well as the other people around you is key to success — not only in entrepreneurship, but in life as a whole.
Entrepreneurship to me presents a mindset: It is the capacity to design your own path through life, leading you towards defined personal success. I come from a family of entrepreneurs and was raised around startups my entire life, some of which being my own. When I was only thirteen, I started my own clothing line. At fifteen, I started a social media-based platform connecting personal trainers to clients looking to be trained through the online channel.
Recently, as a junior entrepreneurship major at the University of Delaware, I opened up an indoor cycling studio called Oh-So Cycle on South Main Street. I was lucky enough to be able to combine my two passions, entrepreneurship and fitness, into a business. After 14 months of endless hard work, I was able to launch the business on March 1st. My goal with Oh-So Cycle is to create a community of like-minded individuals to better ourselves both physically and mentally through cycling.
Having self-awareness is incredibly important in order to grow as a person and an entrepreneur. I believe the best way of learning is through experience, whether that is failure or success. If you no longer fear failure, you are limitless to learn what you can or cannot do. Sometimes, putting yourself out there and diving head first into a situation that you may not be so comfortable with could be very rewarding when it comes to learning about your own personal character. Having humbling or even embarrassing experiences throughout your life could lead directly to a positive outcome as long as you are remaining honest with yourself in your self-reflections. Looking back at errors I have made and analyzing them to figure out what I could have done better or more effectively is the best way to learn. As you learn more and more about your strengths and weaknesses through experiences, you will build a stronger self-awareness, ultimately making you a stronger entrepreneur.
Throughout my entrepreneurial ventures, I always look back on something I wrote when I was just fourteen years of age to motivate me and remind me just why I am so passionate about entrepreneurship: “I have never been afraid of aiming high. The first step to taking a risk is allowing your mind to think of the unthought-of, to make conscious the unconscious, to make possible the impossible. Actions follow a mindset, and a mindset is an incredibly powerful tool that is just waiting to be captured by your passion, your dreams, your goals, and your motivations. Allow yourself to have control. Allow yourself to set a dream, higher than reasonable, and do everything you can to catch it. The only thing stopping you from doing this is your mindset. Human brains are pattern making machines, so all you have to do is stay conscious of the fact that you are letting yourself see differently and think differently, and you will then be released onto your own path towards your own success. Do not be afraid of aiming high, because that is the first step of achieving high.”