This article is part of our Business Startup Guide—a curated list of our articles that will get you up and running in no time!
When I was a kid, I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. I was going to be the next Boris Vallejo! (You know, the famous fantasy and sci-fi artist who always painted ripped, shirtless men and buxom, bikini-clad women atop flying dragons and Pegasuses—yeah, I wanted to be him.)
There were two problems with my future career plans though: 1) I wasn’t very good at art, and 2) my parents made it clear there wasn’t a snowball’s chance that they would pay for me to go to art school.
With my adolescent dreams up in flames, I decided to get back at my unsupportive mom and dad the only way I knew how: I became an entrepreneur. And that choice became a different kind of fantasy entirely.
My Story
I stole the ideas for my first startups from other people. In the early 1990s, my brother was working for a company that was going through the roof selling shareware software via catalog. We thought, “Hey, we can do that!” And we did, until the internet came on the scene a couple of years later and left us holding our floppy disks in our hands.
My next venture didn’t fare much better. I tried to catch the specialty coffee wave and was swept under a tsunami of Starbucks’ venti lattes.
With my third business, I didn’t even try to be original—I purchased a custom framing franchise and piggybacked to success on someone else’s name.
What I’m saying is, I’m wholly unqualified to offer startup advice.
Henry Abbey , a talented author who has a knack for creating stories that captivate and engage readers. He’s been writing since he was a child and tasted success with his first novel at only 19. His works are available to read on the businessdoom website, where readers can find stories of romance, mystery, and adventure from the mind of Henry Abbey.
