The Journey by Luke

The Journey by Luke - February 2019 Scholarship Essay

It all starts with an idea, until an entrepreneur takes a calculated risk to follow through with the idea. Without that innovation would never occur. My dream job is to create new businesses to better society and build my wealth. For the past six years, I’ve seen a close family member devolved into one of the most successful entrepreneurs in North West Ohio. It all started with an idea, owning a construction company during the recession forced him to think harder on ways to make money due to the loss of business during this time. My uncle started developing this idea of opening a do it all gun range that would be open to the public. Now, a multimillion dollar investment has paid off, being the most popular gun range in North West Ohio for the past five years. For the past two years, I’ve had a chance to work for this fast-growing business, learning what it really takes to become a success entrepreneur.
To start off my uncle always states that you need to “visualize your goals before succeeding.” Without the visualization of success, you will never persuade yourself that it is possible. Owning two companies my uncle is efficient about delegating tasks. Not only has he hired people that are smarter and more knowledgeable about the industry, but he trusts these people to manage his businesses. By doing this his plate is still full but it is not overwhelming allowing him to focus on his own tasks, giving him time to generate new ideas. Every week I sit down with this successful entrepreneur, my uncle and create strategies to ensure we are managing our time effectivity. Keeping to-do lists and our goals on a giant white board in the office to ensure our weekly goals are achieved. When we sit down to talk his communication skills are unbelievable. He absorbs every word I say to assure he doesn’t let a new idea slip away from him and always follows up with many questions. Not only does this make me feel important because he is listening, but it make our conversations very effective and efficient.
Being able to do something you love for a career is a blessing and part of being a successful entrepreneur is expressing your gratitude for those around you. My uncle believes that young people need to be more educated on business, so he donates thousands of dollars a year to local schools to fund new business classes. Also, donating to local law enforcement ensuring they have the proper funds to have an annual dinner. It’s amazing to see those that come into our gun range that have been impacted by these donations and seeing how thankful they are is what I strive for as a young entrepreneur. Part of our business model to safeguard gun safety in our community, we are offering free gun training to people that have never touched a firearm or even those who would just like instruction. My uncle has proved that if you genuinely care about the people, your business succeeds, and you will be fulfilled with the riches to give back more to the community.
The journey isn’t always a bed of roses, there are tough times. As a successful entrepreneur my uncle never fails to generate ideas to make more money during the tough times. When the recession hit his construction company was almost cut in half, now he could have continued to try and grow but he only would have been digging a deeper hole. Instead, innovation during times like this solved his problems of profit loss. I have learned that if you work smart instead of working hard your income will flourish. Also, throughout the years when his construction company was flourish he limited his liabilities. By this I mean he didn’t spend money unless he had to, allowing him to save enough to make a large investment to open the gun range. This has taught me to always live below your means so that when you do want to take a risk or need capital for your business to grow you will have it.
Following the footsteps of many successes entrepreneurs I strive to obtain all these characteristics I talked about above. As, a young entrepreneur success is on my mind, so I can make an impact on society. When I say success, it could be a wide variety idea. Whether it’s making millions and giving back to society donating to educate young people just like my uncle or it’s creating a product to help students learn more easily. But I’d like to ensure that young people are always taught that your life could be turned around at any moment, good or bad. I care about the future, so I will do whatever it takes to improve society bringing more success and flourishing wealth.