My Journey into Entrepreneurship

Welcome to my blog for Hustle To Create!

My goal is to share my journey into entrepreneurship, what it takes to be an entrepreneur, and how you can turn your passions into a revenue stream. Let’s start with how I got this crazy idea to venture out on my own.

I’ve always had a passion for helping people and that has translated into many forms throughout my life. Ultimately my goal has always been to enter into public service but I always knew that I wanted to be financially independent before going that route. I knew corporate America wasn’t for me so my first career out in California was at a company in their management training program. The whole premise was that you work your tail off and eventually can open your own division (like a franchise). I tell you it was an amazing experience because it was very hands on and I could immediately apply all the skills I had learned in business school. The downside was definitely that it lacked that corporate salary.

I’m an opportunist so I always looked for ways to add value to increase my pay. I eventually solved a major issue affecting the overall performance of the division and this was the first time I realized I truly did have a unique perspective perfect for consulting. This success led to the owner sending me on various trips to other territories as an internal consultant. I jumped at the opportunity for a minimal pay raise. I truly enjoyed analyzing a situation and all the factors and creating a solution and executing it. This experience gave me the confidence I needed so I started to seek out other opportunities.

I eventually found this insurance company that was owned by Torchmark, one of the most stable stocks in Warren Buffet’s portfolio. It was a franchise deal where you could eventually have your own location and become a partner. I remember in my interview the guy said, “The hardest thing I will have to do is take the employee mentality out of you”. I immediately responded with, “Sir, I have never been an employee a day in my life.” He simply smiled and thus began my journey with this new company.

If you have never been an independent contractor before, it is basically like freedom on a leash. You can work as much as you want and do what you want as long as you hit certain benchmarks. I took this as an opportunity to take off the gloves and give it all I had. I remember my first year working six or seven days every week trying to learn as much as I could to get ahead. As I was learning, I started to observe many things about the company that I believed could be improved. Of course, the consultant spirit in me, I started to take copious notes and conduct research on how these changes could be made. I even compiled a research report and sent it to all the executives in the company. They loved the research but wanted to see its success on a small scale before they implemented it company-wide. I was so excited and was also given the permission to implement these changes at the division I was soon to be responsible for.

I spent hours on hours perfecting the materials that would soon become the company standard for their hiring practice. This process also taught me a valuable lesson. Always protect your work. The company decided to rollout the changes and new materials I had created company wide and didn’t give me any credit. Even when I confronted the Vice President of Sales he simply said, “Well I know you did this.” From then on, I knew my work was more valuable than I thought.

Fast forward to working for that company for four years, I was the regional manager for all of Orange County. Our office was recognized as the 5th best Workplace by the OC Register and I was making the most money I had ever made in my life. We’re talking over $12,000 per month. I was living the life….or so I thought.

On my four year anniversary I took some time off to reflect on my happiness and I had to face the honest truth. If I could work those 60 -70 hours a week to build someone else’s company, why couldn’t I do it for myself? Of course like anyone else, I had fears and thoughts of failure but I figured I’m young and can fail 20 more times before I turned forty so it was worth it.

I made the biggest decision of my life up to this point and left that job and began to work full time to pursue my passion for coffee. Because this was such a passion of mine, I had already been doing research the 3 years prior which included: roasting school in Izmir, Turkey, visiting a coffee farm in El Salvador, and attending industry events like CoffeeFest. I remember the day I had the conference call with two executives and my manager. They were in disbelief because I was leaving right after I had been ranked number six out of hundreds of managers across U.S and Canada. When it’s your time to go, follow your heart.

I took that leap of faith and left Orange County and moved to South LA where I now currently work on my new business venture set to launch in January.  Working full time for yourself is truly a liberating experience and it is my goal of to help as many people get to individual prosperity