I Became An Entrepreneur When I Was 9 Years Old
Until my mother put a swift stop to it
The photo above brought back happy memories of my first foray into the world of entrepreneurship.
I used to live in a small village in Wales when I was a child. There was a river that passed through the village, and quite a few wooded areas. As children, we were always exploring the forests, climbing trees, and swimming in the river.
It was quite an idyllic childhood.
During spring, the forest floor used to be covered with bluebells. Initially, my friend and I picked some of the flowers to take home. A neighbor commented on how beautiful they were and ask us to bring her some next time, which she did. She rewarded us with enough to buy some sweets from one of the village sweet shops.
All villages seemed to have sweet shops in those days. They sold nothing but sweets and were very popular with the children.
So the next day we wondered how we could get some more money to buy sweets. That’s when we hit on the idea of selling bluebells in the village. Off we went with out small spade and started digging up some of the plants.
We were both 9 years old at the time. What a great age to start a flower business.
We then set off to sell the flowers. A few people bought from us, but a few asked if our parents knew. Of course they did, we lied. But the village busybodies said they’d tell our parents anyway. We shouldn’t be selling flowers around the village they said. I’ve no idea what was wrong with it.
Later that day, one of the busybodies had told my mother. Instead of being pleased with my new venture, she was mortified. She put a stop to it right there and then.
What was so wrong with it? She thought the villagers would think our family was soo poor that she had to send her son out to sell flowers. She claimed to be very embarrassed.
So, no extra sweets for me and my friend. That’s probably a good thing, as we used to eat way too many as kids.
I didn’t give up on entrepreneurship though. Later in life, I ran a successful ecommerce store, wrote 8 Kindle books, and made money flipping websites.
It’s funny to think that it all started when I was an innocent 9 year old.
