Was I a businessman to start with? I'm not sure. I mean, that comes slowly, when you start having the products out. But at the same time, I was very determined. I knew that I had to make it work. I had no choice.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I am an entrepreneur in the entertainment industry. Somewhere early on when I couldn't get something I wanted through the system, I threw up my hands and tried to figure a way to get it done myself. A lot of it came from my upbringing. My dad was an entrepreneur.
These days I'm pretty much a businessman.
When did it become a problem to be a small businessman and become successful? The small businessman - like my father, or like me?
When I was coming up as an entrepreneur, I had to fight for everything I got, and there was no clear roadmap of how to be successful.
I've been good at product entrepreneuring.
Most of all, I discovered that in order to succeed with a product you must truly get to know your customers and build something for them.
Starting my own business was kind of a wakeup call in a number of different ways. I had to meet a payroll every week, and we had to satisfy customers, and we had competitors that we had to compete with in order to have those customers come into our stores, and we had to compete with other employers for our employees.
I never really marketed myself, so each job I was given was a new marketing tool, and that would be the way I marketed myself.
I was very lucky. I started my own commercial company.
Oh, I was never a businessman. I was a visionary, a dreamer.