“I believe that the community - in the fullest sense: a place and all its creatures - is the smallest unit of health and that to speak of the health of an isolated individual is a contradiction in terms."
-Wendell Berry
My first significant experience with entrepreneurship was having the privilege of being an intern at the Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center, apart of the IA Fall Internship Experience.
The opportunity to preserve the legacies of legends in soul and blues like James Brown, B.B. King and Bo Diddley was, and is an honor that I could not pass up. In doing so I have the opportunity to help the Board of Directors secure grants, develop two business and marketing plans an even moving to develop a new website. All those experiences have been instrumental to my understanding of what entrepreneurship is.
More importantly it has helped me more clearly define who exactly am I trying to achieve prosperity for.
Working at the Cotton Club is more than just a chance to be an intern, or even revitalize a community. Working at the Cotton Club is the first step to providing an economic voice to a region of Gainesville that has lacked it for several decades. To me that is the definition of being an entrepreneur. Less about making a single person or small group of people rich, but giving a region the opportunity to accumulate long term wealth from a variety of industries.
That global picture is far bigger than the Cotton Club. The revival of eastern Gainesville will be contingent on not just me as an entrepreneur but entrepreneurs from all generations and walks of life determined to see the success of this community. That is not just not cultivating a business, but a tradition of teaching and creating entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial minds.
-Oliver
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ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing experience! I think internships are vital to growing a career. I personally did life a little different and won't ever get that chance, so it is refreshing to hear how much you appreciated it. You sound like you are on the right track for success in life!
ReplyDeleteYou can check out my story at http://deannacarterdays.blogspot.com/2016/01/my-entrepreneurship-story-where-im-at.html
Internships are such a great way to develop your skills, especially having to come up with marketing plans. I think that will really be useful in the future if one day you decide to pursue an entrepreneurial path.
ReplyDeleteIf you want, you can read my experience with entrepreneurship on my blog: http://kenny-o.blogspot.com/2016/01/my-entrepreneurship-story.html