Biography
My First Big Risk
By Ellen Thompson
Nov 2, 2006, 14:30

When I announced that I planned to start a business after graduation, everyone thought I was crazy.

After all, hadn’t I just spent four years at the very expensive University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business? And didn’t I need a job more than just about anyone? After all, I was only able to attend college through a combination of scholarships, work-study programs and grants. I had loans I would have to start repaying in six months. I was part of the “diversity” plan at Penn - I was one of the poor kids. I was by no means starving, but I didn’t have a safety net either.

Ironically, one of the main reasons I went to Penn in the first place was their superior on campus recruiting record. The year I graduated more than 700 different companies participated in on-campus recruiting. With a graduating class of about 4000, including both undergraduate and graduate students, that comes to 1 company for every 6 students. And now, I was bailing out. I had only “dropped” 3 resumes when my efforts at becoming recruited came to a halt.

All of my friends continued to circulate their resumes, and the majority of them got jobs in New York City with 30K base salaries and 10-15K bonuses (which seemed like a fortune at the time-1990). They hit their charge cards hard to pay for apartment locators, furniture and a business wardrobe. Many of them made these moves with the confidence that their families could help if anything went wrong.

I, on the other hand, stayed in Philadelphia after graduation. I hooked up with an entrepreneur who had been introduced to me by one of my professors and while my friends were enjoying a few weeks of vacation before starting their new jobs, we began discussing how we could work together.

How things change in four years! When I began my studies at Penn, I couldn’t even pronounce, let alone spell the word “entrepreneur.” By the time I graduated, I had taken the plunge off the deep end and was firmly committed to becoming one of them.

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