Biography
Starting a Business with Nothing
By Ellen Thompson
Nov 3, 2006, 14:23

Most people don’t go into business right out of school. I don’t know why. I think it is a great time to start one. Looking back, it was the only time in my life when I had nothing to hold me back and nothing to lose. As Janis Joplin aptly put it, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”

Somehow, starting a business with nothing seemed less risky: after all, there was nowhere to go but up! So, I went ahead and started my career as an entrepreneur. I struggled to make ends meat for many years and more than once I found myself envious of friends who were living in New York City, earning steady paychecks working in what seemed like very glamorous jobs.

In the long run, everything worked out for me. I have a career that seems sexy as well as a great deal of freedom. Since those lean days, things have completely turned around and I’m occasionally the object of envy!

In hindsight, if I had taken a “real job” out of college, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I probably would have gotten used to a big salary and the material comforts it provided. Like many of my friends, I might have been trapped by "golden handcuffs" and never started a business at all.

However, that was not my fate. I started with nothing, which turned out to be exactly the right amount of startup capital.

© Copyright 247Advisor.com.

Visit www.247Advisor.com for hundreds of articles to help and resources to help you with your small business.