Encore Career: Make Your Dreams Come True
With
Entrepreneurship, Diversity and Inclusion
By Barbara Penn-Atkins
One of the greatest and most rewarding occupations one can
choose in life is that of an Entrepreneur. Regardless of age, owning,
operating and growing a business is a unique experience. It is unique in
that the entrepreneur’s personal values becomes part of the newly created
entity’s vision and mission statement of integrity, humility, service,
principles and standards are on display to the public. Day-to-day work
charts a path for continuous learning; one that challenges the mind and
manifest dreams, stimulates the heart and fulfills personal passion for
creativity and innovation. Entrepreneurship becomes a true reality when
the business can provide jobs and develop other people through
commitment of leadership, team building and making a difference especially when the enterprise itself
becomes a corporate citizen in the community it serves.
What is it that attract people to pursue entrepreneurship? A few advantages may include:
Desire to be their own boss, build equity, achieve greater personal and financial goals.
Identify needs and fill them.
Create products, serve people and ultimately make a profit.
Be the designer of systems and procedures to guide the growth of the business.
Create opportunities to contribute to the community and economy.
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I can relate to the mystical and exciting entrepreneurial journey as I’ve been on this road for 30+ years
as a woman entrepreneur. Endowed with a dream and a passion for providing a product and service and
a desire for personal independence, my business venture began at the height of a recession during the
best of times and the worst of times. The business economic climate had experienced employee layoffs
and downsizing. Staff reductions impacted clerical support and office productivity for processing
paperwork. This issue presented an opportunity for me to offer and provide a solution to solve a problem
and reduce company overhead expense. Thus, I found a need and chose to fill it.
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At some point in the life of entrepreneurs, the business owner might reflect on the quote from Charles
Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities – It was the ‘best of times and the worst of times’ as they venture onto a
visionary journey of providing products and services to customers. There is something mystical and
exciting about the fulfillment of dreams and meaning of entrepreneurship as it relates to creating an
entity and growing it into an empire. Notwithstanding that becoming an entrepreneur can also be very
scary especially when SBA statistics reports that 95% of startup businesses fail within the first five
years.