Entrepreneurs Get to Use All of Their Skills - Even the Ones They Thought Would Be Useless

For better or worse, our past experiences play an enormous role in determining the person that we are today. As an entrepreneur, you need a vast skillset to survive. If you are only good at programming, or sales, or marketing then you probably shouldn't be an entrepreneur. Because of this need for an understanding of broad subjects, I find that one of the beauties of being an entrepreneur is that I am drawing upon past experiences that I never thought I would.

For instance, as a junior in college I was required to take a writing elective so I took Writing to the World Wide Web (or WWWW as we at RPI called it). The only reason I took WWWW was that I heard it was easier than the expository writing class (which is a pretty good reason). At that point in my life I knew nothing about e-commerce or web programming and had no clue that I would start an online business a year later.

It turned out that taking that class has paid endless dividends. We studied what web content is and how successful web content is drastically different from successful print content. Both textbooks we used I refer to frequently to this day, and as a result one of the selling points of SportsLizard.com is the fresh content that I provide (if you don't believe me, check out this awesome article by Jeff Clow in this month's issue of Tuff Stuff Magazine where he refers to me as a "prolific writer." I can't explain how nuts it is to hear someone say that, considering I was a horrible English student in high school and once told an English teacher that "English and History are just what people who can't do Math and Science end up doing." She didn't like that very much.)

Another great example is art. At first glance I would appear to not be the most artistic person alive (I do have an engineering degree and engineers aren't always known for their creativity). But as a child I loved drawing and the first thing that I ever won was a local drawing contest. Today, I am able to use that same artistic skill in my web design and in painting custom sports figures. I was able to tie the customs into SportsLizard.com, and the section where I have how-to articles and galleries has surprisingly been one of the most successful parts of the business.

The fact that I am able to use all of my talents, even those that I never thought would be of any use to me is one of the more unexpected, and yet also gratifying, things that I have found about being an entrepreneur. If you are considering starting your own business, I bet you'll find yourself drawing upon skills that you have long forgotten or previously deemed useless.