It’s easy to wake up every morning, get dressed and go to work. I do it
every day. But one day something happened. A friend asked me for a
donation to help a No-Kill Shelter he was working at. Like most people
would do, I donated some money. I felt good about what I did.But that
night while playing with my pet dog Mr. Duke, I felt sad. I love pets. I
had dogs and cats all my life. In fact, many of them helped me get
through rough times. Their love was unconditional and always there. So,
I never thought of what happened to unwanted pets. I just believed every
dog and cat had a home.
I had always heard the word entrepreneur. I always thought the word described
someone who was wealthy and lucky enough to own a business. Certainly
with my 9 to 5 job I wasn’t an entrepreneur. I made a living and paid my
bills. To be honest, I actually feared being an entrepreneur. I liked
the security of getting a pay check every two weeks and I loved my job.
But that sad feeling wouldn’t go away. I found myself reading articles
about business and motivation.I started to realize that an
entrepreneur was no different than anyone else. They just had an idea
and developed it. They were just regular working people with fears and
self-doubt like me. But the difference is they just kept focusing on
their idea and believed in it.
I had an idea. I wanted to create a children’s board game about dogs and
cats trying to overcome life obstacles on their journey home after being
let out from school. I remembered all the obstacles I had to overcome as
a kid to make it home after school. Wow, some days I was lucky to make
it home. Now, if I could create this board game and sell it then I could
donate a lot more money to these No – Kill shelters. The more I thought
about this idea, the more confident I became in trying to do it.
Now my background is not in board game creation. But I love comedy and I
write comedy. I even perform stand -up comedy. There is nothing like
hearing laughter and seeing big smiles from strangers. So, I used the
courage and inner strength that God gave me to do comedy and poured it
into my desire to create a children’s board game. Every night for
several months, I sat at my kitchen table and tried. I almost gave up too many
times to mention. But like every entrepreneur, I stayed focused and gave it
everything I had. This is when I realized that being an entrepreneur is
a journey. No one just wakes up and creates something. You first get an
idea and then you try to develop it. It’s like listening to your favorite
song over and over again in your head. Or it’s like trying to swim
across the pool and make it to the other side. Becoming an entrepreneur
is a true-life journey that takes every inner strength you have.
So now I am happy to say, I created that children’s board game. I did
it!And I feel great and blessed about what I did and the journey I
went on. So now I'm an entrepreneur? Anyway, I hope so. But now I do know what
an entrepreneur goes through. I got to experience sadness, joy,
happiness and fulfillment on my game creation journey. Now I just hope
and pray my game will sell so I can keep pets, dogs and cats alive long
enough in these No-Kill shelters to make it home. To make it home and be
loved by a family. Can you picture the big smiles and laughter these
pets will bring to kids, parents and families? Maybe this is also
comedy. Hey, not just a standup comedian can make you laugh and bring big
smiles but a fuzzy pet can do that too. I just wanted to share my story
with you. Maybe you are about to go on your own entrepreneur journey. If
you are, then just keep swimming and we will see you on the other side of
the pool.
My children’s board game is called Fuzzy Rascals.
My website is www.fuzzyrascals.com
Starting around June 1st. it will be selling on the Kickstarter and Indiegogo Crowdfunding Platforms.
Let’s help these fuzzy pets make it home.
