Sep 30, 2024 – By Iliya Shekarchi

Intro (My Entrepreneurial Experience’s So Far)

Growing up, I was born and raised in a family filled with entrepreneurs. My parents immigrated to this country around 40 years ago, and 30 years ago, they opened an Iranian restaurant that is still successful and running to this day. Not only were my parents working there full time, but often my uncles, grandparents and cousins would all work there too, as it is truly a family business. As a child, I was practically in the restaurant all day with my parents, since it was difficult for them otherwise to keep me at home with no supervision. Due to this, I grew up with a large entrepreneurial spirit since I was always inspired by my parents to follow in their footsteps and carry on their legacy, and was able to get a deeper look at what it truly takes to be a successful entrepreneur, since in many people’s eyes, entrepreneurship is often very different then they would think, and in reality, running your own business (especially a restaurant) is one of the most difficult, and time-consuming things you can do.

The Next 12 Months

Since I grew up this way, it has always been my goal to expand the family business and take it to a new level that would make my parents proud. Therefore, my goal for the next 12 months is to gather as much knowledge as possible in order to complete this goal. Since it is also my final year of university, I’m hoping that after I graduate, I will be able to work in the restaurant full-time and give it my undivided attention, with the new knowledge I have gained from my studies at Capilano University.

The Next 1-5 Years

In the next 1-5 Years, I am hoping to be working in the restaurant full-time. Although I’ve worked there at many different points in my life, for different periods of time, I’ve never had the opportunity to be there full-time for an extended period of time. Due to this, my first year working there will be spent gathering all the knowledge about the industry and what it takes to be successful. As my parents have now retired, the restaurant is being run by my older sister and her husband, I will spend this first year being mentored by my brother in law, and sister, on how to do things right, and the ways they have changed the business plan over the years of them taking over. After this initial year of gathering information, my goal for the next 4 years will be to slowly go into expansion, and start taking over aspects of the business that I have strengths and knowledge in, such as social media management, website management, and so on.

The Next 6+ Years

While Attempting to envision what my life will look like in the next 6+ years, I found it difficult to get a clear picture. However, my overall goal would be to have the ability to say I worked in the restaurant for years and was able to personally help and play a big role in the expansion and taking it to new heights my parents didn’t think was possible. Currently, we are at a single location and are planning on renovating and expanding this location soon. However, my goals after I have spent 6 years working there, would be to have completely revamped our social media pages and website (online presence), and to have at least one more location opened that is successful and running on its own. Oftentimes, when expanding, it can be extremely difficult to manage multiple locations by yourself, as I have seen this with my parents in the past when they have attempted expansion. Therefore, it is another one of my goals to hire the correct people that I can trust to run these locations full-time.

Reflection On The Entrepreneurial Potential Self-assessment

Self-confidence/enthusiasm

Self-confidence gives us a belief in our abilities and helps us take pride in ourselves. A self-confident person knows their own worth and is optimistic that they can succeed.

Minimum score: 4

Average score: 13

Maximum score: 16

13

After seeing this score on the levels of my self-confidence, it reassured me that I am indeed going down the correct path, as I believe when becoming an entrepreneur, one of the most important abilities one can have is self-confidence.

Tolerance towards ambiguity/resistance to stress

This is an important characteristic of an entrepreneurial profile. People who can tolerate ambiguity can handle and manage the stress created by uncertainty. They are very adaptable.

Minimum score: 6

Average score: 19

Maximum score: 24

22

This was another score I was extremely pleased with, as with entrepreneurs, you are often forced to the one in the business that is forced to deal with the stresses, therefore knowing I have scored highly in this area, gives me confidence knowing I’ll be able to handle most situations thrown my way!

Link To My Full Results-https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uX3xRhsaGS8ipcOQ_WFDC-YL2ApR1Qb2SUprxf5dScI/edit?usp=sharing

Conclusion

When looking for a quote that would best fit my situation, I came across this quote by Steve Jobs, which read “I’m convinced that about half of what separates successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” This quote spoke largely to me, since I have seen it firsthand, that the thing that made my parents successful above all, would be to persevere through challenges, and always have self-belief. This is a quote I will carry on with myself as I go through my entrepreneurial journey and something I plan to call back on during difficult situations.

References:

Lister, Abigail. “10 Motivational Quotes from Famous Entrepreneurs.” BusinessBecause, BusinessBecause, 1 Oct. 2024, www.businessbecause.com/news/entrepreneurs/6302/10-motivational-quotes-from-famous-entrepreneurs.