YoungEntrepreneurOnline.com

Entrepreneurial Discovery - Avi Zuber

2010-02-10T06:04:00.000-08:00

My name is Avi (pronounced AAH-vee) Zuber. I grew up in primarily in Boston, MA and came to Israel in 2005. I chose the word "came" in place of the "move" because at the time of my arrival in Israel, I really only had the intention of staying for a few months. At the time, I was greatly unaware of most of the beautiful aspects of my heritage. I began to study and after ten months, knew I needed more. I returned back to the States for the summer and flew back to Israel for another academic year. During this time was I simultaneously enrolled in a Liberal Arts program through SUNY's overseas program. My second year of study was followed by a third, this time at a different institution. During which time I married my high-school sweetheart, Hannah, and finished my degree. My marriage was, and is, going tremendously well, but everything else seemed to fall apart.

Before we got married I was set up with a career position at the very same institution in which I studied for those first two years. It was a quasi-administrative, quasi-educational position in which I would be educating and inspiring teenagers studying abroad for a year. I underwent life coach training to secure the position, during which time the institution faced grave financial difficulties and shut down.

At this time, I had just turned 21 years old. My wife, who was expecting our son at the time, was (and still is) a full time student in nursing school. So without a job and no real work history, facing a language barrier in a foreign country, I began to attempt to figure out how I was going to pay the bills. We received a tremendous amount of help and love from our parents, but as the US economy began fall in to recession, I felt that money from overseas would be short lived.

I decided to take my life coach training and use it to my advantage. I formed a mental health group along with three professionals. We needed a website, so I taught myself web design and low-level programming. I was contacted by a man named Nadav Reis who offered to re-build my website for free, since he was starting to pick up his web development service and wanted to spruce up his portfolio. I turned down his offer, but began to explore exactly what it was he was doing. To make a long story short(er), this lead me in to the world of graphic design and web development.

At this time I formed my first company, BSDinc (BSD stands for an Aramaic phrase b'siyata Dishmaya and has no relation to BSD). The company served as a platform for my various projects. I had the life coaching business, a couple of social networks, a graphic and web studio, and a full time job doing grunt work in an office while I waited for the money to start flowing in. BSDinc made the news and for the first time I saw the word "entrepreneur" printed next to my name. I really had no clue what that meant, or would mean, at the time. I won't bore you with the details of my BSDinc plan, but I will say it took me close to a year to find out that it's much better to do one project really well than 20 projects halfheartedly.

A successful CEO named Richard Kligman offered me free advice and began showing me the ropes of the entrepreneurial world. He gave me a couple of projects to work on, which resulted in great failure and a tremendous learning experience on my part. Looking back, I began to realize that I had been an "entrepreneur" all along. From my earliest summer jobs as a kid, throughout high school, and during my higher educational career, I always had to be doing something productive and innovative or I would immediately begin hating my position. When I worked in a resturant, I spent most of my time figuring out how to make the place look nicer and how to draw in more customers - they were only paying me to take people's orders, which is possibly why I was promoted to a managerial position shortly after beginning work. When I was enrolled as a student, I would approach the administration with various projects i felt would value the student body and formed a cleaning company to keep my fellow students and I occupied and employed in between semesters.

I now have a growing company called DeskElf. I developed DeskElf as a reliable alternative to conventional outsourcing. I developed DeskElf so I can employ people who enjoy doing data entry, graphic design and web development. I developed DeskElf because after a couple of years of failure (and a tremendous build up of gratitude for a superbly supportive wife) I've discovered that I don't do well doing 9-5, cubicle work, but I do very well developing ideas, bringing dreams in to reality and making production happen.

Today is my 23rd birthday (I celebrate the Hebrew calendar date) and I am proud to say that I am thankful to God, my wife, my parents, my in-laws and the rest of my friends and family for helping me become a successful CEO, a loving husband and father, and a passionate entrepreneur.

Thank, Brock Predovich (founder of this blog) for the opportunity to share my story.

Avi Zuber

Co-Founder/CEO
DeskElf, LLC
www.DeskElf.com

Making a Difference - Nicholas Lumpp

2010-02-02T23:39:00.000-08:00

Hello, My name is Nicholas Lumpp, co-founder of the Somaly Mam Foundation (Somaly.org). A non-profit organization brought together to fight against the $12-billion a year human trafficking and sex slave industry. This is my story.

Peering out the window of the 737, I spotted a little terminal across the runway. I squinted, my eyes struggling to stay open after an exhausting 19-hour flight to the other side of the world. I had not even thought about that a week later I would be co-founding an organization with one of the greatest leaders and most influential people of our time. I nudged Jared, who was sound asleep in the stool next to me. "We're finally here!"

It all began over a plate of overpriced sushi in Laguna Beach, California. For well over a year, Jared and I had frequently discussed the horrific stories we had heard in the news and watched in documentary films about the global sex slave trade. We had read about small girls who were trafficked across borders, bought and sold like property, and forced to have sex with multiple clients every night. We had discovered a $12 billion-per-year criminal industry that is for the most part hidden and ignored. Most Americans don't even know that the United States is the second largest trafficking location. It was a world that baffled and angered us. How can something so horrific be happening in the same world we live in, right? A remarkable thing happened that night at the sushi bar that would forever alter our lives; we promised from that day forth, to no longer sit idly by, we promised that night to make a difference.

We hadn't planned on bombarding Somaly with questions right away, but we could not wait to get the answers we had come so far to find. She spoke in broken English, having taught herself the language in less than a year with no formal training. Her personality, charisma and character lived up to every bit the legend we had envisioned before our trip. Her words, her energy and her passion inspired me in a way I had never before felt. She shared stories more terrifying than you can imagine and then there was complete silence as we contemplated the seriousness of this situation and our role in helping. Dropping us at our hotel, they left us with a warning that we were in for an intense experience in the upcoming week. This was surely an understatement.

We anxiously located our bags, and swiftly moved through customs and hurried outside to find Somaly Mam and one of her staff members waiting for us with a sizable sign reading, "Greenberg, Lumpp." They greeted us with warm smiles and a customary bow of respect. We followed their lead and then jumped in to the air-conditioned automobile, pleased to have escaped the hot sun and humid air.

The name Somaly Mam meant nothing to us until a week before we had plane tickets to visit her in Cambodia. A short clip on Anderson Cooper 360 on YouTube intrigued us to learn more and finally contact her. The first news story I read detailed her achievements that led to her becoming Glamour Magazine's Woman of the Year. The next news story was about her experience carrying the Olympic flag in the 2006 Olympic Games. She seemed like a celebrity to me. Then I read the third news story and suddenly the words "Somaly Mam" meant something more. That name began to take shape as a representation of remarkable bravery and leadership..

Somaly's past is more horrific than someone I have ever known. She was abandoned and raped when She was 12 years elderly. By the age of 15, they was sold in to a brothel where they was made to have sex with 5 or 6 clients every night. She described one times when two unassuming men came together, but then took her someplace unfamiliar where 20 men gang raped her. However, somewhere and somehow this brave woman found the strength to escape her slavery and start an organization that would rescue and rehabilitate girls with the same circumstances. Her remarkable bravery can best be described by listening to her own words:

"Our job is dangerous. Once this man who ran a brothel put a gun to my temple; he was angry that I'd talked to his girls. He told me I was a (expletive), and that he was going to kill me. Last December we rescued 89 women and children in a police raid on a big hotel. But the pimps went to our shelter and grabbed them back. The next day they threatened to come back with grenades. I phoned everyone I could for help, but I was told I'd gone too far - I had bothered powerful people. I make a point of going to see the criminals who threaten me. I have to show them I'm not afraid by talking to them."

We briefly visited Somaly's headquarters, where we met her brave, hard-working staff and coordinated our outing with their AIDs prevention team. The lobby was filled with articles praising Somaly's efforts. I spotted a letter from Condoleezza Rice, and another from Colin Powell. A "U.S. State Department Best Practices Award" was displayed between her picture with Pope John Paul II and three of her with Hillary Clinton. Three of her staff members could sense our interest. "The Queen of Germany calls her often," they said.

'Why hadn't I heard of Somaly Mam earlier;" I thought to myself.

Our first stop was the red light district of Phnom Penh. Images of deteriorating buildings and muddy streets littered with trash still linger in my mind. One of Somaly's bodyguards accompanied Jared and I wherever we went. Most of the brothel owners know Somaly and plenty of would like to kill her. At all times, they had to be ready to leave at a moment's notice. It's easy to see the inspiration Somaly is to the girls in the brothels. The girls get so excited when Somaly comes to visit them. Somaly is a source of strength and hope for them. She is a symbol of what is possible even if they cannot yet see that possibility in their own minds. A little 12-year-old girl in a pink shirt and flip flops ran to Somaly and hugged her tightly, burying her face in Somaly's waist. The little girl was crying. Her name was Jenny. Somaly told us that the little girl had been raped the night before and that she would be coming with us for medical treatment. The last day of the week we returned to visit Jenny, but she was nowhere to be found. They say she was kidnapped by a foreign casino owner. Even more disappointing is the realization that this is not a rare event. It happens to girls in this part of the world and other similar places every day.

The following day we drove to Kampong Cham to visit the children's shelter. I was shocked to learn how many of the victims under the age of 16 that Somaly had to open a shelter specifically for these children. It just blew my mind. A young girl sat on the front stairs hugging her teddy bear and watching us as we approached the front entrance of the shelter. "Please, God, tell me she is not a victim," I thought to myself. She was so young, she couldn't have been more than 8 years of age now. She was sold in to a brothel at the age of 6. Her virginity was sold to a foreign man for $500. Now she has AIDs and the doctors say she won't live much longer. To her right stood another young girl. "My god!" I said to myself learning that the small child was only 7 years old and had been rescued from a brothel when she was 6. Her pimp kept her in a cage when she wasn't being raped by clients or tortured by the men who ran the brothel. Somaly told us horror stories of how they would cut her arms and put salt in her wounds and how they pulled out her hair and on several occasions pressed nails in to the back of her head. I could not believe it. I quietly suppressed my feelings of anger and sadness as we moved on to see the rest of the shelter before departing for Siem Reap.

After a long day of shocking truths and intimate moments where my seemed to want to drop out of my chest and other moments were my jaw and fists unconsciously clinched out of anger my body was fatigued and tired. However, I could not help but think about the girls stuck in the brothels we had seen in previous days. Before leaving, the girls gave me a necklace and keychain at the park. I will forever treasure these gifts as a reminder of time I spent with them and as a every day motivator to continue my work on the foundation they have inspired me to start. As I walked towards the automobile that would escort us back to our hotel, several of the girls stopped me. Without a word, three of them held out her pinky fingers and gestured for mine. They locked their pinky fingers around mine and made me swear to return to Cambodia to see them again. At this point I realized we were more to them than guests; we were friends. For the first time, I had real names and real personalities to attach to every horror stories I had heard of, read about or watched on tv. On the ride home, Somaly told us stories about what had happened to our new friends before they were rescued. I didn't sleep very much that night, my mind racing, thinking about what we must do to help these poor women and children.

Landmines still cover the fields along the Thai border. It is a problem that Cambodians still deal with every day. We stopped to eat before going to the hotel. Flashbacks of my Air Force Academy survival training ran through my head as the waitress placed the food on our table. A full pigeon, head and all, covered most of my plate. However, there was still plenty of room for turtle and lizard. Later they would be introduced to even finer Khmer cuisine: spiders, crickets and cockroaches.

The following day we were fortunate to visit with a girl in a nearby village who had been rescued, rehabilitated in the Siem Reap shelter and reintegrated back in to a little village where they now runs her own business. First hand we got to see the amazing impact Somaly's programs made in the lives of the women and children she rescued. At the shelter they learned basic literacy skills as well as sewing and basic accounting. The girls were doing so well that it was difficult to believe they had once been slaves, beaten, abused and raped in the brothels with no future. Somaly and her staff continue to follow up with reintegrated girls for two years after they leave the shelter. It is important to help them get on their feet again and gain the strength and experience they need to support themselves and plenty of times their families as well need the help and attention of Somaly and her staff. It was fabulous to see the direct results that come from Somaly's work. After an interview, we bought some items from her shop and continued back to the capitol city.

One can learn a great deal about bravery and leadership from spending merely hours with Somaly Mam. She is the embodiment of everything I have come to appreciate in life; the will to fight for what is right, the bravery to take a stand when no one else will, the strength to take command in the midst of chaos, the integrity to make a difference and the perseverance to find a way. Somaly brings hope to the hopeless, and a new live to those who were, at one time, bound by the shackles of slavery. This woman, this amazing, wonderful women needs no army, no personal wealth, and no elite title to be recorded in history as one of the greatest leaders of our time. She is truly an inspiration for all of us to take command and make a difference.

I will forever recall my trip to Cambodia. I will never forget the courageous woman whose passion to fight for others will never die. Memories of laughing with the girls at Siem Reap, visiting the helpless victims in the brothels, and watching the small girl with her teddy bear on the front porch as they drove away, are constant reminders of what I pick to stand for. For me, it is no longer an option to stand by and watch. Martin Luther King Jr. one time said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. They are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of fate. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

This is why I now fight, in whatever capacity I can, I fight side-by-side with Somaly Mam even though we are thousands of miles apart. As co-founder of the Samaly-Mam Foundation I am continually inspired by the story and impact Somaly Mam has made in the lives of so many and I seek each day to emulate her drive and will to change the world around me.

My Story - Brock Predovich

2010-01-29T23:05:00.001-08:00

Well, If I'm going to create a site about entrepreneurial stories it might as well begin with mine.

My story is quite an odd journey of self discovery that lead me to finally realize my passions and go after my dreams.

As a kid, I grew up in and around the military most of my life. I grew up on military bases around the country. My dad was an officer in the Air Force, and my mother played the supportive role. My dad was career Air Force and retired at 48 years of age after serving 26 years in the Air Force. He then became Mr. Mom as he retired my mom went off to pursue her goals as a teacher and counselor at a small school in Colorado. It is a this point I believe I was exposed to a small dose of entrepreneurship. My dad's life goal was to retire and maintain a small farm. So he did and my two older brothers and I went from city slickers to farm boys in a matter of months. I drove tractors, cut fields, bailed hay, bucked bails of hay onto wagons, raised cattle, raised horses, went to livestock auctions and rodeos. But more then anything I learned the mechanics and economics of small business. Advertising was conducted by a small homemade sign in our front yard; "Hay 4 Sale." Warehousing was completed by days of stacking bail after bail of hay into the hot summer barn. Payments were made by cash, check or a handshake for credit. Prices of hay would go up if we didn't get good rainfall in the summer. Prices of our hay would drop if we didn't properly gather the hay and it got damaged while drying in the field. It was a simple business and honestly very safe for my family. We didn't need the money. Although my dad acted like we were going to starve if we didn't get out in the field and get things done, it was really a hobby farm. Between my dad's retirement and my mother working we were fine. But nonetheless it was a business and taught me the value of hard work.

Although my dad was a farmer, he wasn't very entrepreneurial, and neither was my mother. Both their advice was to get good grades, go to a great college, get a good degree and get in with a good company. More specifically, do all of the above and get into the Air Force. The Air Force will take care of you (which is absolutely true). Before middle school I had planned out my whole life. I would go to the Air Force Academy, play football there, become a pilot in the Air Force, retire, fly for the airlines, then final retire and open a nice safe business one day.

Well as it turned out, I worked hard, I got good grades, I went to college (at the Air Force Academy), and began playing football there. I wasn't as smart as the other kids there but I worked hard. My whole freshman year I averaged about 3 to 4 hours of sleep a night just to get by. My grades weren't great but I was making it. I wasn't the best on the football field but I worked hard and they kept me around. But at some point, I started to become disenfranchised with it all. I started asking myself where will this get me. I'm killing myself, and where will this get me in the end. Three games into my sophomore season, mad because I was sitting on the sidelines and not playing I had had enough. I decided right then and there that I'd quit. I realized at that point that I wasn't enjoying what I was doing at all. The only reason I was playing football was because it was a goal of mine as a kid, and the big thing was that I knew it made my family proud. However, I knew at that point sitting on the sidelines that it was time to be a man and start living for myself. I know this may seem like a inconsequential moment for most but for me, it was life changing. That choice was not an easy one although my family was supportive, I could tell it made them sad. I now look at that choice as the catalyst for the change that has brought me here. It was pivotal because I chose then and there that I would begin to choose what felt right over what I felt I had to do according to my plan. It was then that my previous plan began to crumble. Some choices I made and some choices life made for me.

My junior year, my life changed again. I was playing rugby for the Academy and boxing. I had just received my pilot slot and in a little over a year I would pursue my career as a pilot in the Air Force. However, life had other plans. After rugby season and my first day of boxing practice something happened, earlier that day I was in an unarmed combat class and popped something in my lower back. I was stiff but alright and continued on with my day. I went to boxing practice just fine, grabbed dinner and went back to my room to study. Lying on my bed, belly down, studying something happened. Something slipped and popped in my lower back and instantly my left leg went numb. I tried to get up but couldn't as shooting pain shot up my spine and down my leg kept me still. I found out a week later that I had somehow herniated three discs in my lower back. For two months, I could barely walk to class as I dragged my left leg behind me. I couldn't sit down at the lunch table and had to stand up. In class I had to either stand up or lay down. Some of the most pain I've ever been in. After cortisone shots and physical therapy, I was finally told it would not get better and I had to have surgery. Unfortunately, I would have to miss a semester of school and return home to recover until the following year, but this was when I received my greatest gift.

It was then, during my time away from the academy that some major changes happened. I was then that I met and fell in love with the beautiful women that is now my wife. This amazing girl inspired me beyond anyone I had ever known during one of the lowest points in my life. I shared with her my life plan, about being a pilot, the airlines, making lots of money and one day opening up my own business. However, she kept asking me, "why not start now?" why not make money now. I had no idea what she was talking about at first. My plan was all I knew. All I knew were the words "one day," "one day once I've done all this other stuff then I'll get to do what I want." She just kept asking "why wait?" She saw within me my true passion. But I held on to my plan....until life had other plans. Soon after my surgery I found out that my plan would have to change. My pilot slot was taken away. I was disqualified because of my back injury. No more pilot, no more plan.

Jocelyn, an entrepreneur herself at age 24 didn't let me get discouraged. "Just means life's calling you in a different direction." That was when everything changed. I went back to the academy, among school work, I began studying business, reading Robert Allen, Kiyosaki, Harv Eker, and more. I was voracious, I couldn't get enough. My mind filled with ideas daily and nightly. I was fancinated by business and the idea going after financial goals now rather then "once I retire." A year and half after my surgery, I finally graduated from the Academy and began my career as an officer in the Air Force, just like my dad. I was comfortable, I made good money and I got to dabble in entrepreneur on the side. Jocelyn and I got married and everything was going well. I helped Jocelyn with her business and we worked on ideas together at nights and on weekends. However, life would change again.

The Air Force was going through a force reduction and had to get rid of 40,000 officers/ In my career field alone they were getting rid of half the people. Didn't look good. I loved the military, still love the military, but it didn't look like it would last any longer for me. "Life's calling you in a different direction" Jocelyn said. So this time I answered its call. A year later I was out of the military, not for good, I was lucky enough to secure a spot in the Air Force Reserves (I stilled wanted to serve), but now I was able to go after my passion of entrepreneurship.

A couple months before I got out of the military, Jocelyn and I began kicking around an idea for a website and business. I took a corporate job with RE/MAX International (the HQ) for 11 months as I put together a business plan (business plans are a complete waste of time and paper, but that's another story). After finishing up the plan I soon found an investor, quit my job and went after building the website that would make me a bagillionaire. Right....?

Long story short, a first time entrepreneur, who knew exactly JACK (and Squat went missing), I completely failed, after 15 months, the website was still stalled in development, three of the programmers were fired and one worked on it here and there before finally quiting. I was left over $40,000 in debt. Distraught, I took an Air Force Reserve opportunity and was Activated for 4 months, back in the Air Force again while I planned my next move. The money was good and allowed me to pay off some credit card debt but what was really crucial was the time it bought me. It was during that time that I realized the skill-set that I had developed in my first year and a half of entrepreneurship. I had failed but I had learned a great deal from it.

More importantly, while waiting for the developers to finish the website, I taught myself a lot about online marketing. My job was to build a list of people that would be beta testers for the website once it was launched. I built a list of over a thousand using social networking techniques, search engine optimization, search engine marketing through Google ads, and others. During my time Activated in the Air Force Reserves, I realized the value and potential in this skill. I realized that very few people knew how to do this, how to drive traffic and generate qualified leads online. So instead of wasting time writing another stupid business plan, I went to work. Nights and weekends, I formulated ideas and systems to scale this business quickly and create potential for real wealth.

The result, after ending my Active Duty Tour in the Reserves I went to work using my system. In the first month of business I had generated almost $30,000. More than half of what I used to make in the military or working for RE/MAX during an entire year. Today things just keep getting better. Beyond my current business of social media and internet marketing, I've several developing projects, all using the same formula geared towards rapid deployment.

My life now is much different than the life imagined by that little boy on the military base or that young man on the farm. It's much different than that football player on the sidelines ever imagined and reaches higher than that aspiring pilot ever could have soared. Life played it's part, and I made some important decisions, but most importantly, I showed up! I never gave up and with the help of my wife I answered the call of my deepest passion. They say that 90% of success is just showing up. Not making excuses or giving up. That's what got me through and what continues to get me through. Having and idea or dream and showing up for it, working on it failing, trying again, succeeding. If entrepreneurship is calling, if you got an itch, I'm telling you, just show up. Take that first step, and take the next step, stumble, fall, get up, but keeping stepping forward. Life will take care of the rest as long as you keeping showing up.