My friend Jaime Gottlieb from high school has the most entrepreneurial mind out of any one that I know currently. No matter what day, Jaime was always coming up with ideas and how he would sell them to make money. His main goal probably was to make money as it is for many entrepreneurs, but he genuinely enjoyed the ability to use his many ideas to make profit. I found this intriguing and came to the conclusion there is not necessarily anything wrong in having the goal of making profit. The caveat to that is, your ideas and methods must not be illegal or harmful to others. Ultimately this lead to a Friedman’s ethical model type of thinking when it came to coming up with ideas.

I remember Jaime specifically always selling his paintings or shoe designs out of his locker as a freshman in high school. People used to think he was scamming them (myself included) because it is uncommon for someone so young to have lucrative legitimate business ventures. Jaime would also sell the same designs and paintings to customers outside of our high school in the area and would make hundreds of dollars off his ideas/creations. When I learned of his many successes, I became increasingly interested in his business. Of course, Jaime would come to tell me that he only works alone and that anyone could come up with their own ideas like this and be successful with them. Jaime currently operates a couple businesses of his own though their names currently escape me.

After meeting Jaime I have been inspired ever since to chase my ideas and improve them over time. Many people would not try to act on their ideas at such a young age in fear of failure. Jaime never fears failure and only looks at everything as a new experience. This is now how I view any business venture or life experience as well. A failure is only a new experience and a lesson of how not to do something in the future.