When Lily Born was eight years old, she had noticed that her grandfather, with Parkinson’s Disease, was spilling his drinks quite often, leaving her grandmother to always clean up the mess. After she discovered this problem, she wanted to solve it to help her grandparents. So, she came up with the idea of a regular cup but instead with a three-legged cup, so it would not tip over. After, years of creating a prototype she finally formed the cup she was looking for and it was ready for production.  She called her company Imagiroo LLC. Her and her dad exposed themselves to other cultures around the world to refine the model, and possibly find a manufacturer. She has sold over $100,000 worth of cups. Problem solving does not always need to be world changing, nor will your solution be immediately recognized, it takes even a small solution and hard work to change the lives of people around you. She was just eight years old when she thought, how can I help my grandparents through this (minor) problem, yet she has help so many by selling her Kangaroo Cup.

Are You Kidding Socks made by Brandon and Sebastian Martinez started as entrepreneurs at age 15 (Brandon) and age 13 (Sebastian) through their love of creating and designing their own line of socks. Quickly after discovering this passion they had, they decided to take this passion and make a difference for others. They decided they could make fun and colorful socks to raise funds and spread awareness for local and national charities such as Stand Up To Cancer and Autism Speaks and many others. They found a creative way to give back to the community by creating fun socks. They also strived to inspire people to follow their passion while also helping others along the way. Something as simple as socks can change millions of people’s lives. Socks are not unheard of, everyone has socks and everyone NEEDS socks, however, they found an innovative way to sell their socks and help important causes. You do not need to have a completely original idea to be creative or innovative. You can use the resources around you to do something amazing and spread a beautiful message along with it as well and they portrayed this in an awesome way.

A little background about Hannah Grace was that she was 11 months old when she was first diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Because of this, she grew up very determined to do everything she set her mind to. Her family saw how hard-working she was and said they could see her someday becoming an entrepreneur and that’s just what she did. In January 2016, she began making her first bath bombs. She used a popular platform Youtube and began sharing her bath bombs there. She went to a local shop and asked if they would be willing to sell it. After review, the local shop liked what she had and began selling it and began posting it on their social media. Local newspapers started calling and they made a website for her. Hannah Grace sought out a passion that she had and pursued it. It was something she enjoyed doing and something amazing was able to come from it such as bath bombs and an amazing story. Through the help of her family and her determined, fearless mindset, she was able to do what she loved and turn it into a business and we should all learn from her that you can do whatever you set your mind to.

Ryan Hickman at the age of three realized the love he had for collecting and recycling cans. Because of this, Hickman at a very young age began collecting his family’s recyclable and cans and would go with his dad to the local recycling center. After this, his desire to collect grew stronger and he began collecting his neighbors recyclable with a bike and a bag tied to the back of it. By age 7, Hickman began running his own business called Ryan’s Recycling Company. Ryan has customers all over Orange County, California. This most unique thing about this entrepreneur is his age, even at age 3 he saw a problem and knew how it could be fixed through his love of collecting recyclable and this is what really drives him and his company, his passion for saving cans and helping others. What is especially interesting is the help he got for making this company, his parents were willing to work and use his passion to make something great and this is innovation as well as includes entrepreneurial traits. At age 3, Hickman noticed a problem, that some people do not care about recycling. However, he has a deep love for it and wanted to use that for the good of the environment so he solved it by starting out small, simply using a bike and a bag, and growing into something bigger like a company. This inspired me because truly anyone can be an entrepreneur, and typically something that keeps us from pursing a great idea is fear, but when you are a kid fear does not hold you back. Even the most simply problem can be solved and grow into something amazing and Ryan Hickman really shows us a great example of that.

Ever heard of the online store called Etsy? If you have I am sure you love handmade, meaningful products. But have you ever wondered where Etsy began? The story starts with Rob Kalin. Rob Kalin is known as a “self made entrepreneur” and his story began with his love of making things. He once said when describing Etsy, ” I see the company itself as a handmade project” and he hopes it is continued in that way. He took his passion that he had in life, and he worked his way up. This is unique in the sense that, he had nothing, but he worked and grew, and learned and became more of an entrepreneur and knew more on how to start a company, he took all of that and started a company. His driving force was a passion and love for handmade and crafted things. This will not only create a product or business that will run well due to the care and effort that is put in, but also creates a deep and personal connection to it as well because he pursued his dream. He demonstrated patience and humility to learn from his experience and took the steps he needed to be truly innovative, by creating a website that many consumers flock toward due to the sustainably and beautiful craftiness to each product. This inspires me to not pay more attention to what the end goal is but rather to learn throughout my journey as an entrepreneur because that is where you will truly learn and grow.

Thanks to Archana Patchirajan, Sonpreet Bhatia, and Puneet Mehta, searching for urban exploration and discovery is made easy with MyCityWay. MyCityWay is made easy by creating a single platform that includes all you may want to know, discover, connect or experience about a location. This platform is available now up to 40 cities worldwide. These three entrepreneurs were immigrants that found a problem with the difficulty of connecting a discovering things in a city and created a solution by making a platform that has everything you may want to know but saving you the time of doing tedious research. They experienced this pain and desired to solve this problem for the many other people who have also felt this way. Something that makes this business model interesting is that it was a very personal problem for them. They found it hard to navigate around New York City, whether it was catching the train, searching a ton of apps to find the best restaurants or finding rides.  They were entrepreneurial by figuring out this common problem and solving it by innovating a platform that is accessible to all and made easy for everyone. These three entrepreneurs have helped me try to create a more personal meaning behind what I am selling. It is more than just an idea, and it is more than how you pitch that idea, rather there is a personal element to it that can really make it come alive through telling either a story that made you figure out your product or background information that help people know more about why you are doing what you are doing.