Very Short Interview No. 1

The entrepreneur I am interviewing is my boyfriend’s grandfather Antonio Moreira, he moved from Oporto, Portugal to Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela in 1955. Where he founded Agua Clarita (clear water) a bottled water company, at the time and until this day is the biggest drinking water company in the southern part of Venezuela. To me, he is an entrepreneur because he is an innovator for his time. He saw his opportunity to build his own company by buying a small piece of land. Where he risked it all for the profit he hoped for. The company grew and is still going strong to this today that is why I consider him an entrepreneur.

Question 1: What do you think I should learn in an entrepreneurship course?

            “In my day we did not have courses that taught you how to be an entrepreneur, it was something that came from within you and your own willpower. Taking an entrepreneurship course should help you learn how to manage and how to evaluate your risk better. When I was growing up you had to take chances and hope for the best, no one was there to tell you if what you were doing was right or wrong. I have had a lot of losses in my lifetime but experience always came with it. I could have been smarter about some of them but I did not know any better. So that would be an important concept to learn from an entrepreneurship course.”

Question 2: What do you wish you had been taught in school before setting out on your own path as an entrepreneur?

            “Not to be so eager and jump on the first opportunity that comes along. When you are young and starting you are excited about the future but it is always better to sit down and let someone guide you. I wish I had been taught how to establish a strategic plan and how to write business plans. These are things I had to learn on my own.”

Question 3: What does it mean to be an entrepreneur?

“To be an entrepreneur means going after something you feel passionate about and facing the challenges that come with it. Having a vision to see yourself in the future and never stopping because there is always something you could do to improve. Taking on the failed experiences is also part of it because once you fail there is always room to get back up. Having the mindset to revolutionize yourself or your situation is an entrepreneur to me.”

From conducting this interview, I learned that life is a gamble and sometimes you have to risk it all and trust in yourself and your abilities. You cannot get discouraged if the first time you fail because when you fail you learn from your own experiences and you grow as an individual. I also learned that not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur and it is not always a happy ending. Something I found surprising is that being an entrepreneur is hard and time-consuming while the ideas are just starting it is just you doing the job of 20 people put together. Once you have something established and growing on its own you never stop worrying and thinking about ways you could improve. While many small business owners go home, sleep and relax the entrepreneur fills their head with ideas and designs to better the company or product.