Help a Veteran Become an Entrepreneur – Become a Mentor

By Montrie Rucker AdamsJuly 8, 2013 Blog entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, veterans

On this July 4, we not only celebrated our freedom, but we also needed to celebrate those individuals who helped us keep our freedom – our Military personnel and Veterans.

These brave individuals put their lives on the line for us – and are doing it even as we gathered with family and friends, enjoyed our BBQ meals, games, fun and activities. When they come home, what will they see and experience? For those who left jobs behind, they may or may not have them when they return.

If they don’t have a job when they return and if they are injured, it will make their transition a little harder.

Have you considered helping our Veterans? Did you know that many are college graduates, have learned excellent skills while serving our country, and have a great work ethic.

On July 1, I saw an article entitled, “Entrepreneurship Bootcamp Give Wounded Veterans a New Life” (http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227306). The EBV Program offers training in entrepreneurship and small business management to soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines wounded while serving or supporting combat operation in Iraq or Afghanistan. On their website, it states that their mission is to:

Raise donations and provide funds to the participating schools for their EBV programs.

Provide mentors to participating veterans to assist in the development of their business plans.
Provide seed capital to veterans to start their business.

Interested? To become a mentor, visit their website at – http://www.ebvfoundation.org/index.php?page=become-a-mentor. That’s it! But, if you are unable to become a mentor, you can still support the program by making a donation here – https://www.ebvfoundation.org/index.php?page=make-a-donation.

Don’t forget our military personnel… they haven’t forgotten about us.

Lessons from Being an Apprentice

By Montrie Rucker AdamsJune 7, 2013 Blog apprentice, donald trump, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, forbes, pr, public relations, the enstitute

MontrieandDeB — Dr. DeBorah Thigpen and Montrie Rucker Adams

When I had “officially” made up my mind to start Visibility Marketing Inc., it was after being down-sized from a sales engineer career. I knew if I didn’t switch gears now, I may be forever beholden to the automotive industry.

I met my mentor, DeBorah Thigpen at a Toastmasters meeting. In her introductory speech, she mentioned she’d just moved to the area and was opening a public relations office. The light bulb immediately went off. We talked after the meeting and I started working for D. Thigpen & Adsociates a few weeks later.

That was my foray into the world of apprenticeships. This was the early ‘90s so the Internet was just starting, there was no Google, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. I learned at lot about the public relations industry by doing. It was all new territory for me.

Thanks to Donald Trump, there’s a new face to working as an apprentice. I read this blog on Forbes entitled, “The Apprentices: Learn-By-Doing Entrepreneurship At Enstitute” – http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2013/04/17/the-apprentices-learn-by-doing-entrepreneurship-at-enstitute-2.

Although it is long, it’s an interesting story about The Enstitute, “where 11 wannabe entrepreneurs, aged 18 to 25, are packed in a Lower Manhattan loft.”

If that opportunity was available to me years ago, I may have jumped at the chance to at least apply. As I mentioned before, you can watch someone swim, but you can’t do it unless you jump in.

I am forever grateful to Ms. Thigpen for opening her doors to a “wanna be” public relations professional. She wasn’t the first in the industry I’d approached. There were other public relations firms. However, she was the only one willing to assist me in my goals…while at the same time getting the help she needed.

What College Didn’t Teach Me about Being an Entrepreneur

By Montrie Rucker AdamsJune 5, 2013 Blog college, college experience, entrepreneur.com, entrepreneurship, learning

My college was a rite of passage. Not only was I able to cultivate life-long relationships, but coming from a homogenous environment, it thrust me into a new demographic dimension.

I majored in business with the thought of one day being an entrepreneur. In those days, there weren’t specific classes about owning a business, you took the courses that were geared to Corporate America and if you were lucky enough to know or work for an entrepreneur, you learned the ropes from there.

I come from a family of entrepreneurs. However, just watching someone swim wont’ cut it. You only learn by getting in the water.

College grads today who have a passion for entrepreneurship have many choices. They don’t necessarily have to “work somewhere else” before venturing out, they can just jump right in.

I was reading the Young Entrepreneur area of Entrepreneur.com today and came across a thought provoking blog entitled, “10 Entrepreneurship Lessons College Didn’t Teach New Grads by Adam Toren. In his blog he noted several things about the college experience that just won’t cut in the world of an entrepreneur.

One thing he mentioned, there’s no skipping class. Being an entrepreneur means that you have to go to work every day – whether it’s an office or your dining room table. Where ever you work, that’s where you need to be each and every day – come rain or shine…. even at night, and even on occasional weekends.

Check out Adam’s blog in its entirety here to see some of the other things “college didn’t prepare you for”… you may even find that you have a few more things to add to the list.

After you check it out, let me know what you think…