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If you hear a voice within say that you cannot paint, then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. Vincent Van Gogh I was the type of person who was very affected by peoples’ opinions of my ideas. If I presented a business idea to someone, and he or she started to shoot it down…it bothered me! Now it doesn’t. I simply consider what the person has said; think it through, and make my own decision in the end.
Consider the people who were told that their idea would not work…and then went on to be great! For example Charles Darrow, the inventor of the game Monopoly, was given several reasons why his game was not a good idea. Interestingly enough, it was Parker-Brothers who told him this. In the end however, Darrow’s tenacity and persistence won out. Fred Smith was told that his idea to outdo the US Postal Service wasn’t very practical. FedEx is now a household name. Studies showed that Americans were not interested in the type of cookies that Debbie Fields wanted to sell. Need I go on? Debbie Fields’ cookies are now known across America as some darn good cookies. And the number of locations are in the hundreds. The list goes on and on. It’s the voice within that truly matters. If you are telling yourself that you can do it…then you can do it. If you are telling yourself that you can’t…then you can’t. One of my favorite sayings (I love quotes) is “whether you think you CAN or you think you CAN’T, you are right!” Henry Ford In December 2002, Movie Towne was launched in Trinidad. I always think back to the time when the place was being built, and I learnt that we Trinis (and visitors) would have to pay $35TTD for ONE movie, not two, but one movie. Honestly I just didn’t see how that was going to happen. And I distinctly remember a friend of mine saying that it would not work. “Trinis are not paying $35 for one movie” he said, convinced that he was right. It was a logical conclusion to come to. We were accustomed to paying no more than $20 for two movies. Now we were going to have to pay almost double the price for one. Yeah right! It has been five years since Movie Towne has opened, and honestly, the car park looks full to capacity almost every night. It’s a pretty good thing Derek Chin (the founder) didn’t run the idea by me or I would have certainly shot it down. Unlike the owner, I didn’t take many things into consideration. Now the old and the young can enjoy a clean, noise free, almost magical movie going experience. What ideas do you have that you are afraid to venture into? Give yourself the necessary pep talk. Do your research. And start. If you fail, try again. Maybe the idea is good but the timing is bad. Maybe the idea and the timing are perfect. You really won’t know until you start something. Start researching topics on your idea. Look and see who is doing the same thing. See how you can do even better than them. Maybe you don’t even have to compete with them. Maybe you can offer them a service to improve on their product. Go after what you want. Pursue your passion. As Thomas Edison said with regards to making the light bulb, I have not failed; I have just found 10,000 ways that will not work. -A Trini Student
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