3A: Entrepreneurship Story


Robert Rodriguez
May 21, 2019
ENT3003
Prof. Pryor
Entrepreneurship Story
My Entrepreneurship story begins in a way that many other American stories of Entrepreneurship have, Immigration. Though, perhaps uniquely, my family has entangled itself with the Entrepreneurial spirit long before my father eventual Immigration to the United States. My family is from El Salvador, a small tropical country in Central America. My grandmother was a hardworking woman who founded many entrepreneurial ventures throughout her life. She ran a small store in the front room of her home, where my mother would come to work, she sold food and handmade dairy products, she bought, sold and cared for cattle in a country that didn’t allow women to attend the public cattle markets. My grandmother’s most significant business venture was leveraging her US residency to transport food, money, gifts, and products from El Salvador to the US and back. Consistently taking 25-30 bags of luggage internationally multiple times a month up to the early 2000s.
My father was orphaned at a young age and survived by selling fruits from the jungle and buying and selling cattle. He eventually attended university during the national civil war and worked as a door-to-door salesman for Marlboro (where he met my mother). After getting married they started a butchers shop, which they ran for a couple years, he eventually immigrated to the US. My mother, after having their first child in El Salvador, came to the US years later. They originally lived in Chicago where they both worked as a salesman, my mother selling Royal Prestige cooking ware for a commission, and my father working for corporate Marlboro. Coming from tropical El Salvador, they both hated the climate in Chicago and decided to move to Florida. They both worked as agricultural labor for the first few years. After which, my father ability to speak English, and his customer service skill allowed him to excel into a role in managing labor groups. They started their own contractor company in 2007.
My experience with Entrepreneurship is primarily based on being surrounded by it most of my life. I have been very involved in my parents’ company since I was very young and have also started my own company in 2018. I enrolled in ENT3003 because I thought it would give an academic vocabulary to many of the things I have experienced throughout my life and give me a formal process to fall back on when my career asks me to take risks.


Comments

  1. Janan CivelekMay 24, 2019 at 8:55 AM

    This is a great story. It is so nice to hear that having parents and family members migrate to the United States to have a different life and pursue something good is a real accomplishment. My dad as well is an immigrant and he would tell me the hardship stories to start a business and become well established. I hope you and your new business the best.

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  2. Nicholas LorenzoMay 27, 2019 at 4:22 PM

    Robert, this post was actually genuinely inspiring and truly insightful to read. I really appreciate and admire the struggles and experiences your family has undergone as I relate to it as well. My family also immigrated to the United States from Latin America, Cuba to be exact, and had to experience extreme hardship in order to adapt to life here in the states. I hope your family's story helps inspire you and drive you going forward!

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