Throughout my life, I have experienced so much yet so little. I have been shaped by experiences like obtaining my first job, starting my business, and always having family living nearby. When I was 14, I desperately wanted to branch off and embark on my journey of finding financial freedom, and my first step was getting a job at an establishment that would hire me. Publix had just announced that they were hiring, and they were right by me, so I filled out the online application and headed to the store to show my interest to the managers. The managers ended up telling me that they were not hiring 14-year-olds at the time, and this was a big blow to my confidence. About a month or so later, I got called in for an interview, and all I was thinking was that, “This is too good to be true”. My interview went so well that they hired me on the spot. Through this, I learned that my confidence was stronger than I expected and that having patience is key. Starting my own business has proven itself to be an experience I’ve learned a ginormous amount from, as I was given an opportunity to utilize my entrepreneurial drive and desire and focus it on something that would bring me intellectual and physical profit. Faced with defeat in the form of being told by the managers at Publix that they weren’t hiring, I did not let myself get dragged down, and instead turned the situation 180 degrees around by “hiring myself” and founding my own business. It was a very challenging time, as I was attempting to start off on the right foot, and the rejection from Publix essentially knocked me down to my knees. Once again, patience was key, and through the creation of Flocking Flamingos PVB, I built upon my entrepreneurial basics and grew my skills in aspects such as marketing, management, and accounting. After starting my own business and managing it online, I developed a passion and interest in the managerial side of business coupled with the technological side of running the system, leading me to major in Management Information Systems. M.I.S. is a degree that is undervalued and seldom pursued as of now, and it is a job that has proven to be quite helpful in the workplace. One with an M.I.S. degree essentially serves as the middleman between the businessmen who specialize in business negotiations and the employees who specialize in the technological aspects of the company, as there is a “language barrier” of sorts between the two. This degree will hopefully set me up to accomplish my career goal of owning and managing my own company, preferably larger and with more employees than my current business. I will strive to bring a fierce entrepreneurial desire along with a great work ethic to whichever company I am employed at, and with my own company, I will spread this mindset throughout not only my own company but society as a whole.