I remember being a child, somewhere around 7-8-9 years old. One day, I’ve gone to my dad’s furnishing factory, he was an entrepreneur leading a small team of less then 15 people, and on his dusty desk there was a lot of paper and a banner with this quote:
“Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.”
I felt he was handling a heavy load and that I had to help somehow. Thus, in that same moment I started to tidy up, polish off and even tried to pick up inbound phone calls that was a real challenge for me because I’ve been always a very shy kid.
I also asked him to start working side by side with the other artisans, and that’s how I’ve begun spending part of my Saturdays and Summers in the factory. I’ve learned a lot about wood, sand and paint, and that there is a difference in the outcome when people do just an average job or they apply the research of excellence into the work.
It happens that all most 35 years later I was hired by a marketplace that is supporting small and medium enterprise to attain online visibility, find new customers and procure new and better providers.
Only nowadays, I am able to understand how that experience was useful and formative: because I am coming from the same background of our target users, living the shed, sharing the same challenges and pain points, and thanks to that I can now create better advertising and communication campaigns.