When Did You Realize You Were An Entrepreneur?

I had an interview the other day, and I received a blindingly simple question. It was so simple yet so incisive that I wondered why I wasn’t asked that question before.

The question was, “At what point in life did you realize that you were an entrepreneur?”

I really wish I had a great childhood story to tell. That I had odd jobs like a lemonade – or Filipino-style, Buko Juice – stand or selling at bazaars. But the truth is I didn’t.

In fact, I’ve often stated my caveat about my entrepreneurial pedigree. My Ma was a successful corporate executive who worked in one company her entire life; My Pa, on the other hand, is a brilliant civil engineer who is more immersed in computations i cannot fathom rather the inner workings of business.

And since I thought that ‘the apple never falls from the tree’, I never really considered the entrepreneurial path as a personal career – and my previous life choices accentuated this point.

I took up a business degree in Ateneo de Manila, and eventually became a corporate guy in a leading multinational. It was the only road on my horizon, and I walked on that road for seven years.

Until I realized – and decided – that it wasn’t for me.

And so I made a go for it, and resigned.

Having said all this so far, I guess I can’t be blamed if I had doubts – especially before taking the leap of faith into this wild and crazy world of entrepreneurship – if I had that entrepreneurial DNA in me. To be honest, the uncertainty of actually making it hung over my head like the Sword of Damocles. I half-expected my head to be cut off in those early months.

But this I guess points to answering the blindingly simple question.

The moment i realized that I was an entrepreneur was when – despite my (lack of) entrepreneurial pedigree, despite my corporate background, despite the comfort and stability of my cushy job – I decided to still make the leap. That I went All In.

I’ve heard it said – reworded loosely – that an entrepreneur is somebody who risks everything in order to capitalize on huge opportunities, without regard for resources currently at hand.

And if so – then at that precise moment that I decided to risk everything because I was consumed by chasing quixotic-ally big opportunities, that I decided that the biggest risk is not to risk at all – that is the moment when I became an entrepreneur.

Now, how about you? At what point in your life did you realize that you were an entrepreneur?