The Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour was brought to Bakersfield College by the Students in Free Enterprise club (SIFE) on April 29. The event was titled “Frame UR Future.”
The event took place at the Forum from 2:30 p.m. to roughly 7 p.m. While people were walking into the forum, outside were tables asking students to register for the event in order to keep track of what age group they were serving, said Tue Larsen, 24, assistant tour manager.
While registering for the event, the audience was given backpacks with pamphlets and goodies inside; also, T-shirts were handed out by the American Free Enterprise Dream Big campaign sponsored by the US Chamber of Commerce. The campaign offers practical advice from top young entrepreneurs.
SIFE is the business club at BC, and the reason why they brought the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour was to “inspire those to have courage and go out and develop their own business and to receive advice to help with the journey to success,” said the club adviser, Gail Richardson. “The EET is fairly new and we met them when the SIFE team went to the Chicago Collegiate Entrepreneur Organization Conference.”
The EET is a collegiate entrepreneurship speaking tour, and according to Richardson it is known to “help people make their dreams into reality,” she said. “One of the problems of starting your own business is that you don’t really know what to do and we are hoping that this will aid you.”
The event consisted of enthusiastic speakers sharing stories and answering questions. Audience interaction was more than encouraged; in fact it was somewhat required. While people were filling up the seats, there was a presentation highlighting entrepreneurs, quotes from young entrepreneurs and great inventions of the world.
Arel Moodie, co-owner of The Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour, professional speaker, young entrepreneur and author, shared some of his life story with the audience and offered steps to follow in order to accomplish a goal.
“Step one is to commit to something. Step two is to find or learn the proper technique. Step three is to find people to use as inspiration. Step four is to face your fears and just jump,” he said.
“Our goal is to leave you here with the inspiration and tools for you to start making money and leave you knowing that if opportunity does not knock you need to build the door,” said Moodie.
The EET’s goal is to demonstrate that anybody, especially young people, can create tremendous innovation, wealth, and impact in today’s global and rapidly evolving technology world, according the EET’s founders’ letter.
The first keynote speaker of the event was Robert Nicholson. He shared the story of his success as well.
“I was the fourth out of six kids and so my dad had a rule that once you turned 18, you had to leave the house. When I turned 18, I felt lost and the future made no sense,” he shared.
Nicholson wanted to buy a house and asked his father for advice only to hear him say, “‘Son, there’s a place called the library, go there. In the library they have these things called books and in those books they teach you how to buy a house,’ and so I went.” That’s how he came across the book that inspired him, “Rich Dad Poor Dad.”
Nicholson graduated from Ohio State University in 2009. He advised surrounding yourself with people that you can relate to because those who you associate with will affect your future.
“Having the right people around you is the most important thing to an entrepreneur,” Nicholson said.
After the first keynote speaker, Moodie continued talking to the audience and shared more words of wisdom, “The more you do, and the more you fail, the better off you’ll be.”
When speaking on how to start you own business, Moodie compared it to playing a sport.
“When learning how to play a sport, you learn by practicing and the business world is no different. Chances are your first business will fail but you will learn from it,” Moodie said. “The key to start a business is doing something you would for free but doing it so well that people pay you for it.”
He also advised to share goals with as much people as possible because the majority will want to help. “People will not steal your ideas,” he joked.
The second keynote speaker, Lauren Berger, also shared her story of success to inspire and prove that it is possible even when others may tell you it’s not. She gave a few tips to the audience about landing your first internship. Berger is the creator of Intern Queen Inc., a website with the goals to raise internship awareness. She held 15 internships throughout her four years in college and therefore offers tips and connects students with internships. According to the tour’s pamphlet, Berger has interned at FOX, NBC, MTV and BWR public relations. She shared that all of her internships were obtained by being persistent and taking advantages of the resources available.
The event also held a panelist that answered audience questions and helped with their ideas.
Daryl Dean B. Santos, 20, business administration major and Cal State Bakersfield student, has been part of the SIFE club for about two and half years. He said that he got valuable information from the event and reassurance on the fact that everything is possible.
“If these entrepreneurs can create businesses and become successful before their thirties, why in the heck can’t I do as well or even better,” Santos said enthusiastically.
The BC SIFE club has meetings twice a week on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., and everyone is welcome to join and do not necessarily have to be a business major. Contact them through [email protected] for more information. To learn more about the Dream Big campaign, you can visit www.freeenterprise.com and for more detail on what the EET is all about you can visit www.extremetour.org.