Your Entrepreneurship Story

My Entrepreneurship Story

My parents are entrepreneurs with their own private ophthalmology practice. When my father was young his father died, and his mother told him and his siblings that they would have to work themselves to get what they want in life, and be responsible for their own futures. My dad worked his way through college getting bachelor’s degrees in biology and chemistry, and then later a master’s in chemistry. He wasn’t happy being a chemist, so he applied to med school and got in. After finishing med school, his residency and fellowships, he began working for other ophthalmologists in their practices. As he worked, he took notes from how these other ophthalmologists successfully ran their practices. Eventually after working years with other doctors, he felt that he learned enough to open his own practice. He signed a lease in office space inside of a hospital, and quickly began gaining patients. My mom worked as his office manager, and to this day just the two of them run the practice seeing hundreds of patients a year. He told me his success was due to the many years he worked with other doctors, and that during that time he always was asking questions and learning from them. When he opened his own practice, many patients were eager to see him and grow his business. His private practice has grown to where he is constantly booked months out, and has done this using no advertising, just word of mouth by happy patients referring him to their friends and families. My father told me owning his own business is something he has always wanted to do and is proud of what he accomplished. It still takes lots of work, and he and my mom are never off, having to constantly answer patients needs outside of office hours, including on the weekends and when they are on vacation.

I took this class because I want to follow in my parent’s footsteps and run my own business one day. I have a dream of running apartments and rental properties as a side job, and feel like this class could help give me the knowledge that would be needed.