Very Short Interview No. 1

I decided to interview my friend Adam Penias for this interview. He first began DJing when he was 12 years old, and began his event production company, Extreme Productions, one year later. Since then, he has been working at growing his production business, and it is now one of the most successful in South Florida. While he does not exactly fit the qualifications specified by the textbook of what an entrepreneur is, I would absolutely classify him as such. He was able to grow his business throughout high school and into college, to the point where it is recognizable as a professional service that can be used for bar/bat mitzvahs, weddings, and the like. He liked being an entrepreneur so much that he recently opened a new business, a luxury hookah bar in Hollywood, Fl. The bar, MYXX, has already shown great promise and is starting to amass a loyal following of hookah smokers.

The Interview
1. Question: How did you first get your business off the ground?
Answer: I made a small investment of $1000 to get myself started with the beginning equipment. After starting to book more and more events, I slowly began to update and upgrade my equipment. Each event can require different technology, so I try to have a good mix of speakers, amps, and lighting options.
2. Question: What would you say the most important aspect is of running your own company?
Answer: Definitely being responsible. There is no more play time when owning a company. It's 100% effort all the time. It can be hard sometimes because I still want to be social and do well in school, but I always have to think about what is best for Extreme.
3. Question: If you could go back to the beginning before you started your business, is there anything you would do differently?
Answer: Nope! Everything I've done has brought me to where I am today and I wouldn't change anything. The learning in the beginning was necessary so that I could learn and grow from my mistakes, which led to me avoiding those mistakes in the future.

After talking to Adam, I see now that owning a business at such a young age can really mature a person. I think it shows a lot of dedication that he is forgoing some of the more traditional, "party" aspects of a college lifestyle to make sure that his business succeeds and that his clients remain happy. It also reinforces that the idea of making Principles of Entrepreneurship an experience-based class is a good one. Adam would have never learned all the things he did by reading books about becoming a DJ or owning a business. By doing it through experience, he was able to learn more, and consequently use that knowledge to better himself as an entrepreneur and simultaneously better his business.