Was there ever a pessimistic entrepreneur?

I think the answer to this question is defnitely NO. An entrepreneur is one of the most optimistic beasts you will find anywhere and to study them is to learn lessons in perserverance, determination and positive thinking. Thomas Edison, one of history's greatest inventors/entrepreneurs, tried over 1,000 times to perfect the light bulb. When asked about these failures, he is quoted as saying "I did not fail 1,000 times. I've been successful at finding 1,000 ways that don't work." Now that's optimism!

An optimistic mind is churning out entrepreneurial ideas all the time and all you need to do is awaken your senses to the opportunities being presented to you and then act on them!  Acting on them is the key! How many times have you thought of a great idea and then just dismissed it with an "ah, that will never work" or a "someone else is probably already doing that."

For example, my mind presented me this opportunity yesterday. Baxter and I were on our way to Yappy Hour at Barnsley Gardens with Scott. I decided Baxter needed appropriate attire for his introduction to polite society. I remembered I had some cute material with cartoon dogs on it left over from another project. I got it out and whipped him up a new bandanna on my trusty sewing machine. He looked so cute in it!

On the way to Barnsley (I get a lot of good ideas in the car) my mind said loudly you should start a business selling doggy bandannas and call it Dana's Doggy 'Dannas. After arriving at Barnsley and doing some serious walking and tree-peeing...I think Baxter peed on every tree, bush and post at Barnsley - I didn't pee on any...we went into the gift shop to meet the new buyer/decorator and admire her merchandising talents. While talking with Marka she mentioned she was going to do a doggy shop at Barnsley with dog collars, leashes, clothing, etc. So I said "Well, I could do some bandannas for you to sell in the shop." She thought that was a GREAT idea and voila!! My first client!

On the way home Scott and I discussed the idea and we decided to name my new venture "Tinkle Toots" which is Baxter's nickname because, after all, he was my inspiration. I've got tons of material left over from my last entrepreneurial venture selling purse covers...which was going GREAT by the way until the company who sells the purses told me to "cease and desist." I still think it was a pile of crap, but I digress. That's a whole other story. So, I'll start with that material, see what sells and expand from there. I'm very excited about it! We'll be selling some on eBay, Etsy and I plan on opening my own online shop too.

So, the moral of this story...listen to that inner voice when it suggests something to you. You might have just stumbled across the next great idea! And won't you be mad if someone else follows their intuition and makes a fortune off of your idea??