My Entrepreneurship Story

Christmas on Church Street - Dade City 

December 22nd, 2015 was a night that I will always remember. It was the night that I had the opportunity and privilege to play music at an event called Christmas on Church Street. It is a little quaint street located in Dade City, to the north of Tampa. It is an event that has taken place for many years and is usually during the three night span prior to Christmas Day. This street is closed off from traffic and the street is flooded with people of all ages. All of the residents decorate their homes with Christmas lights on this cobble stone road and there are a variety of bands and shows that span throughout the entire street. There are three churches that are located on this street where different musical guests play each night, and this year my church and I had the honor of being one of the guests at one of these churches.

The reason why I selected this as my entrepreneur story is because unlike previous events we have done at my church this event solely rested on my shoulders. I was the planner, the executioner and the head honcho of the event. I would not be honest if I didn’t admit this was a lot of responsibility and something that was accompanied with some stress. I was representing my church and its members and I wanted to do them justice along with humbly and honorably representing God with the music and planning of the event. I approached the youth pastor at my church about this idea around October with the idea of doing a collaborative effort with the youth band and the young adult band for the event, which he was extremely excited about. The next step was to check the availability of all the musicians to insure everyone would be able to participate and be in town for the event, which thankfully they were. Then came the longest step which was the setup and design of how the night would run. Dividing the two hour time window into several sets of music proved to be difficult because of selecting the songs and timing how long each of the sets would last. Getting the framework was pretty simple but finalizing it was much more time consuming and took place up until the night before the event. The night before the event we had a three hour practice in which we did a run through of the night. The day we were set to perform was not as hectic as I had anticipated with set up because I had some awesome friends and support that helped the process run as smooth as possible without allowing the process to overwhelm me. But honestly when the lights dimmed and it was time to begin all of the preparation process completely faded and it was awesome to be in the moment and enjoy being able to praise and worship God with some of the best musicians I have ever been blessed to play with and know.  Being able to play a mixture of traditional Christmas songs, such as ‘Away in a Manger’ or ‘O Holy Night’, along with some contemporary worship songs, like ‘Oceans’ or ‘The Stand’, was a great blend for the night of music. I’m still in awe of how the night went and the people that joined us in welcoming the Saviors' birth through song. This event I hope is the first of many that we are able to do at this venue and I look forward to the event in 2016!

As a Business Administration major I’m sure many people would select enrolling in this class out of obligation in order to graduate. Although this is a required course when I chose this major I was so excited for this particular course. Desiring to one day pursue the adventure of opening my own business I knew this class would provide me tools to put me in an entrepreneur mindset. I hope that through this course I am able to truly learn how an entrepreneur tackles challenges and deals with difficulties that can arise along the journey of being an entrepreneur. My entrepreneurship journey doesn’t begin the day I open the doors of my future business, but begins now as I create the mindset and learn the tools needed to one day make my dream a reality.