Beth Colt
Among all the speakers who presented in Blackman Hall during the first semester, I was actually most touched by the first speaker who is not a TJX employee or manager. Beth Colt, an entrepreneur who is the starter and owner of a hotel called Woods Hole Inn and a restaurant called Quicks Hole Taqueria located in Falmouth, MA, taught me what courage means.
She graduated from Harvard College, which is a quite high starting point. Although her majors were History and Literature, she had the idea of entrepreneurship before she graduated from the college. She got 600 dollars support from her parents as investment and originated her own business in the college. Although she failed at last because of the inappropriate strategy, she found out the excitement of being an entrepreneur. She had the opportunities and got the work positions in the Wall Street and as film producers, but at last she still decided to quit and start her own business, which is her real interest and what she is fascinatedly passion at.
The environment of the place Colt bought for Quicks Hoe Taqueria was quite awful when Colt first saw it. However, she spent plenty to time, energy and money on it and made it a completely new place. That showed how much Colt was persistent on the career of entrepreneur. Also when the restaurant already achieved some success, she still listened to the customers carefully and did some improvement on reducing the noise in order to keep more loyal customers.
Colt’s story does not say that all of us should give up the opportunity of a stable work position, because everybody has a different blue print of his or her future. However, every of us should learn from Colt the spirit of trying out what you are really interested at. If we fail, it does not matter. What matters is that have you ever really made some effort on your dream, or it is just a dream.