SEPTEMBER 28, 2014

“I think entrepreneurs are heroes. All new businesses and products start with an entrepreneur’s vision of what could be.”

 

There’s a philosophy we aspire towards here at Acton—to never let our hunger for knowledge run dry. With so much history and change taking place every day, the thought of letting it slip past unnoticed is a profoundly depressing one. It takes a special person to chase after an entrepreneurial dream. In the words of one of our current international students from the country of Georgia, Valeri Tkeshelashvili, “entrepreneurs are heroes.” 

 

By Valeri’s standards, he’s a hero in his own right. He found his way to Acton after finishing one of our online entrepreneurship courses. In the time following the program, it became increasingly clear to Valeri that Acton was his future.

 

“I was looking for a program that was focused solely on entrepreneurship and not on how to work in a corporate structure. Everything about Acton perfectly resonated with my own principles and aspirations.”

 

Valeri’s not new to the trials of entrepreneurship; he started following his entrepreneurial spirit years ago. But as any entrepreneur knows, that journey can end one of two ways, and for most, it often tends towards the worst.

 

“I started my first company in 2006. Since then, I’ve had a long line of start-ups—failures, as well as successes. I learned through trial and error, and made mistakes I could’ve avoided if I’d had some essential tools and concepts.”

The business Valeri started in ’06 was a free tourist guide of Tbilisi, Georgia. His business model was such that it could be supported by paid advertisements, but he soon learned a hard lesson in the world of cash flow—sometimes the stream uncharacteristically dries up.

“I managed to breakeven in two months but soon ran out of money to support my business and was forced to close in six months,” Valeri said. “After this, I thought I’d never make the same mistake again—I was wrong.”

 

History has a knack for repeating itself, and humans have a knack for letting it. But the people who stubbornly challenge history time and time again are often the ones to bring it to a screeching halt. Valeri may have gotten knocked back a few feet, but that didn’t stop him from sprinting forward. 

 

He continued to invest in entrepreneurial ventures and currently owns two businesses: a construction company and another more recent investment involving fleet management solutions for local organizations in his community. Aside from these endeavors, Valeri has also set up a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting science and innovative educational materials. All of these, by the way, have been so far successful.

 

“I invested in the web-based fleet management system while I was at Acton. My investment gave me the chance to put whatever I learned at Acton into immediate practice.”

During his time at Acton, Valeri was continuously able to institute lessons, ideas, and tools directly from the curriculum into his operational companies.

 

People often assume businesses work differently in other countries, but that’s not entirely true. All of Valeri’s businesses are located in the country, Georgia. Yet, the business boundaries we might believe exist in foreign systems are often not unlike our own.

“The only difference I’ve found so far is tax rates. The fundamental concepts and frameworks we learn at Acton are the same everywhere.”

 

What doesn’t exist everywhere is start-up culture. For Valeri, the US represented a unique haven of entrepreneurism because of its desire to value small businesses and create systems for them to grow.

 

“I wanted to experience living in a society with the highest spirit of entrepreneurship, to benefit from meeting successful entrepreneurs. I wanted to see start-ups and companies in different stages of growth from the inside. I wanted to feel what it takes to start and develop a company there.”

 

It could arguably be said that Valeri already knew what it meant to be an entrepreneur, so why did he need Acton? Entrepreneurship is more than just creating businesses. It’s about looking within yourself—asking yourself the deepest and most meaningful questions. It involves a level of thoughtful commitment and perseverance. Most importantly, an entrepreneur has to learn how to learn in order to stay relevant in our changing world. No matter how much you learn—there’s always another book, another lesson, another person who—if you let them—could end up changing the way you view and work in the world for the better.

 

“I think entrepreneurs are heroes. All new businesses and products start with an entrepreneur’s vision of what could be. To realize the vision, entrepreneurs must challenge the status quo and start a new path. As a result, something new, something of value gets created.”

 

To learn more about Acton, sign up to visit a class or contact us directly with your questions.