Lessons from a Jewish deli

By Sam Maropis • July 11th, 2010

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Years ago I use to work in Cleveland Ohio. One of my favorite restaurants to eat in was a Jewish deli. The problem was that at lunch it was always full. So when I would go, they would seat me with other men who were eating alone. I always looked forward to those lunches because you never knew who you would eat with. And as a young businessperson, many times I would get hooked up with successful patrons of the restaurant. I always enjoyed it. And learned a lot.

Well thirty years later it happened again, but this time the young man may have thought that I was teaching him, but in fact he was teaching me.

I was having lunch in San Antonio today and the mall restaurant was packed. So this young man asked if he could share a table with me. “Well yes of course” was my answer.

He was from Nicaragua and he was going to school in Austin getting his masters in entrepreneurship. A one year program covering all of the core ingredients of being a successful entrepreneur.

He already owns one business, a real estate company in Nicaragua, but he has chosen to go back to school, come to Austin and learn how to be a entrepreneur. He talked about a number of classes he has to take, and how many hours he is in class each week. Also he talked about his own goals to start another business and how important it is to just get out and get started. My bet is he could teach a lot of folks about being a small business owner right now.

Sure I answers some of his questions but really it was me who learned from him. I admit that growing up I did not go to school for entrepreneur, (is was accounting) but at my dinner table as a kid I learned from other small business owners (my family) what it took to succeed. Those meals like today’s was so important. Today, neither one of us could have guessed that we both would learn a lot.

He remains me of Jessica Gibbs-Dieterle who started a great little retail store during the tough economic times of 2008, Jen McGahan wrote a great blog post about her business, http://chartingdreams.com/social-marketing/. Jessica worked for a large company, quite the job and went to work in a big box fabric store for minimum wage just to learn the business. Today she has a great business. Well getting back to my new friend, he too will have a great business because he is willing to put in the time and energy to learn, study and most importantly get involved with small business.

So if you are looking to start a small business and you have never had one, maybe you work in a large company and need to start something new. Get experience, get help and most importantly get started.

Sam