Graduating College And Deciding To Be An Entrepreneur by Joshua G. Chavez

Graduating College And Deciding To Be An Entrepreneur by

Joshua G. Chavez

Joshua G. Chavez, Founder of Sol Shorts: “I had this mindset shift where I was studying big-time entrepreneurs, anyone from Warren Buffett, Mark Cuban, “Elon,” all these great entrepreneurs over time and ….(Watch the video on Youtube to find out more).

I think my story is really straightforward and kind of boring. I’m 23-years-old. I graduated from college last year. I went to Arizona State and actually studied electrical engineering. My parents are not entrepreneurs. My dad dabbled in consulting before he went back and got a job somewhere. So my dad is really into computers that is truly his passion. So he’s a test automation engineer and he has been a manager at some larger type companies. Now he’s with a database company at larger media companies. Really a test automation is his passion. So he’s in that kind of space.

And then my mom is actually a school teacher. She is doing more like instructional coaching and one-on-one coaching with kids now that she’s retired. But she actually went to school for fashion merchandising when she was in college. So that kind of worked out. They both went to school at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, Colorado and I grew up in Littleton, Colorado.

My parents are by no means entrepreneurs and I think that this has been a little bit of a hurdle actually just in the fact that it’s very hard to find someone who has seen people and watches SHARK TANK and sees the breadth of entrepreneurship in the market currently, but who hasn’t done it, doesn’t know anyone who has done it to the scope that I want to do it. So there is a lot of attention that I’m happy to expand on.

I very much started out following the route of I get a job, I learn a lot about an industry, and I’d be the 40-year-old entrepreneur versus the 23-year-old. That was the path that I chose. I was kind of directed to go to college by my parents because I was good at math, I was good at science. So I very much thought that I would start as the employee and become the employer later on. I think I really matured freshman or sophomore year of college (maybe even freshman year). And I had this mindset shift where I was studying big-time entrepreneurs, like anyone from Warren Buffett, Mark Cuban, “Elon,” I mean all these great entrepreneurs over time. And the big commonality were the people who had amassed immense wealth in their lives, have made that shift from employee to employer and own a portfolio of businesses. So I think it’s very interesting in that I’ve found that the only way to amass significant wealth (and I’m not talking about 10 million dollars or 15 million dollars) I’m talking about hectomillionaires and billionaires is to own a portfolio of companies or investments.

So that’s really where I’m starting to think “Hey! Maybe there is something here? If I start my own business, I can reach this upper-levels of wealth.” So that was when I was a little younger (in college). I got a couple internships. I worked for a telecommunications company (a private telecommunications company). Did some engineering work there, some project management work there. And then I shifted over to an antenna company, small-scale and large-scale antenna’s for personal electronics to RF stuff and set top boxes, let’s say or whatever else that might be.

In those experiences I had in those roles as an employee, I would find myself just wanting to study on my own and learn on my own outside about nothing I was working on at work. I just kind of had this curiosity and then the more and more I found…I would say I was reading a lot of books at that time and consuming some Youtube. And then I think toward the end of college, I made this shift where I was consuming a lot more relevant information and content toward entrepreneurship. So then I started seeing these guys on Youtube…I mean Gary V. is huge on Youtube and everyone knows his name. Christian Guzman is a lot younger character (age 24 I think?) and he’s very much where I wanted to be. I just started to see these guys doing it and they are no smarter than me. And I think they made a splash on the Internet because…I see a lot of similarities between myself and them…because we’re hustlers, we’re grinders, we work our faces off all the time. Late hours, early hours, always when things need to get done. And I think that this is what separates me is that I’m going to make it because of that. But really just seeing them thinking “Well, why don’t I just fast track this right?”

I just made the shift and there are so many influences (it’s hard to pinpoint just one) but I think that is exactly the point, you need to really experience a ton of stuff and then your direction will really start to point itself.

Question: When did you start to start your first business? What was it?

Congratulations to Josh Chavez on making his goal on Kickstarter with one day left, raising $15,788 for his men’s shorts line Sol Shorts!

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