Michael Loeb, Founder of Loeb.nyc | Are You An Entrepreneur?

I have a favorite question for aspiring entrepreneurs:

"Tell me about your childhood lemonade stand."

If they say, "Oh, I never had one," I follow up:

"Okay, what about a paper route or lawn mowing business as a kid?"

If STILL no enterprising origins, I get skeptical:

"Hmm, you might not be a TRUE entrepreneur."

Because the wiring shows up early. The urge to create a micro biz. To exchange services for cash. To get hooked on the thrill of profit and reinvestment.

It starts small - a table, some Dixie cups, a pitcher of Country Time. But the stand teaches BIG ideas.

That you can spot demand - "Gee, it's hot. Bet the neighbors would love a cold drink!"

Create supply - "I'll set up shop and sell lemonade!"

And profit - "Wow, I just turned lemons and sugar into cash!"

The lemonade stand inoculates the entrepreneurial bug. Once you experience the buzz of running your own show, you're infected for life.

You learn the mechanics of business aren't mystical. The formula is replicable:

Serve a need ➕ Deliver value = Make money

And you realize the means to make more exists totally within your control. More effort, more customers. More customers, more cash. More cash, scale up the stand.

So you start paying friends commission to send you customers. Take out a loan from Dad to buy a second pitcher. Set up a loyalty punch card.

Suddenly you're running a lean startup on the sidewalk. Getting a taste of leverage, profit margins, promotion campaigns.

You're ADDICTED to seeing an idea generate money. Because it feels like wizardry. Proof you can conjure value from thin air.

And soon you graduate from lemonade...to house painting, car washing, dog walking, lawn mowing.

The neighbours become your first stable of recurring clients. You learn about quality control when poor work loses their repeat buy.

You're keeping books, reinvesting earnings, thinking margins, establishing processes. Going from general practitioner to specialist. Building a 1-kid brand.

And one day it hits you:

"What if I could 10x this? Make actual adult-level money instead of allowance change? Someday, run a REAL business?"

A true entrepreneur NEVER shakes that tendency once it grabs hold.

You start enterprises as compulsively as Internet challenges. Some stall, some stick, some take off.

But the point is you can't NOT birth ideas and push their limits. Chase that innate high of manifesting something from nothing through grit and guile.

Money becomes the fun scorecard, not the purpose. The juice comes from playing "founder"...then wanting bigger scores in bigger games.

So if your inner CEO awoke early...if you were financing kids menu buys with niche ventures?

Congrats, you're wired to create. To morph lemons into lemonade stands into legit businesses.

And like me, you still chase that same rush decades later with each new game you launch.

But NOW, you play to empower others, not just level up allowance.

THAT'S the difference between a livelihood and a life.