Entreprenurial Spirit Anonymous

In tenth grade, I had a wild idea: a reusable cosmetics container made from plastic recovered from the ocean. I would negotiate a deal with an ocean cleanup organization, build prototypes out of the acquired plastic, pitch my product and my vision to haircare and makeup companies, and radically transform the cosmetics packaging industry. Exciting, I know. But, with no business experience or resources, my wild idea remained untamed. A Tepper education and experience, however, will change that.

A drive to bring ideas to life and share them with people has always led me to pursue different iterations of entrepreneurship. As a five-year-old, I often sifted through my dad’s thick black hair and charged him one cent a strand to pluck out stray white ones. As I grew older, my business plans grew more elaborate. In fourth grade, I discovered that my classmates would happily dish out a quarter in exchange for a colored drawing copied from “Kids Draw: Anime” and signed in careful cursive in the bottom-right corner (excuse my ignorance of copyrighted work). In seventh grade, I created Temptation Btq, my online polymer clay charm store. I hand-made and sold everything from rainbow macarons to social media app bracelets, and eventually, I...