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They Were the Biggest Frauds of All
I have a secret. My parents are imposters. For years, they charged people money for services for which they had zero qualifications.
Let me explain. When I was younger, my parents owned a dry cleaners. After immigrating to America in the 1980s, they caught the entrepreneurial bug and thought, “Why not?”
I can think of many reasons why they should have “not.” They had no experience owning a business, hiring employees, or managing a P&L, for starters. Moreover, they didn’t know anything about the dry cleaning industry. We didn’t even dry clean our clothes, for Pete’s sake.
But what they lacked in direct experience, they made up for in grit and determination. They both took second jobs at dry cleaners to learn the ropes. They strategically selected their location and crunched the numbers to minimize their exposure. With no budget for “marketing,” my mom photocopied a handmade coupon at Kinko’s and plastered it on message boards around town.
It was tough, and they made plenty of mistakes along the way. But ultimately, they built a thriving business.
I think about their experience and contrast it with my own crippling imposter syndrome that plagued me every time I started a new job.
