The First Trial => Failure #1

David Chen
Aug 31, 2018 · 2 min read

Before we get started with my past failures, I would like to do a short introduction about myself.

My name is David, a high school student from Vancouver. I would like to describe myself as a serial entrepreneur who had successes but mainly failures.

I started my first venture as a small school supply vendor in my elementary school. After knowing my friends got a lot of allowances, I incubated the idea to get some fancy Japanese erasers and pencils to sell. The big mistake I made was to get these items at the retail price and try to sell them with a 50 to 80% profit margin.

As you can probably imagine, I had a cash flow problem. Since no one is buying my extremely overpriced erasers, I can’t repay my parents for the initial funding.

This horrific strategic mistake doomed my first business, but you can’t blame a 10-year-old for not having enough exposure to the real world.

Lesson #1: Don’t buy stuff at retail stores if you want to resell it. (Unless you are reselling Supreme Bricks or Off-White Nike Collab Shoes)

Lesson #2: There is a guy called a distributor or a supplier who can get you good deals on your retail products.

Failure #1 The End

Failures First

A series of stories regarding a high school entrepreneur's journey through multiple successes and failures. Some personal insights + hacks are included along the way.

David Chen

Written by

Failures First

A series of stories regarding a high school entrepreneur's journey through multiple successes and failures. Some personal insights + hacks are included along the way.

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