BY JORDAN D’AURIO
Nichols College’s Conant Library hosted an event Oct.14 called “Entrepreneurial Leadership Fireside Chat” featuring Mark Lambert, a student at Worcester State University and one of the winners of the recent Startup Worcester competition. Mark shared his journey of founding his Landscaping Company, Lambert’s Landscaping.
Mark described for the audience of students, faculty, and staff the ups and downs of balancing a full college course load (he is working toward a Business Administration degree) with managing a successful company.
Mark explained that his ambition and determination started at age 12, when he would take care of his neighbors’ lawns as a favor to them. Throughout the years, his passion for landscaping grew. Eventually, at age 27, he landed a job with his friend’s father. It was here he gained the experience he needed to launch a business.
It wasn’t always smooth sailing; he ran into difficulties throughout the entire business-launch process, but his parents were his greatest mentors and support system. Mark admitted that his greatest weakness throughout the journey was poor time management. He is still a full-time student and also has to balance his personal life with his professional life, which is sometimes difficult. A goal he has set for himself is to improve his time management skills.
To help Mark balance his personal life with his professional life, he hopes to find office space that is not his bedroom once he graduates from college.
He has relied on customer satisfaction and word of mouth to get his company name and reputation out to potential clients; this has been a successful tactic so far.
Mark left the audience with a closing thought, “If you have a dream or opportunity, go out and do it. Risk-taking turns into something really rewarding.”
This inspired me to go out and get what I want in life and to not worry about the risk that comes with it. Though I may not want to open my own business, Mark’s words inspired audience members and me in a personal way. His above quote is one that I will remember and run with as my future approaches me in May.
