I went to see Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop and socially responsible business pioneer, on Wednesday night. She was speaking at a college in Troy that was establishing a BS in socially responsible business.

I was 21 when I bought Instant Karma, a store that I owned for 5 years, with very little money and determination that I had no idea that I had. From that time on, my tax return has said that my occupation was "entrepreneur". Anita Roddick started her talk with a discussion of what kinds of people are entrepreneurs. She said entrepreneurs have an idea and they want to see how far they can develop and manifest that idea. Entrepreneurs are not particularly interested in money, they are about having ideas, vomiting them was the strange expression she used. But they don't just have the ideas, they have a tremendous capacity for work, they almost don't know how to stop, which enables them to see those ideas through. She described entrepreneurs as feeling like outsiders at a young age, which makes them fearless. They don't ever feel like they have to be like everybody else because they never felt that way anyway. She said that they don't know what they are doing, but it doesn't matter because they know how to ask questions and figure things out. One of her slides actually said, "Entrepreneur=Insane?". I wanted to ask her, when it was all over, if she saw any need to go to college to study such a thing.

The experience was very empowering for me because I've done all of that, I've been that remarkable person that she was describing. And I kind of needed a little lift after three and a half years of the stay at home mom life. My thirtieth birthday is approaching and I have no degree and no career. I have described myself at times as a "hopeless" entrepreneur, doomed to a life of no health insurance and an endless stream of business ideas. Anita Roddick made me feel pretty good about that - it was like a pep rally.

The timing is lovely too, because I have about three ideas right now that I am fairly excited about. There is an organization here that sponsors playgroups that I have become involved with that is going to start having these entreprenurial networking meetings for parents to support and mentor each other. The first meeting is this week.