La tribu y la llama Author and Poet on his Leap of Entrepreneur"ing"

Pedro Larrea (Madrid, 1981) is the author of two poetry books: La orilla libre (Madrid, Ártese quien pueda, 2013) and La tribu y la llama (Madrid, Amargord, 2015). He has published poems and reviews in ABCD, Cuademos de Valverde, Nayagua Calidoscopio, Lateral, Generación XXI Deriva and Fósforo. He made an imminent appearance in the Spanish editorial Renacimiento for his book of essays Federico García Lorca en Buenos Aires.

He received his degree in Comparative and Theoretical Literature at the Unversity of Madrid and did his masters and PhD in Litearature at the University of Virginia, where he also worked as a Spanish language and literature professor. Beginning in the fall of 2015, he will begin teaching at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia.

Welcome to the fourth of a blog series we've been putting together to feature entrepreneurs of all ages, industries, "success levels," and stages. This series is called Leap of Entrepreneur"ing" which is a play on leap of faith and adds a little progressive verb twist because, well, trying to start and run a business is always a work in progress. We ask questions about how they prepared financially, what advice they would give, how they measure success and more.

The goal of this series is to motivate anyone who's been thinking about potentially starting something of their own and doesn't know where to start or what to do. I hope hearing the realities and stories of others who have been there before or are there now will help to inspire you. This is also for those of you who currently own a business to find some comradery and create an open dialogue and community. Lastly, this is also for anyone who just wants a more transparent and "real" peak into the mindset, struggles and experiences of someone who identifies as an entrepreneur.

When did you first get the idea of the kind of business you wanted to start and how long was it until you felt confident enough to take the leap of faith?

I've been very lucky because I've known what I wanted to do with my life since I was 10 years old when I started writing in a spontaneous way, without any purpose and without forcing it. I never doubted my desires or plan in the sense that I always felt that I had the necessary confidence to accomplish them. In a way, I haven't had to take a leap of faith because just being born for me was the leap of faith, I was born with it.

How did you prepare financially for starting your own business and what were the best and worst choices you made when planning?

This is a funny question to answer as a poet, a profession in which, by definition doesn't generate an economical benefit, it's almost always the opposite. But yes, I made two decisions that contributed to forming me as a writer. First, as simple as it may seem, I directed all the money I had received (family, gifts etc) in buying classic books to learn about this profession through literature. The second was when it came time to go to university, I chose a career focused on literature, a field which from entering it guarantees that you will NEVER have a job that pays well. I didn't worry. Life in it's principle is a career. Luckily, I don't think I've made any bad decisions choosing the career of a poet.

What does your business do and offer?

Again, this is a funny question taking into account my profession. If you ask people "what does a poet offer you?", most people won't even know what you are talking to them about. Unfortunately, poetry today is something very minor. But it's also true that poetry is born within the human being and is something that we have been doing without any interruption for thousands of years, like music. Poetry offers so many things, if you are open to creating to later enjoy (just like all of the arts): entertainment, leisure, distraction, intellectual challenge, esthetic pleasure, emotional release, religious desire, revolutionary resolution, humor, philosophy, satire, eroticism, to complain.... the list is infinite. They are all nonmaterial benefits, and as such it appears that nobody appreciates them in the world that we live in, nor are they ready to pay for it, for example by buying poetry books which is without a doubt the genre least sold of all of the literary market.

How do you measure success today?

For me success depends on the phase of the project in which it is in. For example, when I was 15 years old, success was writing an entire book of poetry. When I was 20 years old, success meant publishing some of my poems in literary magazines. At 25, I started to participate in poetry readings. At 30, the highest achievement was a PhD in literature from one of the most prestigious programs in the United States. At 32, it was to publish my first book. At 34, to publish my second book, but this time in a prestigious collection.

Success is relative depending on expectations. Success really is a succession of successes. And it could be, as Sophocles said about happiness at the end of "Edipo Rey, that we can't affirm that we've been successful until our last day comes. In the meantime, we need to understand that success as a process, not as a goal.

What advice would you give to anyone who has been thinking about starting their own business?

This is simple: if you aren't passionate about what your business provides, forget it. If the goal is just to make money... forget it. There needs to be something bigger that is moving you to progress, a purpose. If you want o be rich and you start a car business, but you had cars, you might make money, but you would be so bored. What a sad life you'll lead.