I enjoyed the Entrepreneurs Lecture Series yesterday. For those that don’t know what ELS is, it’s a speaker series that the NC State Entrepreneurship Initiative does twice a year where successful entrepreneurs come in and give a speech.

This one was interesting, because for the first time, a student was given the opportunity to speak as well. Bryan Young, a junior here at NC State, opened up the lecture series. Twenty years old, and the man has more entrepreneurial experience than a lot of people I know. He started his first business when he was very young, and hasn’t stopped since. He was definitely an inspiration for me, and probably everybody else there, no matter what their net worth.

Following Bryan was Chris Evans, an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and NC State alumnus. He told us the story about how him and his friends started DaVinci Systems, a software company that marketed a pioneer e-mail system, DaVinci E-mail.

Chris also spent a little while talking about his experience with Accipiter, an advertising company that he founded and ran that was purchased by CMGI, Inc.

Chris gave a good picture on his entrepreneurial experience, and great pointers on questions you need to ask yourself when you want to start a business. He described entrepreneurship as somewhat of a “spiritual journey”, in which you find out a lot about reality and yourself.

As if Bryan wasn’t enough to inspire me to be the best entrepreneur I could be, Chris definitely drove that nail home. Not to mention this is the third lecture I’ve been to this week, and all of them have been further driving me through all the things I have to do, so I can do the things I want to do. A lot of entrepreneurs know that struggle I imagine.

Day at a time.