HOUGHTON - Entrepreneur and author Poppy King spoke Wednesday morning on the campus of Michigan Technological University during the final day of Entrepreneur Week.
"Basically what I talked to them about was mainly how to handle the rejection or the failure side of business, because everyone knows how to handle success, that's great fun," said King. "Entrepreneurship is not about how you handle what you do right, it's about how you handle what you do wrong; learn from it, keep going and keep taking action."
King, who calls herself the Lipstick Queen, started her own line of lipstick at the age of 18 in her home country of Australia, and though she had many tough points in her business career, she is now living in New York and runs a multi-million dollar lipstick company.
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Michael H. Babcock/Daily Mining Gazette
Entrepreneur and author Poppy King speaks to a crowd in the basement of the Electrical Energy Resources Center on Michigan Technological University’s campus Wednesday morning. King spoke on the final day of Entrepreneur Week of her experience running a multi-million dollar lipstick company. For more photos, visit cu.mininggazette.com.
She spoke to a group of students and faculty at Michigan Tech as well as a group of students from Northern Michigan University who participated via Webcam.
"They had a lot of questions, I felt that people were really curious and can really relate to my story because I didn't come from a business background, or a wealthy background," King said.
Later in the day King held a public book reading and signing at the J.R. Van Pelt Library and also visited with several student groups individually.
King capped off a busy week for the Entrepreneur Club at Michigan Tech, which organized the week's activities.
"We've had great turnouts at each of the events," said Club President Larry Mark, a senior marketing major. "Our goal was to increase the entrepreneurship spirit and awareness on campus among the students, and get the word out that the university is trying to grow the entrepreneur program."
Mark said the efforts they've made over the years were highlighted this year as the group brought in Extreme Entrepreneurship Monday, an elevator pitch competition Tuesday and King on Wednesday.
"The entrepreneurship on campus is growing very rapidly," Mark said. "Out of the entrepreneur club we had at least eight student-run companies started since last year," Mark said. "After the elevator pitches, we had 16 teams present and at least half of them were actually viable business ideas that could get off the ground within the next couple years."
Michael H. Babcock can be reached at mbabcock@mininggazette.com.