I'm George Garcia. I'm a senior at Montclair State University. I'll be graduating December, and I'm majoring in business administration with a concentration in entrepreneurship. What inspired me to become an entrepreneur is actually that I come from a family of entrepreneurs. My family background is pretty interesting.
My father and my grandparents came from Cuba when my father was seven. My grandfather was a dentist in Cuba, and he was also a great basketball player. And when he came to America, he actually wasn't allowed to be a dentist anymore. His license wouldn't transfer over. So he started his own business here, and he owned a little shop with my grandmother in Newark for a very long time.
And then when it was time for my dad to start working, he started his own business as well – in electrical, telecommunications, working with some very, very large companies doing some really, really cool stuff. On the other side of my family, my other grandfather was an entrepreneur as well, actually here in Montclair doing Belgian blocks, Covello Brothers doing Belgian blocks for a very long time. So it was really only right that I become an entrepreneur and start businesses on my own as well.
As I've grown up, I've realized really how much I love emerging technologies and just kind of being on the next step of – step ahead of things and, you know, being at the forefront of ideas. And I can really see myself staying in this lane my entire life and working on startups and working on breaking technologies. And I'm really excited to keep going on it.
I was recently selected as one of NJBIZ's 40 under 40. And some of the things that I'm involved with are a couple of startups – one that I founded through the help of the university through winning the university's pitch competition as well as another startup that's LA-based that's in the meditation and wellness space.
Our startup that won the pitch competition is called Wheatpaste. We're calling it the "glue that holds your community together." This is actually my first year on Economic Development Committee. I'm one of the student members of the committee. And it's really been a great experience.
We meet 12 times a year. And we discuss how to really get our town's economy going again, how to help the small businesses, how to get events going. And also, we try to touch on some of the pain points of the business community and see how we can improve things.
As an entrepreneur, my business life is also my personal life. It's really one and the same. Everywhere I go, I'm networking myself and I'm selling myself and I'm trying to make connections. So even when I'm enjoying myself personally, I'm going out with my friends, playing video games, you know, I'm always ready to be working.
I can always flip open my computer and send an email or do some work very quickly. It's kind of – it's difficult to strike a balance because you really want to succeed in your business, but you also want to have free time. But I think that as an entrepreneur, I have a really unique set of skills that allow me to – a unique set of skills and opportunities that allow me to kind of mend those together.
