hello believe nation today I’m gonna
talk about seven ways to get started as
a high school entrepreneur so ERISA got
asked a question from a high school
entrepreneur named Eric who is seeking
some advice and I thought I would make
this video for him and for all you other
high school entrepreneurs out there
trying to make it big with your business
so derecho didn’t say hi my name is
Derrick I’m 15 years old and I’m a
freshman in high school I really want to
start my own business but I really don’t
know where to start I have a few ideas
in mind do you think you could give me
some advice so there are gonna give you
7 suggestions that hopefully can help
you and you can apply to your life and
business right now number one is get
started you need to apply every day to
do something in your business 30 to 60
minutes at least every single day and
this is for anybody anybody who who has
a life outside of their business whether
you have a job whether you’re in high
school whether your university whether
you’re doing something else you have
this dream that you want to go out and
do but you have a lot of other
responsibilities and often what you find
is those things take away from your time
to actually run your business and so you
need to make sure that you’re taking
action every single day that you’re
building momentum for your business for
your idea even if you don’t know what
the the next best step is because there
is no perfect steps in building a
business there’s a lot of stuff that you
have to do and test and try and build
momentum for but making sure that you’re
putting the time in because I think too
many people spend too much time up here
too much time thinking and making the
perfect plan and and not enough time
actually doing you got to get out and
actually do and make time for it
consistently 30 to 60 minutes every
single day on your business to start
building momentum
number two is scheduled it in so it’s
great to have an intention to work 30 to
60 minutes it’s great to have an
intention to go and work out every day
it’s great to have an intention to study
hard at school right we have all these
goals you need to schedule it and that’s
when you start actually making a
commitment to it where you take your
calendar and you say from this time to
this time I’m gonna be working on my
business every single day does that be
the same time every day but every day
you block off that 30 to 60 minute chunk
and your calendar to make sure that it
gets done there’s a time management idea
around big rocks first where if you have
this jar and you put sand in and then
little rocks and then big rocks the big
rocks don’t fit in because all this
other crap is taking up the spot if you
put the big rocks in first and then the
little rocks and then the same it all
fits because the little rocks and the
same find their way into the jar in the
spaces around the big rocks and so when
you’re creating your calender when
you’re creating the schedule for
yourself you have to think about what
are the big rocks one of the things that
really are important studying’s gonna be
important your business is going to be
important you know family life or
whatever else you’re doing is gonna be
important whatever those big rocks are
put them into your schedule first and
then all the other little things will
find their way into your calendar around
those big rocks and so you need to make
sure that you’re putting that in that
you’re making a commitment that you’re
not just thinking up here that you’re
gonna spend time but you’re actually
writing it down and you start taking
action on those 30 to 60 minutes every
single day on your business schedule it
in
number three has used your classes one
of the best things that I did not so
much in high school but more in
university I didn’t have my business
really until university I had a bunch of
failed businesses and little businesses
like baseball card trading and some
computer ideas when I was in high school
but my first real business that had any
success was in university I would always
try to turn my school projects into
projects that could help my business so
if we had a marketing class then I would
look at okay let’s not make a marketing
plan for some fake company let’s make a
marketing plan for my actual business I
created my own self-study course with
the professor at university where there
was no exams and where he would grade me
based off of what I did in my business
that was a great opportunity and one
less course that I had to study for when
I was doing research some of our
customers would actually be university
professors and so I would go and talk to
them and get free market research for my
business they would never talk to me if
it was just a company but because it’s
for a school project it’s much easier to
get in the door and so instead of
thinking I got a do school and I got to
do my business I would try to find ways
to merge those together to use the
learnings and the class materials and
the projects that you’re working on at
school as a part of your business now
that may not always be possible you know
if you’re if you’re studying calculus at
school that may not be an application to
your business there but as much as
possible whenever you have projects that
you can work on try to make it valuable
for your business as well
number four is involved your classmates
one of the best parts about school for
me I think about my university
experience as well as my high school
experience I don’t know that I learned
that much with the content that helped
me with where I am right now and that’s
kind of sad to say I don’t look back on
my high school Korea and think yeah that
that class really taught me a lot you
know reading that Shakespeare learning
that algebra or whatever was that that
education really really helped me I
think the best that I got from it were
the people my classmates in both high
school and university that I’d be able
to go on and form friendships with as
well as do some business stuff with one
of the first people that I hired for my
company was one of my friends from high
school and so involving your classmates
understanding what they’re up to seeing
if they want to partner with you seeing
if they have skills I can help you you
know if you’re great at producing
something but you need a graphic
designer and you need a coder or you
need a photographer chances are there’s
somebody in your school who would like
some experience and could help out on
the project and so while you’re around
all these people again instead of
thinking I’ve got school and then I have
business trying to find ways to merge
them being involved in the clubs and
involving your classmates and getting to
know some of the people on their school
campus to see how they may be able to
help you get to where you want to go
with your company is a good use of your
time while you’re still at school
number five is seek mentors one of the
biggest lessons you can learn as an
entrepreneur such a young entrepreneur
is the seek mentors get guidance ask
people for the help so you’re reaching
out to me you’re asking for help it’s
great hopefully this video is helping
you with what you’re trying to do Derek
but I would also look within your school
who you might be able to get some help
from are the teachers of any help to you
depending on what kind of business do
you want to do I don’t know if any of
the teachers are already entrepreneurs
or had past experience in the industry
that you’re trying to get into but those
could be great sources of health for you
are their parents of current students
that might be able to mentor you or
guide you are there donors to the school
you look at the the fundraisers that the
school puts on who’s donating the money
to those fundraising events can you
connect with those people as potential
mentors for you I would look at
something as simple as joining the
school newspaper and then going out and
trying to do interviews with people if
it’s just hey talk to me I’m Derek I’m
15 years old and I want some advice you
be maybe surprised at how many people
would actually say yes to that because
people love helping young people of what
I think as well as if you can say hey
it’s for my school newspaper I I look up
to you I’d love to get your answer to
this and hopefully you can inspire
hundreds of students that are at my
school then it’s an extra reason to say
yes to and it gives you an easy way in
to go meet with CEOs of big companies or
successful entrepreneurs in your area to
do an interview with them for your
newspaper so again I’m looking at how do
I you know if you’re in school and maybe
you’re loved in school or maybe you’re
hating school but you’re here this is
what you’re doing for the next couple
years how do I use that to the best of
my capability how do i leverage the
resources that I have to help me get to
where I want to go looking at teachers
looking at the parents of the other
students looking at the donors for your
school and looking at how you can use
resources like the school newspaper to
go out and do interviews with people who
are potential mentors for you I would
leverage as much as you can now while
you still have that that capability in
high school
number six is surround yourself with
greatness this is a consistent theme for
me I think we tend to get trapped in the
environment that we’re in I didn’t think
I was gonna be an entrepreneur my
parents weren’t entrepreneurs it wasn’t
till I got to university that really
sunk in that I could be an entrepreneur
if you know that you really want to do
this and you’re looking around you and
you’re frustrated and struggling because
nobody else around you wants to be an
entrepreneur or they’re not thinking of
the same scale as you are or your
teachers are holding you back or
whatever it is if you’re not in a great
environment for entrepreneurship then
don’t complain and don’t be frustrated
about it go and create a solution watch
videos consistently maybe the videos on
my channel are helping you watch those
more regularly read books and
autobiographies and articles of the
people that you look up to I would look
both the people that are in your
industry that have made it so if you’re
in technology right you want to go learn
from Steve Jobs read his stuff if you’re
in retail you can learn from Howard
Schultz from Starbucks look at the
people who’ve done it in your industry
as well as people that you look up to
that are not in your industry maybe you
love Richard Branson and you love Oprah
Winfrey or you love Martha Stewart or
whoever it is you just love that person
there’s a lot that you can learn from
their success and yes where they’re at
now but especially in the early days
this what really helped me you know Bill
Gates saved my first company I’ve never
met him but understanding how he went
from zero to one making his first
million what he did at Microsoft to make
that happen really was educational for
me and helped my business go from almost
failing to becoming a success and so I
would try to surround myself as much as
possible with these big thinkers in your
industry that you look up to so that
some of their knowledge and in mindset
kind of sinks into you to help you
become that best version of yourself
I look at your physical space right like
these people are behind me for a reason
I walk in here every day and they get
inspired looking at these faces you know
some of them may not mean a lot to you
but they all mean a lot to me having an
environment and in a routine and the
schedule for greatness is important
because otherwise you’re gonna get stuck
in a rut you’re getting stuck in a zone
where maybe your parents are pushing to
be better at school or maybe your
teachers are pushing to get a little bit
better
but who is pushing to be a better
entrepreneur chances are it’s nobody
close to you
who’s really saying you know what you
did a you’ve done a good job so far
Derek but you should be up here man like
Derek you’re playing small what are you
doing bro you should be you should be
killing it you should be doing all these
things
chances are you don’t have that person
in your life and most people don’t have
that person in their life and so you
need to go and create that environment
for yourself with the movies with the
videos with the books with the posters
with the pictures with the mentors with
the interviews all of that created for
yourself instead of complaining that you
don’t have it in your life and number
seven is believe I’m mister believe so
it’s fitting in it comes from me you
didn’t say this in your message to me
but what a lot of young entrepreneurs
I’m too young I feel like I don’t know
enough I feel like I don’t have the
respect you know I’m too young to be a
success and understand that now more
than ever is easy for young
entrepreneurs to get respect to add
value you have a knowledge set and the
skill set that a lot of older people
don’t have
I was afraid when I was first getting
started in dealing with big companies
how am I gonna be able to help Microsoft
like these guys have a multi-billion
dollar company where the biggest
companies in the world why are they
interested in hiring me what value can I
bring and it wasn’t till I went in and
talked to them I realized oh yeah I can
I can help these guys out a lot that
belief makes a big difference
because as long as you believe that
you’re too young what you won’t get
respect as long as you feel you don’t
deserve the respect you’ll never get the
respect and so it’s understanding that
you have skills and knowledge that other
people don’t have
you need to hone those skills and that
knowledge and so it just possible become
an expert at your industry become one of
the best in the world at what you do and
then the people that you’re selling to
they’re paying you for the expertise you
know people don’t really care especially
now so much about how old you are if
anything the opinion industry it could
be it could be a plus if you’re walking
in to meet somebody who’s a 75 year old
mentor you think well this person has a
lot of experience in life experience and
business experience you’re gonna listen
to them trust you if somebody’s applying
to be a programmer or
our social media consultant for you and
their 75 years old now you’re thinking
whom I don’t know if that’s the right
fit for me but if you’re 15 years old
and walking in and say I want to help
you with your website or your social
media or your YouTube channel or
whatever it is you’re trying to do is
almost a biased towards young people
it’s expected young people are better at
it so it’s never been easier as a young
entrepreneur to get started you have it
way easier than I did when I was 19 I
was selling biotech software and I was
worried that I was selling to people
three times my age and this was still
this was how many years ago I’m thirty
s’what years if I’m 36 is 17 years ago
Wow feels like what’s up I’m getting old
guys I’m getting old I was worried that
people 3 times my age you had all these
degrees they wouldn’t want to talk to me
they wouldn’t want to buy for me they
wouldn’t want to listen to me and really
at the end of the day all they cared
about was that I could help them could
my software help them in their business
in their practice in their research if
it could – happy to talk to me if it
couldn’t then they don’t want to waste
their time and I get it and so at the
end of the day all that matters is are
you providing value to them and if you
can help them out then you’ll get more
money you’ll have a bigger impact you’ll
have their confidence and you’ll be able
to build something pretty special make
sure that you believe in yourself and
your skills and your capabilities and it
doesn’t matter how young you are all
that matters is that you can help so
those are my seven ways to get started
as a high school entrepreneur I’m
curious to figure out what did you guys
think of this video what was your
favorite rule and why am I missing some
is there an 8 9 10 that you guys want to
add to the list
share your thoughts leave it in the
comments below I’m gonna join in the
discussion thank you guys again for
watching I believe in you I hope you
continue to believe in yourself and
whatever your one word is much love I’ll
see you soon
talk about seven ways to get started as
a high school entrepreneur so ERISA got
asked a question from a high school
entrepreneur named Eric who is seeking
some advice and I thought I would make
this video for him and for all you other
high school entrepreneurs out there
trying to make it big with your business
so derecho didn’t say hi my name is
Derrick I’m 15 years old and I’m a
freshman in high school I really want to
start my own business but I really don’t
know where to start I have a few ideas
in mind do you think you could give me
some advice so there are gonna give you
7 suggestions that hopefully can help
you and you can apply to your life and
business right now number one is get
started you need to apply every day to
do something in your business 30 to 60
minutes at least every single day and
this is for anybody anybody who who has
a life outside of their business whether
you have a job whether you’re in high
school whether your university whether
you’re doing something else you have
this dream that you want to go out and
do but you have a lot of other
responsibilities and often what you find
is those things take away from your time
to actually run your business and so you
need to make sure that you’re taking
action every single day that you’re
building momentum for your business for
your idea even if you don’t know what
the the next best step is because there
is no perfect steps in building a
business there’s a lot of stuff that you
have to do and test and try and build
momentum for but making sure that you’re
putting the time in because I think too
many people spend too much time up here
too much time thinking and making the
perfect plan and and not enough time
actually doing you got to get out and
actually do and make time for it
consistently 30 to 60 minutes every
single day on your business to start
building momentum
number two is scheduled it in so it’s
great to have an intention to work 30 to
60 minutes it’s great to have an
intention to go and work out every day
it’s great to have an intention to study
hard at school right we have all these
goals you need to schedule it and that’s
when you start actually making a
commitment to it where you take your
calendar and you say from this time to
this time I’m gonna be working on my
business every single day does that be
the same time every day but every day
you block off that 30 to 60 minute chunk
and your calendar to make sure that it
gets done there’s a time management idea
around big rocks first where if you have
this jar and you put sand in and then
little rocks and then big rocks the big
rocks don’t fit in because all this
other crap is taking up the spot if you
put the big rocks in first and then the
little rocks and then the same it all
fits because the little rocks and the
same find their way into the jar in the
spaces around the big rocks and so when
you’re creating your calender when
you’re creating the schedule for
yourself you have to think about what
are the big rocks one of the things that
really are important studying’s gonna be
important your business is going to be
important you know family life or
whatever else you’re doing is gonna be
important whatever those big rocks are
put them into your schedule first and
then all the other little things will
find their way into your calendar around
those big rocks and so you need to make
sure that you’re putting that in that
you’re making a commitment that you’re
not just thinking up here that you’re
gonna spend time but you’re actually
writing it down and you start taking
action on those 30 to 60 minutes every
single day on your business schedule it
in
number three has used your classes one
of the best things that I did not so
much in high school but more in
university I didn’t have my business
really until university I had a bunch of
failed businesses and little businesses
like baseball card trading and some
computer ideas when I was in high school
but my first real business that had any
success was in university I would always
try to turn my school projects into
projects that could help my business so
if we had a marketing class then I would
look at okay let’s not make a marketing
plan for some fake company let’s make a
marketing plan for my actual business I
created my own self-study course with
the professor at university where there
was no exams and where he would grade me
based off of what I did in my business
that was a great opportunity and one
less course that I had to study for when
I was doing research some of our
customers would actually be university
professors and so I would go and talk to
them and get free market research for my
business they would never talk to me if
it was just a company but because it’s
for a school project it’s much easier to
get in the door and so instead of
thinking I got a do school and I got to
do my business I would try to find ways
to merge those together to use the
learnings and the class materials and
the projects that you’re working on at
school as a part of your business now
that may not always be possible you know
if you’re if you’re studying calculus at
school that may not be an application to
your business there but as much as
possible whenever you have projects that
you can work on try to make it valuable
for your business as well
number four is involved your classmates
one of the best parts about school for
me I think about my university
experience as well as my high school
experience I don’t know that I learned
that much with the content that helped
me with where I am right now and that’s
kind of sad to say I don’t look back on
my high school Korea and think yeah that
that class really taught me a lot you
know reading that Shakespeare learning
that algebra or whatever was that that
education really really helped me I
think the best that I got from it were
the people my classmates in both high
school and university that I’d be able
to go on and form friendships with as
well as do some business stuff with one
of the first people that I hired for my
company was one of my friends from high
school and so involving your classmates
understanding what they’re up to seeing
if they want to partner with you seeing
if they have skills I can help you you
know if you’re great at producing
something but you need a graphic
designer and you need a coder or you
need a photographer chances are there’s
somebody in your school who would like
some experience and could help out on
the project and so while you’re around
all these people again instead of
thinking I’ve got school and then I have
business trying to find ways to merge
them being involved in the clubs and
involving your classmates and getting to
know some of the people on their school
campus to see how they may be able to
help you get to where you want to go
with your company is a good use of your
time while you’re still at school
number five is seek mentors one of the
biggest lessons you can learn as an
entrepreneur such a young entrepreneur
is the seek mentors get guidance ask
people for the help so you’re reaching
out to me you’re asking for help it’s
great hopefully this video is helping
you with what you’re trying to do Derek
but I would also look within your school
who you might be able to get some help
from are the teachers of any help to you
depending on what kind of business do
you want to do I don’t know if any of
the teachers are already entrepreneurs
or had past experience in the industry
that you’re trying to get into but those
could be great sources of health for you
are their parents of current students
that might be able to mentor you or
guide you are there donors to the school
you look at the the fundraisers that the
school puts on who’s donating the money
to those fundraising events can you
connect with those people as potential
mentors for you I would look at
something as simple as joining the
school newspaper and then going out and
trying to do interviews with people if
it’s just hey talk to me I’m Derek I’m
15 years old and I want some advice you
be maybe surprised at how many people
would actually say yes to that because
people love helping young people of what
I think as well as if you can say hey
it’s for my school newspaper I I look up
to you I’d love to get your answer to
this and hopefully you can inspire
hundreds of students that are at my
school then it’s an extra reason to say
yes to and it gives you an easy way in
to go meet with CEOs of big companies or
successful entrepreneurs in your area to
do an interview with them for your
newspaper so again I’m looking at how do
I you know if you’re in school and maybe
you’re loved in school or maybe you’re
hating school but you’re here this is
what you’re doing for the next couple
years how do I use that to the best of
my capability how do i leverage the
resources that I have to help me get to
where I want to go looking at teachers
looking at the parents of the other
students looking at the donors for your
school and looking at how you can use
resources like the school newspaper to
go out and do interviews with people who
are potential mentors for you I would
leverage as much as you can now while
you still have that that capability in
high school
number six is surround yourself with
greatness this is a consistent theme for
me I think we tend to get trapped in the
environment that we’re in I didn’t think
I was gonna be an entrepreneur my
parents weren’t entrepreneurs it wasn’t
till I got to university that really
sunk in that I could be an entrepreneur
if you know that you really want to do
this and you’re looking around you and
you’re frustrated and struggling because
nobody else around you wants to be an
entrepreneur or they’re not thinking of
the same scale as you are or your
teachers are holding you back or
whatever it is if you’re not in a great
environment for entrepreneurship then
don’t complain and don’t be frustrated
about it go and create a solution watch
videos consistently maybe the videos on
my channel are helping you watch those
more regularly read books and
autobiographies and articles of the
people that you look up to I would look
both the people that are in your
industry that have made it so if you’re
in technology right you want to go learn
from Steve Jobs read his stuff if you’re
in retail you can learn from Howard
Schultz from Starbucks look at the
people who’ve done it in your industry
as well as people that you look up to
that are not in your industry maybe you
love Richard Branson and you love Oprah
Winfrey or you love Martha Stewart or
whoever it is you just love that person
there’s a lot that you can learn from
their success and yes where they’re at
now but especially in the early days
this what really helped me you know Bill
Gates saved my first company I’ve never
met him but understanding how he went
from zero to one making his first
million what he did at Microsoft to make
that happen really was educational for
me and helped my business go from almost
failing to becoming a success and so I
would try to surround myself as much as
possible with these big thinkers in your
industry that you look up to so that
some of their knowledge and in mindset
kind of sinks into you to help you
become that best version of yourself
I look at your physical space right like
these people are behind me for a reason
I walk in here every day and they get
inspired looking at these faces you know
some of them may not mean a lot to you
but they all mean a lot to me having an
environment and in a routine and the
schedule for greatness is important
because otherwise you’re gonna get stuck
in a rut you’re getting stuck in a zone
where maybe your parents are pushing to
be better at school or maybe your
teachers are pushing to get a little bit
better
but who is pushing to be a better
entrepreneur chances are it’s nobody
close to you
who’s really saying you know what you
did a you’ve done a good job so far
Derek but you should be up here man like
Derek you’re playing small what are you
doing bro you should be you should be
killing it you should be doing all these
things
chances are you don’t have that person
in your life and most people don’t have
that person in their life and so you
need to go and create that environment
for yourself with the movies with the
videos with the books with the posters
with the pictures with the mentors with
the interviews all of that created for
yourself instead of complaining that you
don’t have it in your life and number
seven is believe I’m mister believe so
it’s fitting in it comes from me you
didn’t say this in your message to me
but what a lot of young entrepreneurs
I’m too young I feel like I don’t know
enough I feel like I don’t have the
respect you know I’m too young to be a
success and understand that now more
than ever is easy for young
entrepreneurs to get respect to add
value you have a knowledge set and the
skill set that a lot of older people
don’t have
I was afraid when I was first getting
started in dealing with big companies
how am I gonna be able to help Microsoft
like these guys have a multi-billion
dollar company where the biggest
companies in the world why are they
interested in hiring me what value can I
bring and it wasn’t till I went in and
talked to them I realized oh yeah I can
I can help these guys out a lot that
belief makes a big difference
because as long as you believe that
you’re too young what you won’t get
respect as long as you feel you don’t
deserve the respect you’ll never get the
respect and so it’s understanding that
you have skills and knowledge that other
people don’t have
you need to hone those skills and that
knowledge and so it just possible become
an expert at your industry become one of
the best in the world at what you do and
then the people that you’re selling to
they’re paying you for the expertise you
know people don’t really care especially
now so much about how old you are if
anything the opinion industry it could
be it could be a plus if you’re walking
in to meet somebody who’s a 75 year old
mentor you think well this person has a
lot of experience in life experience and
business experience you’re gonna listen
to them trust you if somebody’s applying
to be a programmer or
our social media consultant for you and
their 75 years old now you’re thinking
whom I don’t know if that’s the right
fit for me but if you’re 15 years old
and walking in and say I want to help
you with your website or your social
media or your YouTube channel or
whatever it is you’re trying to do is
almost a biased towards young people
it’s expected young people are better at
it so it’s never been easier as a young
entrepreneur to get started you have it
way easier than I did when I was 19 I
was selling biotech software and I was
worried that I was selling to people
three times my age and this was still
this was how many years ago I’m thirty
s’what years if I’m 36 is 17 years ago
Wow feels like what’s up I’m getting old
guys I’m getting old I was worried that
people 3 times my age you had all these
degrees they wouldn’t want to talk to me
they wouldn’t want to buy for me they
wouldn’t want to listen to me and really
at the end of the day all they cared
about was that I could help them could
my software help them in their business
in their practice in their research if
it could – happy to talk to me if it
couldn’t then they don’t want to waste
their time and I get it and so at the
end of the day all that matters is are
you providing value to them and if you
can help them out then you’ll get more
money you’ll have a bigger impact you’ll
have their confidence and you’ll be able
to build something pretty special make
sure that you believe in yourself and
your skills and your capabilities and it
doesn’t matter how young you are all
that matters is that you can help so
those are my seven ways to get started
as a high school entrepreneur I’m
curious to figure out what did you guys
think of this video what was your
favorite rule and why am I missing some
is there an 8 9 10 that you guys want to
add to the list
share your thoughts leave it in the
comments below I’m gonna join in the
discussion thank you guys again for
watching I believe in you I hope you
continue to believe in yourself and
whatever your one word is much love I’ll
see you soon
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