I was actually born about 40 years too soon.
If I were a teenager today I'd be busy creating a network of web site businesses that I'd set up to grow over time, that could be run mostly on autopilot, and that would passively generate growing income for me for many years to come.
I'd study and learn (mostly online) how to use computers to automate business operation. I'd carefully watch which online business owners were being successful and I'd try to follow their lead.
I'd find some online business mentors that would share their knowledge and insights with me so that my new businesses would be patterned after theirs.
I'd stay at the forefront of new ideas, strategies, and technologies because I believe that's where there is great potential for continuous relevance and extraordinary income.
I would focus my web site businesses around my core interests and passions so that I was always anxious to jump into the subject each day. Work (making a living) wouldn't seem so much like work if I were involved in things I loved doing anyway.
I don't see why the lessons of life learned when I was young 40 years ago couldn't still be learned today. The principles of discipline, focus, hard work, money management, saving, investing, personal health, service, commitment, and persistence never go out of vogue.
I learned some of these lessons delivering papers, mowing lawns, and working in retail jobs before marriage. But there is no reason why a young entrepreneur running a small business can't be exposed to the same lessons. Times change and so do the environments that shape our lives.
I would encourage high school and college students to try their hand at entrepreneurship and small business. I would suggest they get their start by creating and running a business online.
Why focus on Internet based business? The risk is so small, the time from start to profitability can be short, the opportunities for success are huge, and the tools are in place to help with every aspect of business operation.
Not only that, but business can be conducted from anywhere around the globe and the subject of the business can be of the student's choosing (hopefully it will be something that he/she has a real passion for.)
I would work to align my business with my school curriculum. Class assignments and projects could be based on different topics related to my small business.
Think of the practicality and benefit of doing a paper on some aspect of your business that you wanted to understand more fully. Imagine the wisdom, applicability, and appropriateness of setting up a school project based on some experience or finding that resulted from your business operation.
Is there a better way to align your education with hands-on, real world experience? Can you think of a more direct blending of academic learning and real life experience than to align school coursework with daily private sector business operation? Why can't the two go hand in hand?
To be sure, there are challenges and distortions to this vision. For the most part, academia is not traditionally structured for this marriage. Business suppliers, partners, and customers may not give a student entrepreneur much credibility in private business circles.
But the times are changing and I don't think it will be long until the visions of both higher education and the business community embrace one another to better train and prepare our young people for careers in business ownership.
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