Many young people ask me how they could become “entrepreneurs”–that is, people who have started their own company?
If that is you, first of all congrats on deciding to start something new!
But you might have the question backwards: You start a business because you have a great idea that you think can feasibly make you money, not because you want to start a business for the sake of it.
So here’s the first step: determine a problem. For my startup CafeMocha.org–that I founded at 16–the problem was the schools are killing creativity by making students memorize useless factoids, rather than letting students do things they really love to do–such as write stories and poetry.
Next: find a solution to the problem. Honestly, everyone can come up with reasons why something doesn’t work. But not many can come up with a solution. For me, the solution was to create an online writing community (similar to the photography community of flickr) so that young students could write to their hearts desire and inspire other students to follow their passions.
Then, just get to it! But you have to believe. If you don’t believe in your idea, nobody honestly will. Right now, nobody cares about your startup. You have to make them care and notice it. But to make them care and notice it, you have to think that you’ll make it work. You have to believe in your idea. You have to say, yes–this is the best idea ever and then pursue it like crazy.
The only way your startup is going to be successful is A) you have tons of money that you can constantly input into finding users and engaging them or B) you dedicate all of your time and passion into your company.
And although this may seem rash, at the end of the day though, the fruit is sweet: you produce something that never existed before and is now being used by thousands all over the world! Let the Creativity Flow!
