Entrepreneur

Learn more about people development and read more books

I’d tell myself to do what I did, which is to say I stated a business in a field I enjoyed.

Next I would tell myself that even though I hate college and do not want to be there, I should slow down and take to easy. Don’t try to get it over with quicker by taking more than a full load of courses each quarter as well as attending school in the summers. I would explain that you will burn yourself out by trying to go to school full time and work full time and that you will kill your entrepreneurial spirit.

Finally I would tell myself that the key to a successful business is stubborn tenacity in the face of all adversity. No matter what happens never give up and as soon as you can, hire people to help, even if those people do menial clerical tasks so that you can focus on what is important. And for gosh sakes if you have family members who might be willing to help you a little, let them freaking help you.

There are two problems with this:

1. You have to realize that entrepreneurs "quit working 40 hours so they can work 70 hours" Not saying your scared of hard work, just realize that the reality is you gotta work 2x as hard to make the same $$$ the first several years.

2. At 18 it is unlikely that you have more skills/knowledge/experience than the average person and that skills/knowledge/experience is what becomes your product. That's not an insult it's just realty.

Id tell my 18 year old self education is more important.

Wouldn't have mattered, 18 year old me wouldn't have listened.

Don't bother with the Amazon FBA, dropshipping, etc type thing, truth is yes you can make money with all of them, but no more so than any other business.

The simple fact of things is that the best business you can do is the one someone will pay YOU for.

I run a marketing agency that works exclusively with SaaS Startups, (not a highlevel based SMMA, a proper one), but I don't do that because Youtube told me to, it's because I worked in marketing exclusively at multiple different startups before that, all of which either exited or received funding while I was there. I got good at knowing what SaaS will do well, what won't and what type of marketing works in the most cost effective way. Doesn't mean I know everything about SaaS marketing, but because of my experience I have a disproportionate unfair advantage compared to the majority of marketers or agency owners. As a result, I now a little over a year later have 4 members of staff, regular clients and pay myself a decent income. I'm not crazy rich, but we're growing exponentially.

People focus way too hard on the type of business, when actually it usually works the other way round. The type of business shouldn't decide what you learn, what you know should decide the type of business.

Think about your experience, and try and picture this. What Business would make people who know you go 'well of course they're doing well, compendiousbeing is running it no one can compete with that'. Might be something related to automation, or hairdressing, or computer science, or maybe if you can't think of anything you need to spend more time learning, but basically dig deep, what is your 'Unfair advantage', the thing that most other people would need to study for months or years just to get to the knowledge level you possess today?

Fastest way to get a leg up, so the fastest way to get towards profits.

for what you describe -

1. at 18, just a good job, one that pays and allows you to learn about business in situ. and, importantly gives you time for ...
2. start an affiliate site, google affiliate marketing, start a niche blog, work on it a little everyday, it'll take a long time, but in the right niche, its great for (survival) passive income
3. start freelancing (use fiverr or other freelance sites) - start with projects that are well within your expertise, try and find ones that are very similar so you can reuse code, grow this business.

​

3 is actually the real business, 2 gives you backup income, 1 allows you to develop pays you and gives you options.

pretty much what i did, but at a later stage in my career, its still what i do... just different % of time on each of the 3

Real estate investment

I think I would have suggested starting an online search business called Google.

I would tell my 18 year old self I have study get real estate license or at least a leasing agent license. That’s exactly what I did but I did it at 28 years old.

I eased my way into residential real estate by earning my leasing license to help clients with rentals (Chicago Market). Then after about a year I studied to get my brokers license which allows you to help with rentals, home buying, selling, and commercial real estate.

Since then, I have made an okay salary for my family and I. If I had started when I was 18 years old I would have 10+ years of experience and wouldn’t have entered the industry in my youth. I’m not complaining or anything, but if I wasn’t such a pansy at the time, my sales skills would probably be 10 fold. That’s one end of the spectrum. The other end is, real estate would have chewed me up and spit me out and then knows where I’d be at then.

Hindsight is 20/20!

Crypto trading firm

It's absolutely crucial that you do something that connects with your background, experience and motivations.

If not, you are going to be on the same level as everyone else, or even worse, you are going to be at a disadvantaged in an industry where others already have an interest and knowledge of the subject.

Dropshipping, trading, amazon fba and those types of things are like pop music or cat memes, they are oriented towards the largest common denominator, that's why they dominate front pages and amass so many views. Steer away from those and look for smaller niches were your interest in computers and websites is going to be relevant.

I personally got into offering IT infrastructure for small non-technical businesses, but I ended up doing staffing and Project Management for early stage startups as well.

Just keep on exploring your industry and go deeper rather than going back, reevaluating and starting over from 0. You are 18 years old, prepare to go deep into a single industry and role for the next 5 years and you will be a monster at 23.

Specialize, people want to do business with an expert in a subject. They want to mentally save you as the X-thing guy, and then move on, only calling you when they need help with X-thing.

Good luck!

Just start. And be ready to pivot by learning and testing until something starts bringing in money

Buy bitcoins

I was exactly where you are. So many ideas with all results posted for me to see. It made it easy to wish to try everything. I am 20 now, but started when I was 13, took a break and hit it hard at 15... Here's what I wish I focused on

Your number one approach is to answer these questions:

1. What is something you'd like to learn and become an expert in?
2. How can you use this skill to provide value to people? (People pay for value)
3. What knowledge must I have in order to GROW this money? (value investing, not trading. Expansion. Systems, etc.)

Hopefully this helps.

Best Regards,

Landon

Thank goodness I learned some trades starting at a young age. My trade knowledge put me through college with a science degree, a good one. After working a couple decent jobs I learned that if I wanted to break out of entry level pay with my science degree I needed a Masters. I was burnt out on college and decided I would take some time and do small handyman type work. That led me into now owning and operating an excavation business which I thoroughly enjoy. I use skills from every trade I learned and incorporate my degree skills as well. These particular set of skills has allowed me to be a specialist in my field which distinguishes me from competition. Best of all, I get to work outside in new places and see some amazing country. I assist people building their dreams and get to be a part of it. I also enjoy the challenges and rewards of my risk taking. I get to teach my children all the life skills that I had to learn mostly on my own and we get to home school our children and live together as a family. Life may throw curve balls at you but in the end it typically works out pretty well if you have drive and are willing to take risks and learn lessons from failing. Find things you enjoy and nail down what you enjoy about them and then create opportunities with those goals in mind.

The business plan is buy-and-hold real estate at fixed rate debt. Nothing fancy no flipping and no partnerships until experienced. Go to school for an associates degree in business. Do that part-time and prioritize the most relevant classes (graduating doesn't matter, learning does). Simultaneously get a real estate license to be forced to learn about the industry (not a goal as a job). Consider pushing through to broker level. Attend investor meet ups. Consider taking a part time job as a property manager. Through real estate or whatever job you can get while going to school and building real estate skills, save money for your first house hack as quickly as possible. Plan out your strategy in advance so you can continue repeating that process. Re-invest the snowball into more property. Build your real estate portfolio beyond financial independence by the time you're in your mid 30s. You are now at another decision point.

My 18 yr old self would have told me to take school seriously and finish college in 4 years, not 14!

Business: Have as few emoyees as possible go into a service related business where you can add substantial value to your customers. Provide the best service. Do whatever it takes to exceed your customers' expectations Train at it, be great at and be recognized as an expert.

Don't go into Drop-shippingz Amazon etc. It's all just the latest "get rich" hype. It's Bull.

“Maybe don’t spend all those bitcoins on the SR. Maybe save a couple.”

I would have told my 18 year old self to start an email newsletter, especially if I was interested in anything tech or computer related?

Why a newsletter? Besides the obvious opportunity to share your growing knowledge and interest in a given topic, it’s a great springboard into other online biz related assets you could offer, whether affiliate marketing or creating your own products or services.

You can look at people like Minimalist Hustler who has turned his own passion for side hustles into a newsletter, products, services, and all kinds of things.

A quick glance at Email FYI which is my own passion project can show you just how easy it is to get something started - and really all you need to start is a great idea and an email address!

Wishing you lots of luck in your future pursuits. 🤘🏻

I'd tell my 18 year old self to get that degree and do side hustle. I wish I saved up more when I was a teen. Anyways, here's a good read https://www.cuppa.so/post/college-degree-vs-real-world-experience-which-matters-more

SaaS is extremely lucrative. There seems to be a million SaaS companies these days. If you could build out something that would automate processes for companies doing things manually, you could make a lot of money. But SaaS can also take a lot out of you, so burnout may be a thing.

YouTube is a money machine if you can get your stride right. If I had started a YT channel at 18, I would be traveling the world more.

Since you are in tech, would you consider a tech website? If you're a good writer, maybe start a tech blog and see how that develops??

Easy, red-light disctrict services / escort tools etc

Like with knowledge of the economy? I'd have told myself that in 2 years, you're gonna discover "streaming" and making YouTube videos. You're gonna get really bored and distracted, but simply don't do that. Getting that much of a head start would all but guarantee being a 3k Andy in 2023.

Farming. Rent agricultural lands, develop it, buy it, improve it, all natural NO GMO. People needs food to live.

AI is going to have a big impact on pretty much all industries going forward - if I was young I would really develop my understanding of how to use tools like ChatGPT and their future incarnations and then build a business contracting out that skillset and helping businesses utilise these new tools to improve their productivity

Only fans. As in be the owner, not one of the content creators.

...ah who am I kidding, I would be one of the content creators.

Facebook

SaaS is cool, but maybe focus on a specific problem you'd love to solve.

Becoming educated and finding what career path I’d like to pursue in the future

Stay TF away from Amazon

Sel sell sell on Amazon

Omg!!!!! Online marketing, funnels, drop shipping and information marketing! I’d be a literal billionaire if I knew then what I know now and could teach myself.

Whether it's SaaS, dropshipping, or the next big thing, make sure it addresses a genuine need.

Start as soon as possible and fail fast and fail cheaply. On upwork you can hire devs for cheap. An alternative I like better is starterhive.com because you can offer equity as compensation so it is zero risk to you as a business owner to start your own business (you can also pay a fixed price, equity, or a combo).

I’d tell myself to buy bitcoin. But for business I’d tell myself to start a low skill local service business and stick with it. Something like painting, pressure washing, parking lot maintenance etc. even someone with no experience can outcompete in these businesses and you’ll learn a ton and if you stick with it you’ll make it work

Pickup a valuable trade or skill set.

If I could tell my 18-year-old self what business to start, I would tell him to start a software as a service (SaaS) business. SaaS businesses are relatively easy to start and scale

I've run three businesses and never gotten anywhere close to the gains I've gotten from crypto. Take that advice for what you will.

I would tell him to go to a bank and open up a depot for ETFs, diversify and put the monthly savings there instead of into a regular savings account. I would also tell him to find a valve for letting out all the creativity and focus on creating value first, verify it and create branding second…not the other way around, damn it!

Fucking bitcoin. 60k sell. Stop worrying.

Manage your risks. If you're on a low budget or don't have a cashflow coming in, don't pursue risky businesses where you have to invest a significant amount of money up front in order to make them work.

Think of opportunities where you can have the lowest start up cost with the highest return.

For example: Freelancing Dropshipping or affiliate marketing with free traffic.

I'd say go with your gut.

A food business

I would've continued with what you're doing, Youtube Automation. Or something else with Youtube. This is most likely very long term though.

I would advice to look at what you enjoy, or get a hobby if you can't find anything, and build a business around that. For example I like driving cars on track, and I now make car parts for track cars. If you can fill a gap then you have a high chance to succeed.

Since you're doing CS, you can also try to get into game making. Maybe make youtube videos around that. Lots of options really.

You're still young and you probably live at home so now is the time to try things, by the time you finish school and get a job you're already stuck.

to gain experience and skills, it doesn’t have to be in an industry or business model that is hyped up.