Commentary: My Role Models — Teenage Entrepreneurs

By David Magallanes /  Guest contributor

Last month I wrote about my visit to Solvang and how I watched what books my hand went for in the book section of a store that sold mystical items (candles, crystals, amulets, etc.). I don’t normally patronize these stores, but something drew me into this one. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about one of the two books I purchased that day, “How To Live On 24 Hours A Day,” by Arnold Bennett. I just read the other, and I’m anxious to give my report and my impression.

This work, “The Richest Kids In America,” is by a well-known author, Mark Victor Hansen (“Chicken Soup For the Soul”), who is also a renown speaker and motivator. Once again, my intuition led me to choose a book that provided the impetus I needed to continue on my path toward entrepreneurship.

Mr. Hansen writes about several very young people who are very attuned to their instincts, skills and talents, and who have either planned or stumbled into a thriving business, or, in some cases, businesses. In most cases, their parents weren’t particularly entrepreneurial, but the teens were mentored along, or at least encouraged, by the parents. The mentorship was often from outside the home.

I studied my feelings as I read. I felt inspiration, with just a twinge of envy and consternation. These young people had accomplished what I’ve dreamt of doing and attempted for so many years: build a business. I had to ask myself, “What is stopping me from building that dream?”

Well, I have plenty of reasons. Or are they excuses?

But I have to be compassionate with myself. I have accomplished a lot over the years. Since the time that I was a teen, I was on the employment track. All of my upbringing, choices and education destined me to become a corporate and government worker bee. Which has not been bad. I generally ended up doing work that I found interesting and that I enjoyed (and continue to enjoy). I’ve done…OK. I’m certainly not wealthy, by my standards, but neither am I poor, by any means.

But these teens had created something that I wanted: their own enterprise. Maybe they hadn’t received the indoctrination that I (along with most of us) received in my early years. For most of us, that indoctrination continues to the present time. Along with the rest of society, we generally encourage our children to go to college (if you can get in anymore) and then go to work somewhere — to build someone else’s company.

There’s nothing wrong with working for someone else. In fact, several of my friends have told me that the last thing they want is their own business. They want to work their hours and then forget about work until the next day. Which has its merits, and I don’t argue with that outlook at all. It certainly has its benefits. After all, not everyone wants to earn $65,000 per MONTH of steady income!

I’m not making this up. In Mr. Hansen’s book, he tells us about Ashley Quails, a teen who liked creating art and transitioned to creating web sites. That is what she was earning. How many years did it take me doing jobs in very technical work to earn $65,000 in a YEAR? I also read of teen artists like Akiane Kramirak selling pieces of art for as much as $1 million, and Cameron Johnson, a boy of 15, generating $15,000 per DAY of revenue in a business he seemed to have started almost on a lark. He also opened a Roth IRA at that time.  Talk about planning early for retirement.

Many of us would scream, “That’s not fair!”

But it is fair. People like Ashley, Akiane and Cameron are role models for us who are, shall we say, “just a bit older” than them. They teach us how to follow the “still, small voice within” before it becomes drowned out by the noise of a world that is bent on derailing our deepest dreams, our highest aspirations, our very purpose on this planet. They teach us that we could all be millionaires if we were to just listen. And they are not the kind of millionaires that the Occupy movement hates. They are mentors and philanthropists and contributors to their families and communities. They are in touch with something that the rest of us are not. As far as I’m concerned, they are my teachers. We can learn from them. If nothing else, we can guide our children and grandchildren along and teach them that there are many ways to prosper, but that they have to find their own path to that prosperity. No one will give it to them. They have to work for it, just as these teens did. No, they don’t have to go corporate, or settle into a secure, lifetime job (which doesn’t really exist anymore).

Creating a business is an education in itself. We learn about finances and psychology and law and success. We have the freedom in this country, despite all the naysayers, critics and pessimists, to create our own income stream — an income that allows us to pursue our interests in ways that employment does not allow.

We always want to encourage education — it’s what most of my life has been about. In school, we learn social skills as well as the gifts of history, language, philosophy and analysis. We learn the arts and we play sports. But I believe we need to supplement formal education with classes that are not offered in our high schools, colleges and universities: Entrepreneurship 101, Personal Finance and Investment 102, Philanthropy 103 and The Art of Living 104.

Particularly as young people see one door after another being closed in their faces, it’s imperative that we present them with more options. They have the technological skills (which are considerably more highly developed than those we boomers possess) to create immensely profitable businesses. We just have show them a path away from the idle chatter and the time-wasting activities.

They have the gift of fire in their hands; let’s encourage them to enrich and illumine  the world using the technology in which they were immersed since birth.

— David Magallanes is embarking on a speaking and writing career whose purpose is to promote and facilitate the attainment of the American Dream.  As an optimistic American of Mexican descent, he brings his perspective on issues of our day.  He may be contacted for speaking requests or for commentary at adelantos@msn.com