How Old Were You?

[theDarkness]

I don't have a business background, but I grew up always creating things. At 10 I was programming and designing my own web sites. I think creating things teaches you to not be event-minded. Most people think they're too much of a dumbass to do an awesome thing. In truth you never stop feeling like a dumbass, it's just that you have to be the dumbass that keeps on ticking. In my experience it's massive sustained action leads to accomplishing things that most people can't even imagine themselves doing. It's not that you ever become less of a dumbass. You just keep hacking. You adapt and keep hacking.

So a year ago I didn't know squat about business, but I know going into anything that being process-minded--and knowing how to eat all the shit that comes with it--gives me a leg up on all the fakers and pretenders.

I can't think of anything I've tried yet in life that isn't a matter of eating shit and learning from failure. Two words: hack, adapt. Some people just do one or the other, but you need both.

I like to think of a basketball coach that judges a player's shot not based on make/miss but on execution. If it was an open shot and the form was good and not outside of the player's range - fine, make or miss. Or in the case of a crazy-a$$ double-pump three-pointer that goes in despite the defender being draped all over the shooter, I like to imagine the coach going nuts and the player thinking Hey, I made it. He's thinking event and the coach is seeing horrible execution and just raging, just completely flipping out. I don't play basketball so I don't know that coaches think like that. It's simply how I visualize it.

 

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[Stam]

I was 12 starting my first job, shitty pay. So I started to build computers, fix them and do service on them for friends and family. Also when I was 13 my mom said it was a package for me, wondering what it was. I knew it, all the papers and documentation from the government business establishing center on how to start a business. Damn 18 year old limit on starting up. 5 years later, boom my first business

 

[PopEmersen]

Not sure how I am just seeing this thread. That's great that alot of you saw entrepreneurship at a young age.

I grew in the 80's in Harlem NYC, the ghetto but it was home and I still cherish those days. I was always great at school work. My memory as a child was pretty good. I knew the capitals of all the states in the union at 3 or 4, could tell time on a normal clock. If the teacher taught me something once, I had it. Never had to study, barely went to class. I never had perfect attendance but every year tested in the top 1% of the city.

With all this, my mom always preached school, school, school. She even gave me my major, Electrical Engineering. I knew nothing about EE but when I got to college later on, that was what I majored in. Needless to say I switched after a semester.

As I got older I continued being great in school but shying away from business ops. Back in those days the only enterprising young entrepreneurs sold illegal substances on the corners. My mom never allowed me to get into that plus im scared as hell of jail so there was no way I was doing that.

There were other ops like selling candy, but that was about it. I didn't like sales because I didn't really know how to talk to strangers, I just knew how to listen, remember, regurgitate, and walk out with an A. This was true until high school in Virginia. We moved there when I was 12. By this time, I had found out that I was pretty creative and I loved music so I started a rap group with my friends. After a few years, I realized i liked making the music behind the rappers so I concentrated on the beats. I gave my entire 20's to the chase of my dream in music.

I drove from VA to LA in my 94 Eagle Summit with all my possessions in the back seat and trunk. Lived there for 6 months, hated it. It was weird, expensive, and traffic was crazy. The music industry in LA was also closed off. You had to be connected to even walk in to a studio. So my friends moved from VA to ATL in 2005 and I drove from LA to ATL to meet them. We started a music production company and we had marginal success. The music industry in Atlanta at that time was like the wild wild west, and still is a little bit. You didn't have to know anybody, just know how to hustle. We were in studios with T.I., Nelly, Jazzy Pha, and others. To make a long story short, we didn't get as far as we wanted so I decided to pivot because no one is giving billions of dollars for beats.

One day sitting in a stupid cubicle I thought "this can't be it, no way. I know there are millions of people that are self employed and live great, I need to figure this out." So, that is when I began my journey to where I am now. I researched day trading, figured that wasn't what I wanted to do. I found REI and I liked flipping more than rentals so I started a company with a business partner last year. We have been successful but the market is drying up so I started looking for other opportunities. Through my research I found this amazing site and I am still learning what a lot of you guys already know but I will get to where I want to be.

 

[andviv]

One day sitting in a stupid cubicle I thought "this can't be it, no way. I know there are millions of people that are self employed and live great, I need to figure this out."

Great story!

How old were you when this happened?

 

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[PopEmersen]

I believe I was 30. I am 32 now.

 

[AcquireCurrency]

Me and my brother started selling DVDs, Xbox/PS2 games when I was about 11-13. When I was 14-15 I used to force my brother to fill out surveys. But one day I realised that I could make MUCH MUCH more money through the websites affiliate system.

Whenever I needed cash, xbox 360 games or presents for birthdays, I would start spamming Youtube and forums to get referrals for the survey website. I was making $1-2.50 per signup. Nothing felt better as a 14 yr old than watching affiliate money pour into my PayPal or new gadgets arriving at my house.

From 15-16, my life went to shit. A whole bunch of personal problems, which in turn led me to drop out of High School at 16.


When I was 17, I started selling electronics, some unsuccessful Internet Marketing attempts, but made most of my money selling fake goods (very high profit margins!!). Was banned from eBay, so that stopped.

Read TMF - I was blown away.

Worked a shitty manual labour job, and right now I am about to start a design job, at a very healthy wage for an "uneducated" 19 yr old in Britain.


I believe having an internal locus of control is very important in achieving success.

 

[KopyKidd]

I was 6 years old.

My mom used to complain about me and my big brother having too many toys and no space for all of them, and often suggested giving them away. We chose to sell hem instead. We got out our crayons and construction paper and made flyers that said "Toys for sale" with a crudely-drawn teddy bear and our address in our childish, chunky handwriting, and rode around on our bikes taping them on every lamppost on every street in our neighborhood.

The next day, the neighborhood kids bought a lot of stuff from us. My brother sold his whole power ranger collection and made like $50. I sold my barbie dolls for $2 each and made $30.

I didn't like the idea of him outdoing me, so I went to a woman a few houses down from me who owned a daycare. I figured she could always use some new toys. I sold her my ridiculously large toy food collection for $50 (she wanted to give me $25, but I my cute little no-front-teeth smile got the best of her after a while). The toys we didn't sell got donated to GoodWill.

That was when the entrepreneurial fire was lit.

I had several other little "businesses" throughout elementary and middle school:

~4th grade - Used my easy-bake oven to have a mini bake sale at my neighborhood community day. Made $20.

~5th grade - Did other people's homework for them for $5 per assignment. Got suspended twice.

~6-7th grade - Sold lollipops and Capri-Suns at lunch/recess. Got suspended again.

~8th grade - Started out selling lollipops, but wound up becoming the center of a candy-selling ring.
A friend of mine wanted in on my candy selling hustle, so developed a system. I bought a box of blow pops for $15 and sold them to my friend for $25. They came with 100 pops in a box, so she'd make about $50 and come back to me to buy another bag. Within a month or two, I had "underlings" in three different middle schools and was making $100 every few days. I felt like a drug lord. The law (and my school administrators) caught up with me eventually, though.
I wound up making nearly $900 and got my first long-term suspension.

I read "Think And Grow Rich", "The Science Of Getting Rich", "How To Win Friends And Influence People", and a ton of other books for the first time while I was suspended. I became obsessed with the art & science of money-making.

I got into copywriting at 14 and started doing freelance jobs for local businesses, and moved on to affiliate marketing at 15. I continued to devour every business/money-making/marketing/psychology book I could find.

I found TMF at 17 (last year) and it rocked my world, to say the least.

But it all started when I was a 6 year old with no front teeth and too many toys

 

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[andviv]

I had several other little "businesses" throughout elementary and middle school:

~4th grade - Used my easy-bake oven to have a mini bake sale at my neighborhood community day. Made $20.

~5th grade - Did other people's homework for them for $5 per assignment. Got suspended twice.

~6-7th grade - Sold lollipops and Capri-Suns at lunch/recess. Got suspended again.

~8th grade - Started out selling lollipops, but wound up becoming the center of a candy-selling ring.

OMG I just LOVE your story!!!!

I wish I had had such an early start. This is so cool!

 

[CEBenz]

~8th grade - Started out selling lollipops, but wound up becoming the center of a candy-selling ring.
A friend of mine wanted in on my candy selling hustle, so developed a system. I bought a box of blow pops for $15 and sold them to my friend for $25. They came with 100 pops in a box, so she'd make about $50 and come back to me to buy another bag. Within a month or two, I had "underlings" in three different middle schools and was making $100 every few days. I felt like a drug lord. The law (and my school administrators) caught up with me eventually, though.
I wound up making nearly $900 and got my first long-term suspension.

I read "Think And Grow Rich", "The Science Of Getting Rich", "How To Win Friends And Influence People", and a ton of other books for the first time while I was suspended. I became obsessed with the art & science of money-making.



But it all started when I was a 6 year old with no front teeth and too many toys

Lmao. Your story is great!

Ok, not sure how I missed this until now.

In grade school I'd buy sell and trade football pencils. So long ago, I don't remember how I did.

In middle school, I would buy cinnamon toothpicks and resell them at school. Small market, but it was something.

High school was the dark time. Too much country music (damn you Aaron Tippin - who actually owns several businesses) and my father pretty much conspired to direct towards blue collar life. Didn't take me long to figure out that sucked. I remember walking out to break thinking,"40 hours a week for 40 years? There HAS to be a better way."

From that point, sold some industrial machinery on EBay. Had a client get mad at me cause he thought I made too much on one machine. Had a hard time finding stuff that would sell. Ultimately packed it in. Tried Quixtar before figuring out there needed to be much more margin. I've sold stuff on EBay on and off ever since.

Had an ecommerce biz that I could never get to take off. Despite print advertising and all. Some lessons were learned and now I'm back at it.

 

[Pete799p]

I was right around 3ish. I was with my mom in front of our house while she was doing some gardening. Mostly cleaning up all the leaves etc. When she turned back around I was gone so she went looking for me and found me with my little red wagon full of leaves etc walking over to a neighbor of ours. It turns out the neighbor was building a compost pile out of the same stuff we were removing and I decided that he might want to purchase what we had so I wheeled my little wagon over and asked him for a dollar.

I also had numerous other businesses from a lemonade stand, a snowcone stand, law mowing, roller blade rental service, and the age old Michigan recycling plan that involved me trying to convincing my parents to drive large bags of cans with us on vacation. It never happened and I just couldn't convince my parents to load the car up with trash for $20 bucks.

I investing a lot of my business proceeds into "collectable cards" , stamps, and coins. "for some reason I perceived these to be great investments the only problem was I never liquidated my card collection at the right time and this was pre ebay so finding buyers was very difficult. I even tried to start my own little plant nursery, only problem an entire summer is a long time for a 10year old to wait for a check

Looking back I wish I had a resource like this. Not just for the knowledge but the support and affirmation of what is possible in business. I have seen even on shark tank young kids building million dollar businesses which is just amazing.

 

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[DennisD]

I didn't realize it, but because of the time I was born I think I grew up in the perfect time to wrap my head around digital distribution. In 2nd grade, 8 years old, I made my first virtual sale.

Pokemon
All my friends would play the original pokemon on gameboy before/after/during school. We had competitive battles multiple times a day. To win the tourney was great. Made you king for the day.

The game itself taught me how trading worked. You connected a wire and transferred pokemon between gameboys. But all pokemon weren't created equal. The more time/effort you put into raising it, the more powerful it would be in battle.

The first product I offered was trading high level pokemon to other kids for real stuff.
The first service I offered was leveling up other people's pokemon in exchange for real stuff.

This 'real stuff' included trading cards, toys, games, etc.

eBook
Years later, I was 15 and wanted to be a psychologist. My friend (wanted to be a programmer) and I partnered up to sell a digital product. I had purchased a book on lucid dreaming and I thought they explained it all wrong. I wanted to paraphrase the entire book in an easier to understand way, and he was to write an accompanying computer program (to help document dreams.) I wanted to sell this for $50 on ebay. I wrote up the business plan, my friend started on the project, but the scope was too big for either of us.

I created an online forum on angelfire where people could share their dreams. I posed as an adult and analyzed them for free (I guess I was trying to draw traffic for eventual customers)

I had never heard of an 'eBook' before. It was my 4th year my family had a computer, and I was only allowed to use it an hour a day. I don't know what gave me the idea.. but it's still on my list of things to do.

Rock Paper Scissors

When I was 15/16, My and my friends got into rock paper scissors. We tried to take this antiquated 'lame' game and make it cool. I created a RPS mocumentary where we interviewed the principal about Rock Paper Scissor gangs on the school (aired it on public access). We gave away T-Shirts, and a friend programmed a crude website where you can play online and compete in tournaments.

I didn't make any $$ off of it, but it was a really great lesson on branding and spreading a viral idea among peers.

First Video Client

17/18 years old, senior year, was when I got my first video gig. I traded my services in exchange for not having to take classes. I had outgrown all my computer science classes. I finished my work within 10 mintues, and waited the remaining 80 minutes for class to end.

My teachers struck a deal with me. I would get A+s in all three classes WITHOUT DOING ANY WORK if I made a video for senior-class-last-assembly. Apparently some teachers were retiring and they wanted some sort of tribute made.

I agreed and spent these three classes (4.5 hours a week) making videos instead of doing schoolwork.

 

[Pete799p]

Hope some of you get a laught from this one. I also forgot about "Winning in the Cashflow business" ... for those of you who remember.

I bought it when I was in junior high. I just loved the idea of purchasing, reselling, and holding onto private notes for massive profit. I was finally going to have my dream of becoming a bank I remember working really hard to come up with the $120, which to a 12year old is a lot of dough, and begging my dad to buy it for me. That was when I learned that the only guy winning in the cash flow business was the guy selling it.

I also was really into investing and remember begging my dad to let me invest my money in stocks. However, this was before the internet got big so you still had to place orders with a broker. I guess my dad didn't want his 10year old calling his broker everyday to trade his $200. I think this is why this is the greatest time in the world to be a young entrepreneur. The tools that kids have today to make it happen are unreal.

 

[InLikeFlint]

Looking back on it, even at 6,7,8 I was doing lemonade stands, selling things on eBay, doing whatever to make money for the next big thing.

15 when I put that effort towards business - I just turned 17

 

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[CEBenz]

Looking back on it, even at 6,7,8 I was doing lemonade stands, selling things on eBay, doing whatever to make money for the next big thing.

15 when I put that effort towards business - I just turned 17

I have vague recollections of a lemonade stand in my childhood but if memory serves, We made less than $5 cause we were at the very back if the neighborhood.

 

[Silverhawk851]

Great thread. I have some stories that even I find hard to believe as a kid.


Back when I was in grade 3, there was the huge pokemon/digimon wave, where these trading cards based off cartoons would sell like crazy.
In my mind, it was the biggest thing ever. I felt they were taking over world, everywhere I went I saw kids playing, dealing, talking about it.

I decided to take advantage of this, I saved up some spare change and had my mom bake cookies (resourcefulness), went to the fat kid with the best card and bought it from him (negotiating).

Since everyone knew what each other had (competition), I would go challenge the guys to "play for Keeps" who had the 2nd best cards, lose all my cards to them, then break out the top Dog card, and clean house. (competitive advantage)

I amassed a small fortune of cards, sold them to kids individually based on how cool each card was. Like $120 when I was in grade 3.
My aunt had a dollar store at the time, so I would use that to buy more at cost price, and boom sell them back to the kids at retail. She would often just give me boxes just because she saw my dedication. (upselling/leverage)

Felt like Pablo Escobar of recess. Safe to say I got labelled that Hustler kid.

The worst of it came when this big bully came to beat me up and take my stuff. I had a popular girlfriend at the time and I told her to make fun of him and soon the entire class followed. I then recruited a grade 5 'bodyguard' into my exclusive "Team" to hang around with if things got rowdy.

Grade 6, Moved to Saudi Arabia because of Dad's work, he's essentially a double PHD in Network Design, so he does consulting work around the globe.

When I went to the schools, I found out that laws were strict, you couldn't just go buy movies, let alone download. One factor was that the entire country was running on dial-up, and every site was banned.

My dad was the senior architect for DSL internet (it's like cable) for the entire country, so we had the 2nd line available for testing use (very interesting when you pick up the phone and it's these Royal princes asking you when your daddy is going to help them out).

It's even more awesome what you can do when you have unlimited High-speed internet and the entire country is on dial up. Instant Celebrity.

I caught a whiff of P2P software from my older, hustler cousins back in Toronto over MSN one day when I told them how bored I was.

Ended up downloading a P2P software, downloading hundreds of movies, burning them to CDs and moving them in school for $20. $50 if you wanted to order a specific movie.

I had close to $1000 racked up by the end of the month, where I got busted. Suspensions only helped me make more money, Lol.


I also got my first taste of business ethics, considering the amount of Adult requests I got from pimply-faced teenagers. I weighed in the consequences, possible expulsion, loss of internet-privileges, and since Saudi Arabia is very strict when it comes to that, I decided its a no-go. (Long thoughts preceded this, lol).


I ended up buying a BB gun from my earnings, which lead me into alot of hot water, especially with other arab kids. Lol. I profited a couple hundred off that too, but That's another story.

Good times.

 

[stranger]

I wrote articles for a local children newpaper when i was 12. bought and sold coins. Started making a living since i was 14. but i'm not fastlaner. Anyway i've never had a boss in my fu..ing life.

 

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[KopyKidd]

Lmao. Your story is great!

OMG I just LOVE your story!!!!

Thanks! 8th grade was definitely one of the best years of my entire academic life (even though I was only in school for 5 months)

 

[LibertyForMe]

I was in 5th grade, and me and a friend sold school supplies to kids while we were at school. We would find our inventory laying on the ground; things like mechanical pencils, pencil grips, erasers, and one day we hit the jackpot and found a calculator! We had two big pencil boxes that we stored all of our inventory in, and every day at recess we would open up shop. I would just convince kids that they needed our stuff, haha.

We only ran about two weeks before the teacher found out, but we made like 40-50$. The teacher told us that we couldn't sell things because it was against the rules, but we had already closely examined the entire school rule book to make sure selling things was allowed. Rules didn't mention it, so when the teacher told uis we couldn't we told him he was wrong! Haha, he ended up saying that we had to stop, but he bought us all pizza and soda one day for class using the money that we made, so I was ok with it.

 

[PSDSH]

I never hustled for money, never really cared that much about it. I don't like selling either. However, I've always been very competitive and that showed up in sports and just about everything I do. I've always felt that I can do anything anyone else can do and probably do it better. Now, just like in sports, you win some and you lose some but you just keep competing, pick yourself up and dust yourself off and get back to it.

 

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[GPM]

Wow, some of you guys started really young and by the sounds of it really kept up with it.

My first business experience was in grade 8. The closest corner store was about 1.5km from our school and I was the only one willing to run there and back during lunch hour. I quickly realized that the other kids were jealous that I had candy after lunch and they did not and that I could capitalize on this. I would buy those packages with about six giant gum balls in them for $0.75 and turn around and sell EACH gum ball for about $1.00. I ended up expanding my inventory and probably turned an initial $20 investment into a few hundred dollars which I then blew on random crap that kids like, probably video games or something.

Around the same time as that all the kids were in to these marvel cards that were in a vending machine of sorts, you would put your quarter in and a card would slide out all scratched to hell. Well I knew where a card store was so I could get them in packs for cheaper and in mint condition, so I would load up and sell the common cards in perfect condition for a quarter, uncommons for maybe a buck and the rare holograms for significantly more money than their book value.

In high school I found out about booze and I suppose I became indoctrinated into society - get a job, get good grades, work for the rest of your life. I don't know what happened to my money making spirit but I did not get it back until I turned about 23 and started research mode to get out of the corporate life. I did not really start making real moves in to self sufficiency until maybe 4 months ago.

 

[EastWind]

I honestly believe there are more people that expected to be rich and never got rich and never will than those that expected to be rich and got so. Sure, when people get riched, they get asked if they expected and they always say yes. Except for those who won the lottery. When I was young, I thought I would make my first million 8 years ago. I remember telling myself when I was 18yrs that I would kill myself if I didn't make my first million by the time I turned 27. The most I have ever saved up in life is 5 figures, and at the very low end.

 

[Jill]

What a fun thread! Not sure how I missed it when it first made the rounds...

My first foray into the world of entrepreneurship (other than the obligatory lemonade stand, of course) was probably at 8 or 9 - 2nd or 3rd grade. I noticed at lunch that everyone seemed to LOVE "Honeybuns" in their lunch pails. So I asked Mom that my lunch always be packed with Honeybuns, which I quickly ascertained could be cut into quarters and bartered for all manner of Reeses, Butterfingers, Snickers, M&Ms, etc. i.e. things that had more value to me. I innately understood this. So I started sneaking an extra Honeybun into my Brady Bunch lunch box everyday, and the rest is history! LOL.

The next year, I discovered the Tandy leather store in our town (because my brother had boy scout project to buy there) and asked if I could have their scraps. (Who does that??????) I took them home; cut them into even strips, applied the snaps (bear in mind, I'm still in 4th grade here), stamped, customized and hand-painted these "bracelets" for my classmates and sold them for 50 cents each. COGs, 5 cents!! 10X! I had totally forgotten about this until a new Facebook friend of mine from elementary school reminded me of it last week....

I couldn't possibly attempt to recount the projects that came next. But suffice it to say, there have been a few. (Why doesn't everyone find this life AMAZING and EXCITING!!!!??????)

This continued into Jr. High and High School when various groups were having fund-raising drives with various candies..... I would figure out how/where to buy them from the grocery store (that looked the same) and sell them at school, as if I were participating in a fund-raiser!! (Is that wrong?)

 

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[Jamillah]

My parents are very business minded, and I have always loved to listen and learn from them. Even when I was only 5 or 6 I remember wanting to know more about how to make money.
It was important too, having such a big family ( 8 kids! ) that we bought some of our own things instead of asking my parents for it. I think that was one of the best things they taught me.
When I was 7 I bought a big box of bubble gum from a club store, and I sold it at school for $.50 profit on each pack. I did the same thing with twizzlers.
One time I used one of my mom's old projectors to make a movie theater at a park. I charged $1.00 to watch a 5 minute reel. I think I made like $15 bucks. When I was 8 or 9 I sold one of my American girl dolls for $50.
One of the things I learned early was that you can't expect for something to just fall in your lap. You have to get up and do what you need to do to get there. So when I was 13 I wanted a parrot. This wasn't just a little bird in a cage. I wanted a gigantic, loud macaw. and I soon found out that they where very expensive. but I really wanted it, and I knew I could get it too. So I started selling ( this will get some laughs) denture teeth on ebay. I was probably the weirdest kid around, but I sold enough to buy a macaw, about $1,600 worth.

when I was 17 me and my mom started a business together, and that was when I realized that I LOVE business! I was learning so much every day, and I couldn't get enough. We sold that business,
now I'm 23 and I am in the testing and development stage of a product. I guess you could say it's in my veins!

 

[infinitus]

I remember collecting spider-man cards, and had an idea to weigh the cards with the special rare holographs in them. They actually were a tiny bit different, and went to the newsagent and weighed up the packs and got all hologram specials! The newsagent owner was shaking his head but let me do it anyway, i wouldn't consider it a wise purchase collecting cards but at least i was able to get better returns lol

 

[andviv]

I have vague recollections of a lemonade stand in my childhood but if memory serves, We made less than $5 cause we were at the very back if the neighborhood.

I faced the same issue with my kids' lemonade and bake sales stands.

My house is in the middle of the block and the passing traffic misses the stand all the time because there are either cars parked or it is a slight turn and they missed them.

So I went to the party city or wal-mart and paid $50 for a helium gas tank and balloons to tie to the tables. Sales went up. Think about it, $50 investment for them to double their sales from $5 to $10.

Then, later, instead of keep paying for the helium, I decided that for each sale I would rather take the table and chairs and move the stand to the corner where they were very visible.

Instant success! They went from $5-$10 per day to $20 a day.

I hope the lesson sticks with them as they grow up.

 

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[andviv]

I remember collecting spider-man cards, and had an idea to weigh the cards with the special rare holographs in them.

pretty clever. How old were you when you did this?

 

[Skys]

I am not sure how old I was. I might be biased into telling you the answer how I feel at this moment. When I was 8, I sold sea shells. But, aren't all kids selling something? I think you are right about having to breath business, and I think for most entrepreneurship is something that sounds very cool, like a beautiful romantic story where it will always be a fantasy.

An old buddy of mine, when we where 18, everybody knew the guy would never be able to work for somebody else. He now owns his own video production company.

Me? I don't know. I can tell you that after some years of being a professional poker player, entrepreneurship started to become more interesting to me. Before that, I was in a band for several years. But to call that entrepreneurial, no. I think for me it started with reading MJs book. So, I guess in that regard, I am still faking it. But you know what they say: Fake it till you make it. If you want it bad enough, you can get it.

 

[CEBenz]

Lol this thread has triggered some memories I'd long forgotten. Another incident I forgot to mention. I can't remember if I was 16 or 17 but anyway, I worked for a friend of my dad, in an HVAC fab shop. For whatever reason he had my dad make him something. Well, my dad sent it with me, and told me what to collect. I knew my dad always undercharged, so I added like $20 and pocketed the difference. Dad was laughing when he confronted me about it.

 

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[Leo Hendrix]

My first business of that I can recall, started in high school I was in 10th grade selling certain goods such as betelnuts, I used to sell out pretty fast and was aggressive in going around to all the potential buyers, highlighting all my USP's, I did make ok money at the time especially for being in high school and in my home country and home town there were no ready available jobs for high school kids.

 

[Vick]

I spent all my life ignoring wealth. I grew up thinking it was impossible to attain such wealth, especially where I grew up.

My entire life was focused on working in the entertainment industry as an artist.

I completed that goal not too long ago. And very soon realized it sucked more then anything.

So ya. I was about 30 when my mind shifted. About 4 years ago.

If I do regret anything in my life, it's that I didn't find entrepreneurship earlier in my youth.

Oh well, we're all responsible for our own choices. I try not to look back to often. Not really motivating for me. I prefer to look forward.

Entrepreneurship inevitably found me anyway.

What moves me forward is knowing that I'll never work for anyone ever again.