19 Years Old From The Windy City

[EAChi]

Hello guys!

My name is Eric and I am 19 year old aspiring entrepreneur from Chicago, IL. Frequent lurker and I recently read The Millionaire Fastlane which prompted me to finally make an account.

In January I began my eCommerce business based on my first invention and I'm here to learn more about business and entrepreneurship from the experienced group of members on this forum. Some of the posts here have helped me tremendously to get started on the right track and the book has really helped to put things into perspective.

Right now I am planting the seeds to my money tree but I have a long way to go on the journey to success. I have a love for problem solving and I am always thinking of new ideas. From a young age I always knew that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. Something about the whole 9-5 life has never clicked with my vision. I knew that there was more to life than that.

My first go with business was when I imported green laser pens in 6th grade to sell to my classmates. Easy flip $5 to $20 at school. The only problem... no credit card to buy them. I devised that I would ride my bike to the nearby Walgreens and load a pre-paid credit card and it worked! Unfortunately my stealth operation was shut down when my mom intercepted a package and became worried that I would be suspended from school. Tough luck, it was a good hustle at that age!

School has always been tough for me, my mind has always raced with thoughts and ideas on how to create real world practical value vs. wasting time learning nonsense that I am uninterested in. Eventually my goal is to create another path in America for young entrepreneurs like me who would rather be taught useful skills at school rather than be pushed away from education as a whole by useless courses. There are great people out there with amazing creative ability who have been suppressed by formal education and the fear of failure.

Thanks for reading! And to @MJ DeMarco THANK YOU for wise words in your book. I really enjoyed the way that it was written and I couldn't put the darn thing down!

 

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[Amon]

Welcome to the forum. I liked your intro.

Agreed that the education system is built for workers & holds back young entrepreneurs.

Are you attending school right now?

And while it is important to be thinking, shouldn't most/all of your attention be focused on your eCommerce business?

Is this profitable already? If its not, reading the 4-hour work week won't cut it.

eComm is growing and you have to be spending a lot of time innovating to make your product stand out just to survive.

Luckily, there's plenty of very successful guys on here doing this and they live in the Windy City. not sure where these guys are but definitely check out @Walter Hay @Vick @biophase @Ecom man @AgainstAllOdds for some serious schooling. I recommend you read all of their material. You'll find most of the gold in the posts that don't have much attention.

Good Night, and Good Luck.

 

[EAChi]

@Amon
Right now I am not attending school but it is something that I am really on the fence about. My parents push me towards it but deep down I really don't feel that it is for me. It's a tough decision, I know that if I am uninterested I won't put maximum effort into it and it could just waste a bunch of time. Most of my real learning has been done outside of the classroom through my own motivation.

I agree that I should be spending more time on my business rather than thinking, it is a problem I am working to get through. Oftentimes I will be so focused on reading articles or books that I neglect to put the necessary time into my store. This can't be an uncommon problem and I am hoping to connect with some other like minded people to help keep me accountable on this journey.

Thank you for the suggestions! I read through the big @Walter Hay thread on importing and it was very helpful! Definitely going to look into the others.

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

My parents push me towards it but deep down I really don't feel that it is for me.

If you're living at home, just keep in mind that most parents will be supportive when you're 19, and not supportive when you're 21:

• "You should get a job."
• "Why don't you finally go to college? Your friend [insert name] is about to graduate."
• "If you got a job then you could've bought a car already."

Going to college is sometimes the path of least resistance.

Keep doing what you're doing, but have a plan in place that will allow you to continue doing what you're doing, or to become independent. The ability to keep going is essential to future success.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Excellent intro, I see the preliminary makings of an entrepreneur. Welcome aboard.

I began my eCommerce business based on my first invention

Any details? No problem if you want to keep it on the down-low. Many here do.

 

[EAChi]

@AgainstAllOdds Actually, I am already out of the house and on my own. I have a flexible 1099 job that pays me around $2-3k per month and that's what I fund my business and living with. As soon as reasonably possible I would like to buy a multi-unit property under FHA lending to "Live for free" like @G_Alexander talked about in his thread.

Excellent intro, I see the preliminary makings of an entrepreneur. Welcome aboard.


Any details? No problem if you want to keep it on the down-low. Many here do.

Without going into too much detail it is a simple product that does the same thing as what 2 of a similar product did on the market before me with an extra bonus convenience factor added on top of that. I personally used the old products and knew that I could create a more efficient solution so I created something better for my market. My product sells at $99 with a cost around $30 in the low batches that I currently order. Eventually I can drive this down significantly with bigger order sizes.

 

[Walter Hay]

@AgainstAllOdds Actually, I am already out of the house and on my own. I have a flexible 1099 job that pays me around $2-3k per month and that's what I fund my business and living with. As soon as reasonably possible I would like to buy a multi-unit property under FHA lending to "Live for free" like @G_Alexander talked about in his thread.



Without going into too much detail it is a simple product that does the same thing as what 2 of a similar product did on the market before me with an extra bonus convenience factor added on top of that. I personally used the old products and knew that I could create a more efficient solution so I created something better for my market. My product sells at $99 with a cost around $30 in the low batches that I currently order. Eventually I can drive this down significantly with bigger order sizes.

Don't be over-optimistic about substantially lower cost for larger orders. Base your calculations on facts. The only way to get those is to get a real quote for larger quantities.

Walter

 

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