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Advice for a confused 16yo

Anything related to matters of the mind

Fnesse

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I have learned much from the books and this forum, and I would ask advice for my current situation.




In books that I have read, it says that " being too young is not an excuse. " And I agree,

But

It is also applicable to a 16yo kid like me?





I have read many books and I really feel like I'm action faking.

I feel like I know the fundamentals or atleast the basic of the basics.

and would need first hand experience to really get to the next level.




I am now wondering if I should keep learning and wait till I'm older,

Or do my first project now.





Actions I could take right now,

Learn to code an app,
that way I can make a tool to provide value


I also read that website development is a good thing to learn right now,

But

I've read that coding is not the best thing to learn and should focus more on other skills.





I'm really overwhelmed not knowing what's the best next step.

What direction could be the most effective way for me?






I would like to get thoughts and advice to get better!

All the help would be greatly appreciated :smile:




 
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D

Deleted78083

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Find a problem to solve, and then learn the skill you need to know to solve the problem. Alternatively, you can also simply...help other people, and see how to get paid to do so.

Here's a stupid idea for you to get started: make a chocolate cake and sell slices at your school during breaks. If it works well, make more cakes, sell more slices, then hire people to do so etc.

Whatever you do, doing something is better than nothing, even if you are 16.

Best,
M.
 

Rabby

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Experience. Do things that people actually need. You'll inevitably learn while doing them.
 

Kak

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It is awesome that you are this interested in entrepreneurship at this age. I have some advice as someone that started young as well...

1. It is never too early to start working on cool things that excite you.

2. We all wish we would have started earlier.

3. Don't let the world beat this out of you. This path is tough, but rewarding and totally worth it.

4. Enjoy the journey, don't live for the destination.

5. Think scale and build things that are bigger than you. Your plans, and ultimately the resulting reward, are limited by your decisions more than anything else.

6. The more you do, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better you get. The proper order is do before learn. No one ever did anything groundbreaking by learning before doing.

7. Awesome ideas can fail because of poor leadership. Make leadership a priority.

This said! Go for it! Do great things! Welcome to the forum! I hope you stick around.
 
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Last edited:

Fnesse

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It is awesome that you are this interested in entrepreneurship at this age. I have some advice as someone that started young as well...

1. It is never too early to start working on cool things that excite you.

2. We all wish we would have started earlier.

3. Don't let the world beat this out of you. This path is tough, but rewarding and totally worth it.

4. Enjoy the journey, don't live for the destination.

5. Think scale and build things that are bigger than you. Your plans, and ultimately the resulting reward, are limited by your decisions.

6. The more you do, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better you get. The proper order is do before learn. No one ever did anything groundbreaking by learning before doing.

This said! Go for it! Do great things!
I really need to apply tip 4.

I always get overwhelmed thinking about the future.

Thanks for the advice !
 

Gaucho10

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I have learned much from the books and this forum, and I would ask advice for my current situation.




In books that I have read, it says that " being too young is not an excuse. " And I agree,

But

It is also applicable to a 16yo kid like me?





I have read many books and I really feel like I'm action faking.

I feel like I know the fundamentals or atleast the basic of the basics.

and would need first hand experience to really get to the next level.




I am now wondering if I should keep learning and wait till I'm older,

Or do my first project now.





Actions I could take right now,

Learn to code an app,
that way I can make a tool to provide value


I also read that website development is a good thing to learn right now,

But

I've read that coding is not the best thing to learn and should focus more on other skills.





I'm really overwhelmed not knowing what's the best next step.

What direction could be the most effective way for me?






I would like to get thoughts and advice to get better!

All the help would be greatly appreciated :smile:
As someone older than you and also getting started like you are, I can tell you I felt the same way; Everyone is telling you something and that way you feel confused and you don't know where to start. One thing I found out and that will also help you is, start solving and find solutions to your problems and others around you. Secondly experience things on your own, don't just take advices. Go and find out what it looks like , if someone tells you, you can't make money on Amazon, see and try out for yourself. And lastly practice patience and think of long term. All the best.
 
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alexkuzmov

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I have learned much from the books and this forum, and I would ask advice for my current situation.




In books that I have read, it says that " being too young is not an excuse. " And I agree,

But

It is also applicable to a 16yo kid like me?





I have read many books and I really feel like I'm action faking.

I feel like I know the fundamentals or atleast the basic of the basics.

and would need first hand experience to really get to the next level.




I am now wondering if I should keep learning and wait till I'm older,

Or do my first project now.





Actions I could take right now,

Learn to code an app,
that way I can make a tool to provide value


I also read that website development is a good thing to learn right now,

But

I've read that coding is not the best thing to learn and should focus more on other skills.





I'm really overwhelmed not knowing what's the best next step.

What direction could be the most effective way for me?






I would like to get thoughts and advice to get better!

All the help would be greatly appreciated :smile:
Hey, welcome to the forum.

Why not say a little bit more about you and your situation?
Hard to give advise without knowing you, your circumstances or goals.
 

Fnesse

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Sep 30, 2020
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Hey, welcome to the forum.

Why not say a little bit more about you and your situation?
Hard to give advise without knowing you, your circumstances or goals.
About me,

I am a high school kid searching for a career path,

I never liked the idea of the 9-5 so I searched and and read some books about career and self help.

I found out about unscripted and millionaire fastlane and decided that entrepreneurship was the path I want to take.



Now realizing that I can take action and not just read, I am now overwhelmed.


Is learning to code an efficient use of my time?

Should I read more books so that I'm more prepared when I need it in the future?

Is it really possible as early as 16 to test things out? Or should I wait after school for better opportunity?

What's the most effective or useful thing to learn right now?

I don't know what my next step is.



It's always been a dream of mine to be live without needing to work,

Seeing my mom overworked on her laptop scares and motivates me,

I REALLY respect her for that but I don't want to go through the same thing.

Maybe there's a better way.


I also want to achieve my dream as early as possible to that she can have the freedom to rest also as early as possible.


As I'm reading this, I notice that I am so shallow and just chasing money.

But it's what motivates me to do what I do.



Now, I know that providing value is the way but I don't know what's the best way for me to provide value.


Will it be coding?
Special skill?
Copywriting?


There's so many options and I can't choose because maybe when I put my time into it,

maybe there's a new more effective way to do it.
 

alexkuzmov

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About me,

I am a high school kid searching for a career path,

I never liked the idea of the 9-5 so I searched and and read some books about career and self help.

I found out about unscripted and millionaire fastlane and decided that entrepreneurship was the path I want to take.



Now realizing that I can take action and not just read, I am now overwhelmed.


Is learning to code an efficient use of my time?

Should I read more books so that I'm more prepared when I need it in the future?

Is it really possible as early as 16 to test things out? Or should I wait after school for better opportunity?

What's the most effective or useful thing to learn right now?

I don't know what my next step is.



It's always been a dream of mine to be live without needing to work,

Seeing my mom overworked on her laptop scares and motivates me,

I REALLY respect her for that but I don't want to go through the same thing.

Maybe there's a better way.


I also want to achieve my dream as early as possible to that she can have the freedom to rest also as early as possible.


As I'm reading this, I notice that I am so shallow and just chasing money.

But it's what motivates me to do what I do.



Now, I know that providing value is the way but I don't know what's the best way for me to provide value.


Will it be coding?
Special skill?
Copywriting?


There's so many options and I can't choose because maybe when I put my time into it,

maybe there's a new more effective way to do it.

Learning to code is a long and hard road, the auxiliary skills you pick up on the way are valuable as well. It is an efficient use of your time.
Learning copywriting is long and hard too, but arguably more lucrative in the begining. It is also an efficient use of your time.

The thing is that we cant know what the future holds for you and where you`ll find a need to fill or value to provide.
Given that, I cant tell you what skills you "need" to learn.
There is no such thing as best skill.

At 16 you are way too young to plunge yourself into business.
Instead, you can look for a mentor, internship, part time job or whatever in an industry or sector where you have an interest in, preferebly something which has potential, but any starter job might do.
I started as a bartender and waiter at 15.

Think of it as a way to get domain experience.
A single skill is not enough, you need more than that and it takes time.
You`ll feel when you are ready.
The goal is to success, right?
So go to a successful person and see what they are doing right.

You`ll quckly discover that there is much more to business than you initially thought there would be.
But keep doing actions everyday and you`ll learn it all.

Here are some tips that I wish I could say to my self when I was 16:

1. Dont eat sugar as much, train your body at least 4 times per week.
2. Get at least 8 hours of sleep, interrupted, doesnt matter what time you wake up so long as you are active for the other 16 hours.
3. Dont get hung up on school. Grades dont matter, only knowledge matters.
4. Dont get involved with girls, you are not ready, they`ll just stand in the way of your entrepreneurial journey. Quick socialization here and there is fine, dont get attached. There will be PLEEEEENTY of time for such things once you have your shit together.
 
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alexkuzmov

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P.S.

And dont try and rush through it.
Enjoy the journey, the struggle and learning.
Working alot on something, putting in the hours doesnt mean to be under stress constantly and to rush rush rush.
Dont roget to be a kid while you still can, you`ll be an adult before you know it and there is no going back.
 

DayIFly

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You say you've read the books, but did you REALLY read them? Did you apply the ideas? I mean take MJ's second book. There are more than enough methods there about how to come up with ideas. But they're not as easy as you think because you have to change the way you think and it'll be difficult because change in general is difficult. You'll fall back into your comfort zone in no time and you'll even stop listening to pain points that you hear people say in your day-to-day life. It's a real effort in my opinion.

If you have no idea right now, maybe look at Amazon products and try to reverse-engineer them to come up with value skews for fun. The thing is, the more experience you have in life, and the more things you try out, the more ideas you'll get. Maybe you find a product that you can apply a value skew to while having fun doing some hobby of yours. You're young, so try out some things, don't simply stay in the house googling and reading books all day.

Try some part-time jobs. Go from foundational job to specialized labor like in the video below (and the other progressions). Like today I found out that a subset of brick-and-mortar businesses in my country need to get all their electrical equipment certified every year to not get any problems with insurance and so on when something happens, and it's a massive amount of tools. I tried to find people who do this on the web and there wasn't even a single Google Ad searching for local clients. You would need an electrical engineering degree and a qualification seminar to do this.

My tip would be to spread your wings and really start to develop your sense for opportunities.

Also, I wouldn't recommend to not getting involved with girls like someone posted above. I don't see the harm. Don't become a social retard, experience things, get a big social circle, there are a lot of interesting people out there, an interesting life will provide you with interesting ideas. This is my opinion, so maybe this advice could be wrong for some people, but you're young, you have plenty of time, especially because you don't have any business ideas right now. So what's the difference between wrecking your brain when it's obviously not ready yet and having a good life while working on your 6th sense for finding opportunities.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_58zPgArb4
 
Last edited:

Kevin88660

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I have learned much from the books and this forum, and I would ask advice for my current situation.




In books that I have read, it says that " being too young is not an excuse. " And I agree,

But

It is also applicable to a 16yo kid like me?





I have read many books and I really feel like I'm action faking.

I feel like I know the fundamentals or atleast the basic of the basics.

and would need first hand experience to really get to the next level.




I am now wondering if I should keep learning and wait till I'm older,

Or do my first project now.





Actions I could take right now,

Learn to code an app,
that way I can make a tool to provide value


I also read that website development is a good thing to learn right now,

But

I've read that coding is not the best thing to learn and should focus more on other skills.





I'm really overwhelmed not knowing what's the best next step.

What direction could be the most effective way for me?






I would like to get thoughts and advice to get better!

All the help would be greatly appreciated :smile:
You seem to have some talent in writing. What about that? Develop it as a blogging skill?
 
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Fnesse

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Sep 30, 2020
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Philippines
You seem to have some talent in writing. What about that? Develop it as a blogging skill?
Thank you all SO MUCH for all the advice and help,

I have learned much from this.



Key things I learned:

• Don't rush, enjoy the journey, have fun.
• I'll learn the skills I need when I need to.

Right now, I'll focus on developing my need finding and solving 6th sense.



Again, THANK YOU all for your time and help!
 

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