Being a teenager doesn't stop your Fastlane journey

[JessieJameWets]

Now, I know that me stating I'm underage might instantly mean this thread can get closed with MJ redirecting me to the teenager forum
(link here: GOLD! - IMPORTANT! - The definitive Fastlane guide for teenagers...) with MJ calling this a low-effort post. However, I would like to point out that there are many young people like me on here whose eyes MJ has opened, most of whom can't just blind themselves or shut it out and return to mediocrity. You've opened our eyes, and after what we've seen and now know is possible, we ain't turning back. I'm not gonna waste another 4 years of my life just shitting around and doing nothing until I'm 18. I'm not having that. In these 4 years until I become an "adult", I will try multiple businesses (probably fail a few) and try again. I wouldn't consider it wasted time, just time spent learning and gaining experience. It's not like I'm ignoring my personal life completely. In fact, I am still able to allocate a lot of time to other healthy habits like going to the gym, meditating, socialising, reading (and of course, doing homework) in between the time I spend trying to set up my bank account while watching random business tutorials on YouTube.

The thing is: It's possible. And you have no excuses. Iman Gadzhi was able to venture into entrepreneurship at the age of 14 and by age 18, he was making multiple millions of dollars per year. That's all I need to know. That's why I'm gonna quickly go over what I've found out and debunk some myths/limiting beliefs teenagers have about entrepreneurship.

1#. I don't have time!!! Yeah, of course you don't have time. You spend 3 hours a day on videogames and softcore porn (a.k.a TikTok) after end of school, you have dinner, and then you have a "quick dump" (a.k.a 45 more minutes on YouTube shorts) and then you keep on watching YouTube and texting people on social media until you hit screentime limit and then it hits you: it's 10 p.m. and you still have homework leftover. By the time you finish homework and brushing your teeth (and assuming you don't waste time scrolling at night as well) it's already 11:30 p.m. and your day has been stolen. No wonder you don't have time. Because whenever you do, you end up throwing it away.

Pro tip: Unf*ck your life. Tidy your room. Quit video games and social media. If you smoke, gamble or drink alcohol, stop doing that immediately. Start grooming yourself. Start washing your face and brushing your teeth twice a day. Go to the gym (or budget version: start doing pushups). Start touching grass instead of staying inside all day. Organise your day so as to prune out the bad and bring in the good. Then you'll find time for entrepreneurship.

2#. I don't have money!!! Unless you live in some third world country like Afghanistan where there's no internet and the economy is dirt-poor (in which case I wonder how you got to this forum in the first place), I wouldn't take that as a legitimate excuse. Your parents probably don't make much, but they still need to give you pocket money every day for lunch, right? Get a bank account and save it up. Find 50 cents here, 5 dollars there, within a month or so you'll have a decent amount of money to spend on professional tools like Shopify stores (which only costs $3 for three months, by the way) to help get the business up and running. And then, if you pick up steam before your budget runs out, you'll have more money to keep on going! When MJ started out, he had $900, which he also had to use to pay the rent and his other daily living costs! Do you have those as well? We both know the answer to that. Yes, he had more time, but he also had obligations, and for you, your money ain't going nowhere unless you spend it. So you can take as long as you want to save up your money for the business. There's an endless list of options
Here are some cheap/free business building platforms for you to get started:
If you don't want to create your own storefront or you're doing dropshipping: Shopify
If you haven't got a way to get paid and need a 3rd party: Stripe
If you want to create a website: Github or VS Code
If you want to create/edit content: Capcut or Sanity (the website)
3#. I'm not 18!! How do you expect me to know how to start a corporation? Who told you you had to be 18 to start a corporation? You don't! Just because you can't "legally start a corporation" doesn't mean you can't be creative and find some loopholes to avoid this. There are 4 components to any online business:
- The host website (can be created with website builder or you can manually code through Github/VS Code)
- The product (can be either physical [beds, headphones, books] or digital [informational like ebooks or digital software or webapps])
- The marketing (can be either social media outreach, ads, cold calling, or making the website really snazzy or simply having a good USP onsite)
- The payment system (so you can finally get paid)
In our day and age, as long as you have a computer and you're willing to not watch porn on it, ALL of this can be done under 18! All that's standing between you and success is that red brick line (or whatever MJ called it in The Millionaire Fastlane ) - you gotta learn how to get a product or develop a website, that's it.
4#. I have great ideas... But they all require manufacturing or software development and they're all so expensive and so hardddd!!!
That's kind of the point, buddy. Who told you this would be easy? If you think this is something to be done overnight you may as well burn your copy of TMF and throw your account in the trash. Be creative with this. As you can't go "all in" with your time and money (you don't have any bro) try find some beginner-friendly ideas (no startup cost, such as building a website) and learn the general skills required to succeed with that idea. For me right now this is coding, so I try to tinker around with VS Code editor or watch some YouTube videos whenever I have time. Coding has a lot of uses and can open up a lot of opportunities in the online industries, so if you are on a tight budget, definitely consider this one. Another Pro tip: go internet surfing and pop up with some different industries. Try avoiding the more spotlighted and mainstream industries, ESPECIALLY when you have no startup capital. What does this mean? Don't try competing with Amazon unless you're a dumb*ss and you're trying to suicide via frustration. Remember: when MJ started out, he picked a seemingly inconspicuous niche, so as to not draw attention from others until he had grown and funded himself enough that they almost couldn't compete with him. You should have the same approach. Do what others aren't doing. Fastlane isn't just some free ticket to getting rich; it requires creativity. Besides, the world needs more variety in terms of brands and businesses. Give that to the world, and the world will give itself to you.
5#. Don't you also have parents, Jessie? Or are you an orphan?
Nah bro, I'm actually adopted... Not. Like you, I also have a Mom and Dad who work (I won't say sh*tty jobs but it sucks the sh*t out of them anyways) and they both disagree with the Fastlane beliefs and mindset (surprise surprise!). Whenever we have dinner, they always seem afk and it feels like their brains are running on 2G Wi-Fi (I'm sure at least some of you can relate), which I know is directly linked to the fact that they have to work 60+ hours a week, meaning that they have neither the time, nor the energy to deal with you. For you, that can be either a good thing or a bad thing - or both. Here's what I mean: first off, since your parents obviously believe this is bullsh*t, they're probably not gonna be giving you free money any time soon (Hey Mom, I need 1500 bucks! I'll pay you back later after I get rich!). When you tell them about your business ideas, they'll just call you naive and give you the same old sh*t: Be born, go to school, get a college degree, get a job and die (after passing on the same miserable existence to your kids, of course). Even worse, they might use "Microsoft Family Safety" to basically try to cut off your internet access so that you can't see that "harmful content". The thing is, your parents are going to try oppress you, and they're gonna do it on all four cylinders.
"You can do it when you're older"
"Yeah, but you're uNeDuCaTeD"
"I don't want you wasting our time and money on this "fastlane" shit you read from some stupid scammer"
"Don't talk to me until you get a college degree in marketing"
Don't be gaslighted. However, since they usually don't have the time to properly deal with you, that means you get a lot of free time to tinker around with different ideas without them knowing. Some parents, like mine, might even go as far as to say that you're being gaslighted (oh, the irony) and that you need to take a step back from screens (like they can say anything) and they'll end up using the ultimate weapon: "Microsoft Family Safety"
Oh, that's harsh... If you, for instance, can't go onto Google or YouTube without their permission, then the first thing you need to do is solve that. I don't know how you can do it (I did it by hacking into my Mom's phone) but that is a definite no-go if you're trying to start your own business (spoiler alert: THEY WON'T LET YOU)

Also, there's something else I want to talk about...

You may have heard the saying: "If you lie down with dogs, you'll end up with fleas". I'm not just talking about friends, but also about your family, and those gaming crabs on Discord you know you should have broke up with a long time ago. It's a psychological effect. Even if you don't neccesarily like them, or believe them, over time, you'll begin adjusting your beliefs and behaviour to be more like them. Our frame of mind is much more easily influenced by others than we may think. This is a BIG problem for all young entrepreneurs because if you want to do something, you need to have your environment and surroundings set up for success, not rigged for failure. If your school, friends, family and even the social media idols you follow all partake in the script, oozing their limiting beliefs and worldview, you are naturally gonna follow if you don't have any sort of mental defences. However, you can also use this psychological trick to your advantage.

However, there is a loophole. You don't need to have a physical person in order to be influenced. Even just an internet persona that you can see or hear will influence your brain in the same way. For instance, NEFFEX is a music brand all about hard work, dedication and anticomplacency. Just tuning into his music for an hour a day on the bus ride home can totally change your life perspective and remind you to focus on your goals.
Pro tip: from now on, whenever you go onto Spotify or Apple Music or YouTube, only watch people who have the characteristics you want to see in yourself (e.g. hardworking, dedicated, masculine) You will very quickly notice a change in your frame of mind and thought patterns. Suddenly, you don't dread the gym - instead, you want to go in and bust a workout. Same thing with entrepreneurship: if you get in the right frame of mind, you'll want to commit and dedicate yourself to the business - and you can do that by having the right influences in your life.
Another Pro tip: treat your parents like your employees. If they're acting up, and telling you bullsh*t, FIREE THEMM!!! These days, I don't really consider myself to have only one father. I have multiple father figures who I admire and look up to (like NEFFEX and Jesse James West), as I like their life philosophies much more than that of my own father.

I hope this helped. Tell me what you think.

P.S. my name is actually Gabriel, even though it says Jessie on my profile

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

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