Teen entrepreneurship

[FastlaneTiger]

Hey everyone!

Introduction about me

I'm a 15 years old Hungarian teenager who wants to be an entrepreneur as fast as possible. Yep. You heard it right. I've always disliked the idea of the Slowlane and I've had many many arguments about it with my parents, but slowly they started to understand my ideas. They said that I can do my own business thing if I keep my marks great. Like a month ago I found my dream car (Ferrari F12) on a website and my journey began. Jumping from video to video I found a guy's review about a supercar (Paris Decoste) and then somehow I found this website (There is a thread about him) , that was the breaking point in my life. MJ DeMarco TOTALLY understood me, I'm so filled with motivation, energy, and hope now that I'm ready to fight for my dreams and I will never stop. Currently I'm learning website building and designing (HTML5 + CSS3).​

My plan

My plan is to get enough education and knowledge to start my internet company before I turn 17-18.
Question to MJ: What do you think? Is this possible?​

Are any of you in the same shoe like me in the forum?

If yes then please write to this thread I'm happy to hear your story ​

Any suggested texts that you recommend? (Great business journeys in this forum, books, threads etc.)

This thread is might be kinda pointless, but it really felt good to write to this AMAZING forum.

~FastlaneTiger

EDIT: Sorry for the wrong section I guess (That's the first forum that I use).

 

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[Jakeeck]

I'm new here as well and some of the advice I've seen given is to read the most popular threads, which are listed for you if you haven't seen them. Also to read the posts of the most reputable forum members, who are also listed for you.

Good luck! Wish I started when I was 15.

 

[FastlaneTiger]

Thanks for your reply, I've found an amazing thread!
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/mj-is-offering-free-mentoring.25393/
Tons of knowledge.

 

[parkerscott]

It is possible, but you are getting into a territory with very high competition, and not a lot of experience to bring to the table in terms of webpage design.

By all means pursue it if thats what you want to do, but put a twist on the process that will set you apart from all the other webpage designers that have more experience, and work for pennies.

 

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[FastlaneTiger]

@parkerscott It's summertime! I have 2 months to read ~5 books and fight for my future company full time

 

[parkerscott]

@parkerscott It's summertime! I have 2 months to read ~5 books and fight for my future company full time

Two months isnt enough time to learn to program. You could learn how to outsource the work though

 

[Jakeeck]

Two months isnt enough time to learn to program. You could learn how to outsource the work though

2 months is enough time to become well-versed in Wordpress, although you are right that he will eventually need to outsource some work if he does Wordpress. More complicated things that only a programmer could do.

 

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[FastlaneTiger]

I'm not saying that I'll become a professional. By the way I find HTML quite an easy language if we can call it a "programming" language (I've done Java before (not much tho)).

 

[FastlaneTiger]

The goal to get the knowledge is not 2 months but my 17-18. birthday

 

[parkerscott]

2 months is enough time to become well-versed in Wordpress, although you are right that he will eventually need to outsource some work if he does Wordpress. More complicated things that only a programmer could do.

He will still be violating the comandment of scale and time if hes doing the work by himself. Its good to do it for a job, but you are not going to get that supercar you want building websites yourself.

 

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[FastlaneTiger]

He will still be violating the comandment of scale and time if hes doing the work by himself. Its good to do it for a job, but you are not going to get that supercar you want building websites yourself.

Didn't MJ start limos.com by himself? I'm curious..

 

[JasonR]

Go learn how to buy media as an affiliate. I much rather would have learned the skills of SELLING and copywriting before I learned how to code/design.

Plus you can make a boatload, and then use those skills to launch your own company/product.

Closely watch how companies are able to pay $30-45 a sale. The math may seem odd on the front end, but their back end is where all the profit lies.

 

[FastlaneTiger]

Go learn how to buy media as an affiliate. I much rather would have learned the skills of SELLING and copywriting before I learned how to code/design.

Plus you can make a boatload, and then use those skills to launch your own company/product.

Closely watch how companies are able to pay $30-45 a sale. The math may see fish on the front end, but their back end is where all the profit lies.

Thanks for the tips Jason! It's 22:19 here I go to sleep now so I can start the next day with energy. Good night everyone.

 

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[RadioActive]

The Ferrari you want will soon become a major distraction.

 

[Trivium iz rC]

Welcome to the forum!

While a disagree with some of the other members post above. Learning to Code & Understanding Programing is a big ASSET, Yes you can outsource it but you don't know the QUALITY your getting. Most freelancers are just looking for quick cash & don't see the project the way you do or envision it, it's just a paycheck to them. Every time there's a bug or you wanna change minor things to your website or web app you will have to hire someone and those little things add up very quickly when you have limited capital.

Lucky for you, your 15 so time is on your side. Learn to program for the sake of getting it up and running & to understand the "tech" side of the business your going to create. Don't learn to code to be a specialist in every language.

I Learned HTML, CCS, Javascript & JQuery and currently learning Ruby On Rails in my spare time. If your looking for great threads check out the ones that are labeled "Gold Thread"

If I were you I'd do the following things and learn the following skills to begin with:

Find a need in the market place and solve it.

Learn Copywriting
Learn Sales
Learn Marketing
Learn HTML, CSS, Javascript, JQuery (Learn Ruby on Rails after the other 4 to make web apps)

^ Those will keep you busy.

Good Luck

Kosta-B

 

[CarrieW]

just because he wants to learn to code doesn't mean he is going to code websites for other people for a living.. he said he wants to start an internet company. not become self employed website designer for other people... (could be what he is intending idk.)

if you learn to code and you make a template package people can do on their own... that's creating a product and fastlane...

there are lots of useful skills... just because I want to learn sales doesn't mean I want to be a used car salesman

eta welcome fastlanetiger

 

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[Ashten]

just because he wants to learn to code doesn't mean he is going to code websites for other people for a living.. he said he wants to start an internet company. not become self employed website designer for other people... (could be what he is intending idk.)

if you learn to code and you make a template package people can do on their own... that's creating a product and fastlane...

there are lots of useful skills... just because I want to learn sales doesn't mean I want to be a used car salesman

eta welcome fastlanetiger

I 2x CarrieW's post. Learn coding, but of course don't let it stop there. Some advice for coding... if something is going to take a long time to learn & implement, its better to just outsource the task. Remember time & leverage both are the assets.

 

[FastlaneTiger]

Thanks for your kind answers.
I don't want to become a freelancer, I want to become an entrepreneur, I want to make a COMPANY to make VALUE.
I won't stop at HTML & CSS, I've never said that. Since I've read the book I feel like I have to get as much knowledge as possible, and I will

 

[FastlaneTiger]

@CarrieW offtopic: For some reason I can't PM people, I don't see the "Start a Conversation" button.
Screenshot: http://www.tiikoni.com/tis/view/?id=5ac9350
How can I fix that? (others can PM me)

 

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[CarrieW]

Each person can change their own settings. New accounts have restrictions for 24 hours or something

 

[Blhhi]

I 100% disagree with everyone about learning to code. I'm 21. I spent most of my life thinking I was going to be a novelist until a friend introduced me to HTML and CSS when I was 19. It took ~1 month to learn, and to this day I still remember how to do most of the basic stuff (I haven't touched it in forever, I do Android now). Here's the greatest resource on the web: http://www.w3schools.com/sitemap/default.asp

I then timidly moved to programming (I was always horrible at math, so I was scared). I started with JavaScript, which took just over a month to get an understanding of, and then I jumped to C++ (not recommended). If you stay focused, 2 months is plenty of time to get competent at programming, but it depends how serious you are. You need to work on projects all the time. Always challenge yourself. Don't just read, program. Program 2 hours for every 1 hour you read. And read other people's code.

For web development, focus on HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, JQuery, PHP. <- With that, you can start building any website you want.

Resources:

http://stackoverflow.com/
http://getbootstrap.com/
http://www.dreamincode.net/
https://www.youtube.com/user/thenewboston
http://jquery.com/

Oh and when you're getting books, never pay. Use: http://thepiratebay.se/ and http://www.utorrent.com/

 

[FastlaneTiger]

@Prototype you are saying the same as my programmer cousin! And yea I disagree with the others above about programming too.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118008189/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20 I'm reading this book at the moment. The design of it is kinda amazing. (I'm not saying this because I'm an affiliate)

"I was always horrible at math" Well I don't have that problem ^_^
"If you stay focused, 2 months is plenty of time... ...serious you are." I am 100% serious about it. I understand that if I want to live a dream life I have to work for it. Not tomorrow not one week later but NOW. Thanks for your answer.

 

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[DrJake]

Hey man!

I'm 15 myself and I'm currently working on a web-based service. It is a very valuable thing to be learning both HTML and CSS as they will save you many, MANY headaches in the future.

However when building a web-based company I can't stress enough how good of a teacher experience is. You can learn as many programming languages as you'd like but I would really recommend working on your website as you go along. I expect you'll be using a website builder such as Wordpress (what I use and recommend) and if so you'll want to start learning all you can about it first-hand.

What I've done is created a simple landing-page signup for my website (and I built this without touching a single line of code, under 4 hours.) while I learn, build, and expand the actual website.

http://startyourband.com/

I've been working on this project for less than a week so I still have little experience, but the experience I've learned FIRST-HAND is far more valuable to me than any codeacademy class I've ever taken. You WILL come across technical problems you couldn't have expected to come across, and no amount of HTML or CSS will stop you from having to learn to solve that problem. And this is my 100% money back guarantee.

Don't get me wrong though. It's still very good basics to learn web-designing languages. I'm trying to learn myself to save some headaches, time and money.

 

[FastlaneTiger]

I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only one youngster here, haha!
What I'm seeing about new startup websites is that 90% of them look the same. I'm not saying they look bad, they look amazing! Almost everyone is using those templates and editors, of course it has got a good and a bad side:
Good side: Since the most of those sites are mainstream here is the chance to make something new and unique.
Bad side: They look gorgeous so it's hard to compete with them.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[Stanley Mala]

Just turned 16
When I started (4+ years ago) I had no idea what HTML was. I just wanted to create my dream website, so I started googling around and found what I needed to know. I didn't go through all the beginner how to tutorials, I just jumped straight into my project and googled things along the way (like how to add images etc). Sometimes I'd spend hours trying to fix something! I didn't care since I just wanted to finish my website.
I think that's the most effective way of learning. If you read a bunch of books, you'll rely on them. If they don't show you how to do something you wanna do, your brain will go "omg so boring let's play some video games instead". So screw the books and start your dream project TODAY!
(Btw my dream project was something like twitter where anybody could post stuff. I failed but I learned HTML CSS jQuery etc super ultra fast!)

 

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[davedev]

A few random bits of advice.

First. @Stanley Mala is right on. Hone your skills one small project at a time.

IF you're serious about web dev, get a good handle on Javascript. Javascript ain't goin nowhere. (I'm a big fan of angular.js myself, I wish I'd looked into it sooner.) I'm having alot of fun with Rails too.

If interested, power through Michael Hartl's tutorial. http://www.railstutorial.org/book (even though it's a bit too heavy on tests this tutorial does give you a 10,000ft view of web app development).

Also, know that just about anything and everything you learn in web development stacks upon each other in some way. At a distance it looks like every new technology is it's own universe, but once you hone in on the core concepts, you'll catch on faster and faster. Besides, you're the right age to get a serious grip on code.

I would also recommend this. In your down time, listen to entrepreneurial podcasts, marketing podcasts, read and digest anything by folks named; Seth Godin, Dan Kennedy, John Carlton, Joe Sugarman, Jay Abraham, Robert Cialdini, "Predictable Revenue" - by Aaron Ross.

Give yourself a proper Copywriting, Sales, and Marketing education. To be honest, you will grasp those concepts a lot faster than proper Web Development, so there's no reason why not to have that well rounded perspective. Also, do what @JasonR says.

Back to programming.

When you start out, everything is terrifying. You think the language actually means more than the process of thinking, and planning out your project. Resist the language wars. Pick an expert to model. Someone who is doing the thing you are doing. If SaaS is your thing and you dig what DHH has done, choose Rails. Make life simple. I've wasted more time on questioning my choices rather than the time investment it takes to live my choices.

I think that came out ok...

Lastly, don't be afraid to ask questions. Hope on irc and stack overflow. Be fearless and free to look as ignorant as possible asking questions, really some people can't improve with code (and with other things in life) because they have too much pride.. <-- from experience.

Dump the pride, get messy.

Anyhow, good luck.

 

[Stanley Mala]

don't be afraid to ask questions

Make sure to ask them the right way tho lol
DO: "This is the best way to do X!" (Will result in 50 different answers)
DON'T: "This doesn't work, PLEASE HELP" (Will result in a instant lifetime ban)

 

[CarrieW]

well guys...

all I have to say is that I have a 14 yr old. and while she is fantastic and has wonderful ideas for business and products and inventions I wish she had the craving for knowledge you all have

I tried to get her to come to the forum and it was overwhelming for her.

you guys are right here, jumping in with everything. its awesome. and I am so proud of you young ones. I don't even know you and I am proud. so remember that when your parents are not or they don't understand. at least one grown up is proud and in awe of you guys

 

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[FastlaneTiger]

CarrieW our e-mom. haha

 

[CarrieW]

CarrieW our e-mom. haha

I would be honored