 I started my first major business when I was 15 years old. It was the most exciting period of my teenage years, and that's because I wasn't taking it seriously. It was just a hobby that gave me money. And that's what business should be. Today I see many teenagers who think they are too young to start a business, and I wish to speak some sense into such young people. That's what this video is all about. To start with, can you start a business as a teenager? Well, to answer that, simply look at the successful entrepreneurs we have around today. Most of them started their entrepreneurial journey when they were in their teen years. What makes it even easier today is that we have a whole lot of technology that can help any serious entrepreneur manage his business. So now, let me share with you a few tips on how you can make money fast as a teenage entrepreneur. 1. Start a ridiculously small business My first business as a teenage entrepreneur was a bicycle renting service. Then in the small town where I lived, young people were too poor to buy their own bicycles. I got some money from my parents and bought a used bicycle. Then I would rent the bicycle to young boys of my age after school and weekends. A year after, that business led me to another business, now something bigger, a photography business. What usually happens is, the experience you get from starting and running a ridiculously small business tends to help you when you start a bigger one, then another big one till you become successful. Think about this for a moment. Why don't many people have a successful company? The answer is this, most people are afraid of starting small, because small is ridiculous. The advantage you have as a teenager is that if you tell yourself the truth, you have all the time in the world to get it right because you're still young. If for instance you start a small business when you're 17 and it fails when you're 18, what have you lost? Nothing. Instead, you've gained some experience and that will help you to become smarter in your next business venture and if you continue trying and learning, you'll be rich faster than you can imagine. Don't be afraid of starting a small business, you're too young to worry about failing. 2. To some rich entrepreneurs as a role model When I decided to become an entrepreneur, I would go to the cyber cafe in my small town and Google the name of some of the most successful entrepreneurs. I would read the quotations and blog posts from these people and watch their videos. They were my fathers. I seriously wanted to become who they were and I wouldn't be surprised if someone discovers that my entire mindset was renewed or replaced with that of these people. That's what it means to have a role model and you need it if you want to be a successful entrepreneur as a teenager. Yeah, I know that a lot of people talk about mentorship and the importance of having a mentor, but the concept of mentorship is nonsense. It doesn't make any sense to me and I'll explain why. First, there are only very few successful people in the world, very few in any industry. The problem with this is that if you focus on getting a mentor, how far can you go searching for one? For example, in the town where I grew up, there was no single successful entrepreneur that I admired living there. They had all left to the city, so if I needed a mentor, where would I find one? Do you see the problem here? Successful people are so scarce that you'll probably not see many people who can be your mentor as a young person, but you can always find a role model to look up to because even the dead can be a role model. Yes, one of the people who helped my entrepreneurial journey most is Napoleon Hill, yet Hill died 16 years before I was born. Instead of looking for mentors, which you may never find, look for successful people who can serve as a role model. What you want to look up to are their mindsets, habits and attitudes, and many successful people have documented these in various ways. The second problem about looking for mentorship is that if someone is successful, he's probably very busy and that's a problem. So many people have asked me to be their mentors, aside from the fact that I don't believe in the concept of mentorship. I am so busy that I'll prefer that these people consume my materials and those of other people. If I've not convinced you with my two opinions, this will convince you mentors, teachers or models are like clothes. You don't need those people forever. If you're growing, you won't need any teacher for more than three years or so, simply because every successful person has great limitations and you'll get to a point while learning from them and discover that you need something they don't have. This is easier to do if they are simply your role models because you can change your teachers without any issues. Still, in the case of having a mentor, you will spend several months to look for a mentor and spend other resources to convince them to mentor you. Two years later, you'll discover that you need to move on, but because you've invested physically and emotionally into this relationship, you want to stay there. You'll start dying because you need more than what your current mentor has to offer. This is what I recommend. Figure out five to ten successful people in your field. Search for their biographies or autobiographies. Read everything you can about them or from them. Follow them on social media if they are still alive and learn as much as you can from them. This way, their mindset becomes yours and their habits will become yours. If at any point you feel you don't need any one of them anymore, simply move on. You don't need a mentor because it's costly. Choose some successful people as role models instead. Three, be, do, have. If you genuinely want to become successful as a teenage entrepreneur, there's a formula I know which can help you out and that is be, do, have. The meaning of this is that you should focus your life on who you're becoming first of all, then on what you are doing before you expect to have all the shiny objects you dream of. Most people do the opposite of this and that's the reason they never become successful. They want to have first and they don't even care about who they are becoming. Let me explain with other words. Wealth and riches are a result of who you are and what you do. Nobody becomes truly rich by having a million dollars. If you want to confirm this, check the history of the lottery winners. If the paper called money makes people rich, then everyone who wins the lottery will remain rich, but the opposite is the case. Lottery winners often become poorer than who they were before they won the lottery, because they have not become rich deep within. If you genuinely want to get rich as a young person and remain rich for the rest of your life, you'll focus on who you're becoming, then what you're doing. Are you becoming wiser and smarter every day? Are you learning from the world around you? Do you find time to read and study situations? Do you learn about marketing, human relationship, negotiation, leadership, and internalize those lessons? To achieve what you have not achieved before, you have to become who you have not become before and do what you've not been doing before. In summary, as a teenager, now is the best period of your life. Go ahead and start that small business. Yes, you're likely to fail and yes, you'll make tons of mistakes, but those obstacles will make you smarter and lead you to become rich faster than most people. Don't go about looking for mentors, because mentors are expensive. Look for people that can be a role model to you and try to become like them. Don't focus on what you want to have, focus instead on who you are to become and what you have to do. If this video makes sense to you, kindly share it with your friends. We love you.