Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

-------------------------

Colleen Dougherty Bronstein Designs
Sun Safe Designer Clothing
http://www.sunsafedesignerclothing.com
http://www.bronsteinartwork.com

-------------------------

Colleen Dougherty Bronstein Designs
Sun Safe Designer Clothing
http://www.sunsafedesignerclothing.com
http://www.bronsteinartwork.com

Hi Nick :-) What would you say is your passion?

The reason I ask is that in SO many cases, it turns out that a person`s passion(s) were pretty clearly evident even in their early childhood. At 18, you haven`t yet been ruined by the US college system, and likely have current memories of what you`ve most enjoyed doing in your life so far.

Nick,
People who tell you that at 18 you have no clue about what goes in to starting a business, usually are people who never started or created anything in their lives! Just try to ignore them, and go looking for people who are busy running their own business!

You`ll likely find that in todays world, you`ll be snapped up quickly by just the type of contact you`re wanting to find. Perhaps the number one problem for small business owners these days, is the inability to find qualified people to help. Kids coming out of school, for the most part, have few skills, little actual knowledge, and a belief that everything "just happens."

As a young entrepreneur (in mental outlook and perspective), you`re the type of person a micro-business owner is looking for. Perhaps you could connect up with someone whose business involves selling new technology? Then you not only would have a job, but you`d have a real-world environment that teaches you all the ins and outs of what goes into starting and running a business.

You could go to college part-time. :-)

Hi Imvelez :-)
It seems to me, and perhaps others will have their thoughts, that you might want to start by looking into what it would take to get trained at something like the Culinary Institute of America.

That would get you into the whole food business, eventually making you a credible chef. At that point, you`d have a full-time job (career), and could begin learning all the complexities of running a restaurant. It may turn out you`re not interested in having a restaurant at all, but prefer cooking. Who knows, but what catches my imagination is that you liked to create things on your own. That, to me, speaks to the creativity of a chef, not a restaurant owner. :-)

What do you think about something like this?

Nick,
As a philosopher, I must warn you that your initial belief in a passion of helping other people sends up red flags all over the place. I`d strongly encourage you to read Ayn Rand`s, "The Virtue of Selfishness." Not the version with Nathaniel Brandon, but the version written alone, by Rand.

Understand that there`s nothing intrinsically wrong with desiring to help other people, being charitable. However, at your age, you`ve been put through the modern educational system and its brainwashing toward altrusim.

The difference between altruism and charity or helping others for gain, is that in altruism, you sacrifice high values for lower values. In other words, you`re going to have to make a living in this world, one way or another, and if you choose to give away all your labor, skills, ideas, and work for no money, how long before you starve to death?

On the other hand, you can certainly build a business and earn a lot of money while at the same time helping people. A great example is in customer service, where you go strongly toward helping people with product education, business assistance, and so forth, yet still make a profit. Not "profiteering," but a rational, reasonable profit.

To make a passion of helping others is to shut down your own personality, and the results of that will be A Very Bad Thing. :-) There are countless companies that, if they didn`t exist, would leave a tremendous void in life. Think about the automobile industry, or the airline industry. Then think about the pharmaceutical or medical research and technology companies. All of these have helped humanity to live in much better conditions than ever before. Yet they`ve done it because it was profitable.

Then think of the government, which speaks of helping people for no gain. They have the largest budget in all of history, with the most amount of waste. At the same time, the unbelievable failures an "slipped through the cracks" examples are everywhere. As people from another generation used to say, "As soon as you hear someone say `I`m from the government, and I`m here to help you,` run away as fast as you can!" :-)