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Why Being a Young Entrepreneur is a Good Thing

Young EntrepreneurWhen you start out as an entrepreneur at an early age, you find that one of the things that stands in the way of your entrepreneur success isn’t the world, but it’s you.  Yes, you.  As a young entrepreneur, you often split your focus between two ideas:

  • You’re too young to know better.
  • You’re too young, and that makes you cutting edge.

For those who are the younger generation (however you define that), it can be easy to think that because you are younger, people don’t expect as much of you.  You don’t have to be a professional because you’re young and people will simply write that off as being a part of who you are.

Reality Check

While you might be young, you are still expected to be a professional.  The thing with the Internet is that you are only young if you admit it.  When you’re behind the workings of your website, the only thing people focus on is what you sell and what you say, not on your age – unless you advertise it.  Just as with any site you visit, your audience expects you to do what you promise to do, when you promise to do it.

At the same time, because you are young, you probably do things because they seem like a good idea.  That’s a great attitude to have.  Instead of sitting around and thinking every single step of your business through, sometimes you just have to take risks and do things that seem crazy to others.  The craziest ideas often win.

The Cutting Edge Mentality

There is a distinct difference between being cutting edge and being blindly arrogant.  Every entrepreneur thinks their ideas are the best (and you should), but when you simply ignore the feedback you receive, that’s where your confidence can hurt you.  Sure, it’s a stereotype to say that ‘all’ young entrepreneurs are cutting edge, but since you’re younger and in sync with other markers than your competition, you know there’s pressure on you to do more, to be more, and to do something unique.

All this cutting edge pressure can make you blind to reality – that sometimes ideas just don’t work.  And that’s okay too.

Youth and Who You Are

This is beginning to sound like youth is a bad thing.  It’s not.  Not at all.  Being a young entrepreneur is something that does work to your advantage.

  • You’re more energetic – Yes, those late nights are going to be much easier on you.  You can stay up a few nights to get an important project done or to work with a new client.  You are more productive because you have more energy.
  • You’re more in tune with new ideas and movements – You’re probably on social media more, so you’re hearing all of the good ideas that are brewing in the world.  This allows you to synthesize what you hear and turn those ideas into something that hasn’t been done before.
  • You can make mistakes and start over – Even if you make a mistake or something goes wrong, you can start over and over and over again.

Being young and being an entrepreneur is a combination that will take you far.  But you still need to get started, stop talking, and start doing what you love to do.

Matthew Toren
 

Matthew Toren is a serial entrepreneur, mentor, investor and co-founder of YoungEntrepreneur.com. He is co-author, with his brother Adam, of Kidpreneurs.org, BizWarriors.com and Small Business, BIG Vision: Lessons on How to Dominate Your Market from Self-Made Entrepreneurs Who Did it Right (Wiley).

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