10 Reasons Teenagers Make Great Entrepreneurs
One of the things I foresee in the future of Valuetainment is for us to one day have an academy that recruits young teenage entrepreneurs, innovators, to have an incubator way they produce the greatest innovations and ideas in the future. Because I fully believe, there once was a time where you could control a nation based on the music you played. If you could control the music, you control the teenage entrepreneurs today.
Today. If we can get the 12, 13, 14 year old, the eight year old like you who’s watching this, watching this saying I want to one day innovate and completely change the face of an industry. I fully believe you got years ahead of us to be able to pull it off.
10 reasons why I fully believe teenagers make great entrepreneurs.
- Nothing to lose.
Let me explain to you what I mean by nothing to lose. When you have kids, when you have a wife, when you have a mortgage payment, when you have rent, when you have all this stuff that you have to do, you come from a place of fear. You come from a place that oh my gosh. What if something happens? What if something takes place to me? Listen. Teenagers got nothing to lose. When I mean nothing to lose, keep this in mind. I’m not trying to impose breaking laws at all. Rules, fine. Laws, not at all with. What do you mean nothing to lose? Look. There used to be a type of soldier for the Japanese army called the Kamikazes. Some of the adults know Kamikaze is a drink like Jessica. The rest of us who know history on Japanese army, they were the Kamikaze soldier. What the Kamikaze soldiers were, theses were soldiers who would sit in a plane and they would fly the plane into a ship and they were willing to give up their lives for seven other people or 20 other people because they had nothing to lose.
By the way, they were the scariest people because they were willing to put their life on the line on something much bigger than them. Here, these teenagers don’t have to put their life on the line. They can put their salary on the line. They can put their income on the line. They can put their job on the line. They can put a lot of other things on the line because you’re 13 years old. You’re 14 years old. You don’t have kids. Hopefully you don’t have kids. You don’t have any other responsibilities. You can take that mind to go out there and do things that other people are afraid of.
- You speak a unique language.
Let me tell me what I mean by you speak a unique language. Not everybody knows how the language is spoken in a 12 year old, 13 year old, 14 year old, no one knows how to speak that language. If you’re 35, you don’t speak that language. This is why 35 year olds are not cool to 15 year olds. This is why even me right now, if I speak to 13 year old, they think I’m an old guy. Oh my gosh. He’s so old. He has no clue what’s going on today because you’re right. I don’t speak your language. I’m not in your world. 50 year olds are not in your world. 28 year olds are not in your world. You speak a unique language that nobody else speaks. By the way, every generation speaks a language that other generations do not speak.
What does that mean to you? Pat, I don’t understand this language. Are you talking about I speak Spanish? No. It’s not a language like English, Spanish, Mandarin, all that stuff. It is a language but you know how to speak to your audience of other teenagers that we don’t know how to communicate with. You know exactly how to communicate with them.
- The internet is older than you.
Think about it. You don’t know life without the internet. To us, we have internet stores. AOL Chat, Net Zero, you don’t even know what Net Zero is. You don’t what Comcast is. To our parents, we grew up with TV. I don’t know life without TV. My parents like, oh my gosh. When TV first came out in the city, if you had two of them you were a millionaire. To my grandparents, radio was so cool. We’d sit there with all our family at night and listen to the radio. Newspaper was so awesome. We could read this newspaper. We didn’t want to miss it. We always had it to go through it.
There’s so many things that are cool. To you, you don’t know anything without the internet. What does that mean? You know how to deal with Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Musicaly. You know every one of these things and we are learning from you. Just so you know that. You have become our teachers. Let me explain that part to you. You know how to use the current tools better than the older generation does. Some of us may say, I know everything because I follow all these other trends. No matter how well of a job we do with the current trends that are taking place, you still will connect with it better than we will because it’s been in your blood since the day you were born. It was the internet. Not with us. We still have to adapt. There’s still not that instinct. With you, have the instinct.
- Energy.
You have all the energy in the world. You have all the energy in the world. Your energy is fine. Your health is fine. You can work and you can do all this other stuff. It’s just boredom becomes your enemy. You have all the energy in the world. You can sit there and play video games for eight, nine hours. You know if an adult did that for eight, nine hours. Oh my gosh. I can’t do this anymore. That’s still part of energy. You can go out and play basketball. Pick up games. Luis, when you and I were 16 years old, how many pick up games can we play back, to back, to back, to back, to back, to back, to back?
So many. 10, 15, 20. You’re fine. Today, we play two pick up games. I got to call the doctor if we play a couple pick up games. Back then, it was no problem. We couldn’t go back to that. You got the energy.
- You still believe everything is possible.
You still believe everything is possible. You still have that. You still have that childlike tendency that adults lose. By the way, watch this here. Let me say something that’s crazy. Do you know why people Jimmy Fallon? Jimmy Fallon may be 40 something but people like him because he’s childlike. He’s like a child in an adult so we love him. Why do people like this James Corden guy from the Late Late Show? Because he’s got a childlike tendency to him. Why do people like these types of guys? Because they have still kept a part of them that’s childlike. There’s some athletes like that, some Hollywood stars that are like that, some singers that are like that, some business people that are like that. We love that.
We gravitate towards it. Why? Because some of our fondest memories were when we were kids just playing with toys and having fun. We had no worries, no bills. It was awesome. You still believe everything is possible. Some of you still believe Santa Claus is alive, Santa Clause is real. Really, some of you may still believe. I hope you do. If you don’t, you’re missing a part of the imagination. Some of you guys still believe a lot of crazy things. That’s cool because you think anything can be built from the ground up and take you to the top. Where a logical person could say, come on man. That’s not possible. You can’t beat Ford Motor Company. You can’t go out there and get all these yellow cap to put them out of business. You can’t go up against a company like … you can’t go up against all these. You can not do it. Are you out of your mind? No one can go you against Sears? Your name is Walmart. No one can go up against Walmart. Your name is Amazon. You can’t go up against. You guys are fools.
You say, I think it’s possible. Let’s go. Let’s try it. Let’s go. Let’s try it. Let’s go. Let’s try it because you still got that childlike tendency.
- You’re different than people 10, 20, 30 years older than you.
That’s an edge. People will tell you’re different. It’s a compliment. You’re different, man. It’s a compliment. You’re different. Compliment. Don’t be afraid of being called different. You’re different. You are different. So what I’m different? People say, Pat you’re so different. I’m fine being different. I don’t want to be like everybody. I’m totally fine being different. You’re different than them and you’ve got to figure out a way how to capitalize here because it’s tough for them to revert back 20 years. You already know how to be the age you are during this time.
- You’re open minded.
You’re a little bit more flexible because your mind hasn’t been fully made up. That could be a good and a bad thing because hopefully you got the right parents and right people around you that are at least giving you how to discern between a right decision and a wrong decision. You’re still open minded. You’re still trying to figure out what works, what doesn’t work. You still sit there and are like, wow. This guy said this. That makes sense. Wow. That guy said who’s right. I don’t know. Let me research. You’re open minded. You still have ways to go out and get this brain going.
- Access to problems generations ahead of you can’t see.
Access to problems generations ahead of you can’t see. I don’t know what virtual bullying is. You know. That’s a business. If it turns into a business, I don’t know how to do it. You know how to do it. I have to watch a movie to figure out what virtual bullying is.
I have to sit down and see other people tell me stories. It never happened to me. I never had virtual bullying because we don’t have Facebook when I went to high school. You know it. There’s a lot of things you know that we don’t know. You know what it’s like to be in seventh grade or even in fourth grade, say Mary started her own YouTube channel. She’s got 17 thousand subs. I don’t know what it is to be in fourth grade having a YouTube channel learning how to use a camera. You know those things from that age.
- Curiosity.
You’re still curious. You still want to learn.
- Ignorance.
Let me tell you. There’s power in ignorance. What do you mean by there’s power in ignorance? Ignorance. You have no clue how hard life is. That’s good for now because life is freaking hard. You have no clue. You’re ignorant. You don’t know how hard it is to start a business. You don’t know. I’m doing it as well. You don’t know how tough it is to go out there and raise money but because you don’t know, you’ll go to the investor and say can I have some money? You don’t even know the language.
Conversations at this level go something like this:
“Listen, I need two million dollars. What do you think?”
I can’t give you two million.
“Can you give me five thousand?”
Ignorance is power at times. Sometimes when you know way too much, you have all these things in your brain to go out there and talk to people. In your mind you’ve calculated every possibility of a rejection. Then you don’t do it. Then you don’t take action.
Versus when you’re ignorant, it goes like this:
“You want to do business with me?”
Why would I do business with you?
Sir, what do you mean why would you do business with me? I have access to an audience you don’t have. I know how to speak the language of 14 year olds Do you?
No.
What do you know about 14 year olds? Sir, I’m in school. I’ve been using Snapchat. I don’t know what it is to not have the internet.
When you were 14 years old, was there the internet? No. Kid, who are you to talk to me like that? \
I just want to be in business with you.
Imagine speaking that language. The person is like, wait a minute. This is making sense. You’re so naïve. You’re so ignorant. You don’t know. Someone is going to say, maybe this kid makes sense. Cool. Come on in. Let’s figure out a way to do something together. You’re ignorant. You don’t know it. Use that as an edge. Don’t use it as he’s so ignorant. That’s fine. You’re so ignorant. That’s okay. Ignorant means I don’t know. I’m willing to know but because I don’t know we don’t take action. The other guy knows so much that he’s now going to take action. Don’t let that be a crutch. Let that be a strength for you. This is 10 reasons why I fully believe, fully believe, teenagers will make great entrepreneurs and why I fully believe you watching this somewhere in the world.
Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, I don’t know. Somewhere in the world. India, you’re watching this saying, I think I can solve such and such problem. Because you are here, you think it’s still possible. I believe in you. Make sure you go out there and put your mind next to it. Watch all the other teenager entrepreneur videos that we have in Valuetainment. Study all the content in Valuetainment. It’ll give you an edge on everybody else many, many, many years ahead of everybody else that’s starting to learn this concept. The content on Valuetainment for them. Having said that, if you got any questions, thoughts, comments, comment on the bottom. If you got any questions you want to ask me, I’m on Snapchat. Luis, let’s make it a little bit bigger, the sign of my snap. Snap me your questions. Follow me here if you’re a teenage entrepreneur. Follow me there and post me your questions.
If I don’t answer back, write it again three, four times until I do. I get hundreds of messages a day. I can’t get back to everybody but if you do multiple times, I’ll get back to you.