Looking back in time, If there was anything I’d tell my 15year old self , it would be to trust the process.
I remember being so fascinated with the idea of creating stuff, building something out of nothing, writing short stories and doing everything creative. I recall a particular time when my best friend and I had this idea to start a “juice” making business that just wasn’t like the typical stuff you would see in stores or across the counter. I also remember when we had a concept of opening a poetry and art store simply because we thought the regular birthday cards were too boring. We loved the idea of putting messages on household items like rugs, throw pillows, puffs etc. So what did we do about it? We actually started our businesses and guess what, initially we got the rush and excitement, midway, we just let it go, the stress had gotten to us. In retrospect, I realize that the idea we had for our juice business is now the popular “smoothies” and the idea of the poetry and art store is now a fast selling pillow franchise.
What is my point?
Anyone can have a brilliant idea. Regardless of the age or the environment, great ideas can always be formed. What is more important than having a great idea is the execution of the idea. Don’t give room to fear or second guessing those concepts that come to your mind. Start anyway. Start developing how you will convert that creative energy to something meaningful to yourself and ultimately to a third party. You will require a ton of confidence and a high dose of self-esteem because during the journey of converting those ideas to value, you will face a bout of setbacks and challenges, but be resilient.
My advise?
Persevere.
Do not think you are too young to do something remarkable. And just in case you feel that you are still too young to start something, I took the liberty of researching on some interesting young people, one of them is Savannah Britt who is the Youngest Magazine Publisher. At 15years Savannah started her own publication – a magazine called Girlpez – making her the youngest magazine publisher in the world. The magazine features coverage of events, like concerts and fashion shows, and Mark Bao, 17. Mark is a 17-year-old high school senior and he has already launched 11 web-based companies (and sold three of them) along with three non-profit foundations. Some of his projects include TickrTalk, the Ramamia Foundation, Classleaf, and Avecora – a technology network launching sometime in 2013.
In conclusion, To trust the process, wholly, completely, is to not need to know what is unfolding or why, but to simply be there in the present to experience it. Learn from it and improve on it. There are ideas all over the place and the interesting part is that there is no age limit to start expressing those ideas and converting them to financial values for you.
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