By Justin Kelsey, Operations Leadership Intern at Amazon
Everyone’s had a great idea at one point or another in their lives, yet how often are these ideas acted upon? You’re not any more or less creative than the person next to you – anyone has the potential to come up with the next greatest solution to a common problem.
The trouble, however, lies in the fact most people simply let these ideas slip away without ever giving them much more than a few minutes’ worth of thought. In order to attain the much sought after freedom in your career (both personally and financially), one must be willing to take the initial plunge to put the wheels in motion and turn the small risk of failure into a potentially life-changing reward.
I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit myself, starting my first “company” when I was in the 5th grade. My friend and I took selling lemonade to the next level, and constructed a fully-mobile, fully-enclosed lemonade stand on the back of his father’s old work trailer. We’d ask to be dropped off on the side of the road near a local intersection with all of our supplies inside, and the cars would line up to support our business.
Halfway through the 6th grade, I started a homemade chocolate company. Using capital from my previous venture, I purchased some basic candy-making supplies off of eBay (and yes, I had my own PayPal account under my mom’s name). Fast forward a few weeks’ worth of learning curves, and I had a “full-scale” production going on – including my signature product – chocolate covered gummy bears.
I went as far as looking into buying a patent and actual chocolate manufacturing equipment for them, after seeing how quickly they were selling to friends and family. As it turns out, spending a few thousand dollars to do so would’ve completely wiped out my 11 years’ worth of savings. Needless to say I decided against it, and saved towards funding my next ventures, which were still unknown at this time.
As fun as running those “companies” was, I wouldn’t consider them any more than just that – pure fun. My real ventures didn’t start until high school, when I was 14 years old. Basically an adult, right? (That’s what I thought at least.) By this time, my parents had divorced, and why put the burden of sending me to college on them when I had the ability to do it myself?
Throughout the course of high school, and for a brief period of time in college, I had managed to start and run five more companies. For the duration of this time I was able to start pulling in some real revenue and set aside money to further my education, all the while learning the fundamentals of operating a business from the perspective of every job function.
The point I’m trying to get at here is this: no matter your age, there’s nothing stopping you from taking that million dollar idea you have in your head and making it a reality. Whether you’re 22 years old and fresh out of college, or 50 years old and ready to retire a few years before your 401k can be cashed out, there’s no “ideal age” to take that first leap of faith.
Ray Croc founded McDonald’s at age 52; John Pemberton founded Coca Cola at age 55, and these companies grew into some of the most recognized brands in the world. The opposite also holds true, as we all know and love the social networks that made millionaires of out entrepreneurs in their early 20’s.
You’d be very surprised how valuable your experience could be to the right person, and if you specialize in a certain trade, there’s always someone out there looking for you to do something for them in return for their business. It’s important to realize that you’re probably not going to start out as the best in your industry, yet if you have something to offer and provide a value to your customers that your competitor doesn’t, you’ll gain that traction that will eventually bring you to the top.
I’m not recommending that you go and quit your six-figure desk job that makes you miserable, because trust me – you won’t be making anywhere close to that right away at a start-up company. However, next time you’re grilling out and get a thought about adding a blender and speakers to your cooler, just know you may have a $5 million idea on your hands, and all you have to do is flip the switch and start brainstorming in your time off.
With the number of crowdfunding and angel investing resources out there via the internet today, you’d be surprised how quickly you can turn almost any good idea into a working company.
