high school entrepreneurs

These last few weeks we have been working hard on the program curriculum for our high school entrepreneur summer program which we are planning to offer for a second year in 2011. All these discussions we’ve been having about creating an amazing entrepreneurial experience in an international setting has really got me excited about the potential we can bring out of young students and so I wanted to do some research online to find some great stories to help inspire future business leaders.

The web is full of amazing stories featuring high school students that have took the initiative to start their own ventures. Some big, some small, but the idea of really starting something more than just that corner lemonade stand has really started to transcend to this younger generation.  It seems with the growth of the internet, young high school students have more resources available making it possible to do everything from planning an idea, to launching a full fledged service.  Just take a look at Diane Keng, at 18 she’s already the topic of several news articles and for good reason; she’s already launching her third start-up, myweboo.com.

According to Diane, “My age, my gender and my lack of experience don’t deter me from going after what I want for the company.”  This is the attitude that many high school students are displaying.  For these highly motivated few, a day could look something like this:  Get up and go to school, participate in after school activities and associations, go home to do homework and then spend a few hours on their own business.  On weekends, spend more time working, marketing, selling, implementing and tweeking.

For three 16 to 17 year old entrepreneurs from Canada, the drive to start their own business led them to the creation of a company called Design Vetica.  Alex Gondek, David Kim and William Zhou came up with their idea during IT class and were able to launch the interactive web design and media production company soon after.  Sometimes being so young actually keeps some barriers that slow down or even stop other older would be entrepreneurs from ever launching their ideas.  For instance, young kids have less to lose and have less responsibilities to worry about and are able to approach a start up with more of a care free and “just do it” attitude, while older generations have to worry about whether they can maintain a full time job (to pay the bills) while trying to keep up with the demands of starting and operating their own business.  Of course a can do attitude and is not all that is required in launching a successful company as these young teenagers can confirm.  For the few that are able to succeed, the drive to pull such a venture off includes the need to absorb as much about business as possible, learn from mistakes and to continue pushing along.  It might be natural then, to say that starting a business as a youth might be ideal, similar to what they say about learning languages; a young brain seems to be able to take in a great deal of information much more quickly and effectively than adults.

Whatever the reason, I do believe that it’s never too early to get some entrepreneurial experience and believe that the internet is probably the ideal medium that is lowering the barriers of entry. If you are a student and are interested in learning from actual entrepreneurs in Shanghai, check out Next Step Connections high school summer programs.  This is a chance to do something exciting and different next summer.