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Advice to Young People Looking to be Entrepreneurs

How does a young person work towards a career in entrepreneurship? I was asked this question on Quora. Here’s my answer.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Make sure you focus on your education while you’re young; don’t think success is supposed to happen immediately. School is the best way to build options later on. Data on successful tech entrepreneurs indicates that the odds are way better for those who wait until they are in their 30s and 40s; and 97% have college degrees.

In the meantime, stay interested. Match your entrepreneurship with other interests. For example, if it’s something you like, or might like, then learn HTML or WordPress or Drupa and build websites. Or look at blogging, or Instagram, ways to get traffic. Focus on what interests you, because that’s the best indication of what you might end up doing.

You can follow startups in your area by looking for meetups. Take online courses. And read some of the mainstays, like Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start. Or David Rose’s Startup Checklist.

(Note: the original answer posted earlier this year on Quora)

Published: December 4, 2019
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Source: Tim Berry

Tim Berry

Tim Berry is co-founder of Have Presence, founder and Chairman of Palo Alto Software, founder of bplans.com, and a co-founder of Borland International. He is author of books and software including LivePlan and Business Plan Pro, The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan, and Lean Business Planning, published by Motivational Press in 2015. He has a Stanford MBA degree and degrees with honors from the University of Oregon and the University of Notre Dame. He taught starting a business at the University of Oregon for 11 years.