Eighteen-year-old Josh King Madrid, known as Jet, has built a business on seemingly nothing more than a lifestyle.  It is wholly unclear if Jet has ever actually created a profitable business selling anything physical or digital.

1. 10 Great Lessons From Millennial
Entrepreneurs

2. There has been a lot of press about Millenial
entrepreneurs the last 2 years. Young folks - mostly
boys - dropping out of high school to start their
own businesses at ages as young as 15. One of
these, Noah Miller, who started a sports web site at
15 and later a creative agency asked to join my
network on Linked-in. Then he asked me to look
into the topic of young entrepreneurs and see what
lessons we could learn.

3. 1 - If you are really good at something at a young age,
continue to work at it
Ben Pasternak liked gaming, and he liked apps. So
at 15 he wrote a game-like app and put it on iTunes.
1.3million downloads later he was a young
superstar. Since then he's created two more apps
(Flogg and Monkey.) His young hobby led to
building strong programming skills, which when
linked to identifying what appeals to Millenials
turned into apps people really use.

4. George Matus started flying drones at age 12. He loved
it so much he started modifying drones, and building
his own. He published videos of his exploits on
YouTube, and convinced drone makers to let him be a
tester. After 6 years of working on Drones he now has
his own Peter Thiel funded company making drones.
So far no products on the market, but he is working at
it.
Whether iOS apps or drones will be a long-term career
is hard to say. But by building strong skills in new
technologies with large markets and high growth rates
these fellows created business opportunities. You don't
have to be a Millenial to do that.

5. 2 - Take advantage of trends while they are hot
Collecting sneakers is a remarkably big market. Most older
folks would call it a fad, thinking nobody will collect sneakers
for long. But, it doesn't really matter if a trend is going to be
long-lived, or not, if you are willing to jump in and help push
the trend along.
Fifteen year old Ben Kapelushnik liked sneakers. He wanted
money to buy more. So he started buying multiple pairs of
collectible sneakers and selling the "extra" pairs at a profit. To
grow he networked with sneaker sellers to figure out how he
could get in line early and buy many pair. Then he networked
hard as he could to find associations with big time sneaker
collectors, like rappers and other creative artists. Now he has
a business buying and selling sneakers. How long will the fad
last? Who knows - but Ben is making money by taking
advantage of a hot trend.

6. Connor O'Neil saw the same phenomenon. He thought "why
don't I go source things people want?" So he created a web site
where buyers can request he source sneakers, T-shirts and other
items. He then searches the web, sourcing the items manually
and with bots that will make instantaneous purchases of hard to
find items. He charges customers a fee to find what they want.
By meeting customer needs for trendy items, he finds an
opportunity for profit.
At 16 Casey Adams started networking on Snapchat, Facebook,
Twitter and other social media. After he built up a following of
several thousand followers he began offering them t-shirts and
wristbands. Pretty soon he was generating $5k/month in
revenue. While many older folks still think social media, and
Snapchat in particular, is a time-waster, Casey is making money
on the obvious trend toward all things social. He's leveraging his
social network to sell things - and teaching other people how to
do the same.

7. Are Bitcoins long-term currency? Will crypto-currency replace
things like Dollars and Euros? Most older generation folks don't
think so, and view this as another fad. But Erik Finman saw the
trend at age 12, and started buying Bitcoins. A few trades later
and he turned $1,000 into $100,000. A few more trades and
Finman had a stash worth over $1,000,000. Are Bitcoins the next
Tulip bulbs? You can research the economists for opinions on
that. But as long as the trend is growing, Erik Finman is making
money.
Peter Szabo was only 12 when he used a Google search to identify
ways to make money on the internet. He discovered making
Facebook ads for affiliates could pay off - in pennies at first, but as
volume rose these became dollars. Since so few older people knew
how to manage a Facebook ad budget, by age 18 he created an on-
line agency focused on maximizing value (and return) for
Facebook advertising. You don't have to be a Millenial to
recognize the growth of new platforms and help people use them
to make money.

8. 3 - There has never been a better time to be a self-
promoter
Today anyone can claim to be "great" at anything using the
web. There are so few genuine ways to measure quality
and results when it comes to anything on the web that if
you say it enough, and find enough testimonials, you can
be very convincing.
Miller started a sports web site at age 15 using a group of
writers he amassed via Twitter connections. Sports Crave
had some success with USAToday and Google before Noah
closed it at age 17. Based on his claims of great success
he's now promoting his new creative agency, Colour
Medium, which has nothing more than a flash page. But
the web allows Noah to position himself at the forefront of
creative.

9. Benji Taylor at 1ge 18 has opened a new on-line
creative agency named Next Exit focused on art
for the music industry. By forging relationships
with known young musicians he has positioned
his agency at the top of the creative spectrum for
his target customers. Given how fast musicians
come and go in the limelight, who knows how long
his testimonials will stand up. But as long as
people know the name of those who know his
name he is leveraging those associations to crown
himself the king of that industry.

10. Eighteen year old Josh King Madrid, known as Jet, has
built a business on seemingly nothing more than a
lifestyle. It is wholly unclear if Jet has ever actually
created a profitable business selling anything physical
or digital. But what he has done is convince lots of
Millenials that he knows the lifestyle they want to lead,
and he can tell them how to lead it. So now, largely
without any clear source of how he obtained any
knowledge about succeeding at business, he is
proselytizing how young people can be independent,
self-actualized and living the "Jet Set" lifestyle at his
events. Jet is one of the best descriptions of how self-
promotion can succeed in today's social-media world,
leading people to believe they should listen to you
primarily because of the image you portray.

11. Overall Lessons from these 10 under 20
entrepreneurs
There is precious little to support the grandiose
success claims of most Millenial
entrepreneurs. They claim huge revenues and
wealth, but in most cases it is impossible to prove
their claims, and most support comes down to
number of followers, or testimonials of some
celebrity. But, that does not mean we can't learn
from what they did to achieve their current fame:

12. • Use social media exhaustively. Over-
communicate. Use Facebook, Instagram, YouTube,
Snapchat, Twitter, etc. over and over and over to
communicate your value and your message. These
platforms are dirt cheap, so hard work there can
make up for few dollars.
• Take big risks, especially if you have little to
lose. Most folks are hamstrung by the commitments
of family, mortgage, car payments, etc. If you
remove these bindings you can take big risks, like
rolling over thousands of dollars worth of crypto-
currency. And if something fails, never call it a
failure. Just a learning experience you've moved
beyond.

13. Don't try to improve something that already exists. Do
something new. Develop a new app, a new drone, a site
focused on selling collectible sneakers. It is cheaper, and
more likely to succeed, if you are an early entrant in
something new and growing.
Hype is good. Pre-announce everything. And announce
that your next thing (whether a drone, a web site, an
exchange site or something else) is going to be HUGE. It
will be the VERY BEST EVER. Do not be deterred by
feeling the need to prove any of your claims, just make big
claims with tremendous bravado
Take credit for anything that goes right. None of these
people ever say they were lucky. Whatever went right was
always do to their inherent insight, skill or genius. Stay out
of specifics. Talk in platitudes. Especially statements that
appeal to other Millenials.

14. • "Live your own life if you want to succeed."
• "Believe in yourself 1,000%. That's what truly
matters."
• "Don't trust employers or education. Trust only
yourself."
• "Self-education is better than schools. You can
learn more on YouTube than any classroom.
Teachers are nay-sayers."
• "Do what you are passionate about."
• "Millenials are special. Millenials are smarter
and better than older people."

15. • Select good parents. I was struck by the fact that
almost all these young people had parents
and/or grandparents that were physicians,
PhDs, successful real estate developers,
successful business people. There is no doubt
they benefited at their young age from families
that had resources and skills that are not
available to the vast majority of folks.

16. Is ongoing success pre-ordained?
I remember the student counsel President of my
school, Mr. Popularity, who dropped out of college
to open a string of pizza shops. He received ample
praise and publicity for his young entrepreneurial
success. But after a few setbacks the pizza shops
failed, he took work as a salesman for a liquor
distributor, became an alcoholic and lost his
family. I was glad he found success early, and
saddened that he wasn't the wunderkind many
people foisted upon him.