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.

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. 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.

5. 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 Millennial to do that.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. Noah 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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:

17.  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.

18.  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

19.  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.

20.  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.“
 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.

21. 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.

22. Life is not a one round fight. It will be interesting
to see who among these, if any, go on to do great
things in business, politics or another arena. While
they are full of chutzpah today, life has a way of
throwing many derailing curves into everyone's
path. But, that does not mean their early success
can't teach us some important lessons that can be
applied, regardless of our age.
Source Credit:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2017
/07/07/forbes-10-under-20-lessons-from-
millennial-entrepreneurs/#a480d2c100dd