Go Big or Go Home

“Congratulations!!! You have joined the ranks of the proud and powerful group known as Entrepreneurs. You are well on your way to making your fortune.” Or so, these are the thoughts that played through my head when I started my first business.

In my experience, I have found that when you are young, you are expected to go to high school, get you diploma, go to college, get you degree, get a nice job and have a nice life. That’s the way it is “suppose” to be and therefore, that’s the way the majority go. There isn’t a lot of wiggle room in there for those people who have different opinions on what constitutes a nice life.

In business, since it is influenced by some of the same thoughts, you tend to find that same type of thinking. This type of thinking can be extremely detrimental to entrepreneurs and those who “think outside of the box”. People frequently ask me “Why?” and since I’m considered a “Young Entrepreneur” instead of saying “Why?” twice, they just say it with a little more oomph. The lesson, you are supposed to take from these questions and from the people that ask them, is that
entrepreneurship is dangerous and in some common views unnecessary.

Entrepreneurship has its hurdles and to me, being a young entrepreneur has a few more. If you are a young entrepreneur around my age (I’m 19), it forces you to grow up and learn extremely fast because when you are a young entrepreneur, in most cases, you are inexperienced, unconnected, naive, but driven. But between you and, inevitably, the people that you need to help you along, is this huge gap in age, experience, and ideals.

So what is a young individual to do? 2 things: Push on and bridge the gap. For entrepreneurs giving up on something should be much harder than just trying it. For the true entrepreneurs, nobody should be able to stop the project or kill the dream other than the individual themselves. As for bridging the gap, you have to bring a sense of maturity and intellect along with you to every meeting and outing. You have to show them that you are capable of doing things that they can only imagine, and be able to do them now.

When I got started, I quickly realized that to get people’s respect you have to show them that no matter what they think, you are capable of handling whatever situation may arise, and you are smart enough to put any doubts or fears the have to rest. You have to pull out their respect and show them that you are on the same level. You must show the people that age is truly only a number, a number that will not hinder you from your dream. Ultimately, you have to show them that you possess what they are looking for and that you possess the talent to be successful in business. In business its “Go Big or Go Home”; in entrepreneurship its “Go Big, period”.

Justin is a student entrepreneur at Auburn University. To learn more check out his LinkedIn profile.

Tags: Global Entrepreneurship Week, Guest Blogger, Justin Callaway

This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 9:03 am and is filed under Innovators. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.