8 Life Lessons I Learned From Becoming An Entrepreneur At A Young Age

According to recent studies, the number of people under 35 starting their own businesses has increased by more than 70 percent since 2006. Young people are more entrepreneurial than any previous generation, and many are achieving great success at very early ages.

Entrepreneurship can be a tough and long journey for many people. Some get lucky and succeed the first time while for most, that isn’t the case. They continue to learn and grow from multiple ventures. For me, I jumped into entrepreneurship very early in even today’s standards. I was just 17 years old and still a senior in high school.

From launching over 5 businesses, I’ve learned quite a lot about the entrepreneurial world in the last 7 years. My journey has been met with obstacles, failures and great successes along the way. All of these things have contributed to my overall education in the entrepreneurial world.

Here are 8 life lessons I learned from becoming an entrepreneur at a young age:

1. Deciding In The Heat of The Moment Is Never A Good Idea 

Whether you’re just starting your business or you’ve grown it into a big company already, you’re always going to have to make tough decisions. When you really care about your work, it’s easy to let emotions get the best of you.

Entrepreneurs are very passionate people and it’s easy to make a decision when you’re riding high or running low. Do yourself a favor and avoid it at all costs. Emotions and business don’t mix. As a leader, you must to learn to weigh all the variables before making an important decision. Emotional decisions tend to yield undesirable outcomes. Logic takes a backseat, and the risk you’re willing to take may be too much.

2. Work Hard, Play Hard

When I first started out as an entrepreneur, I sacrificed my friendships, my family members and my social life completely. I was obsessed with my businesses and I was spending day and night working on them. However, I quickly realized that the straining relationships were a big stress in my life and I was burning out far too quickly.

Yes, entrepreneurship is difficult and you must put in work long hours, but it isn’t worth completely sacrificing friends, family and fun. Manage your time efficiently and grant yourself breaks and days off. Take time to socialize and spend time with family and friends. This can help clear your mind so you’ll be less likely to burn out while giving your brain something else to think about for a period of time.

3. Don’t Fake Happiness, It’s Impossible

You can fake something when you meet somebody, when you meet them once or twice. However, it’s impossible to fake something for the rest of your life. As an entrepreneur, money is great but happiness reigns above everything else. When I launched my first business in high school, I only cared about the money.

I tried faking it and pretending that I was happy, but I really wasn’t. I was lacking passion and purpose, all I had was the financial gain to look forward. I immediately realized it was time for a change of industries and I finally ended up finding happiness. Starting a business is like getting married, you’d hate to get married to someone that you can’t deal with for too long. Choose wisely and make sure it makes you happy!

4. Failure Has More Benefits Than You Think

As entrepreneurs, we’re constantly hearing the phrase “embrace failure.” However, very few people actually know what it means. When I first failed, I sure didn’t know what the hell it meant. It took me time to go through the entire process to really understand how to deal with failure and how to embrace it. Failure actually has more benefits than most people would understand on the surface.

Not only does failure present an opportunity to learn from your mistakes, it is real world experience and education that should assure you a better shot of succeeding the second time around. Not only that, but failure puts your ego in check and removes the feeling of invincibility off entrepreneurs once they get their first taste.

5. Celebrate Small Wins

Starting a company is hard, growing one is even harder and running one successfully is the hardest thing of all. Many people celebrate the big wins (when the needle really moves), but what do you do about the small wins?

When I first started out, I ignored all the small wins. Told my employees and partners not to celebrate it and that we had to focus on our bigger goals. However, I quickly realized that the small wins were just as important as the big ones. Recognizing small victories can boost your morale and provide a surge of energy. They provide you with the motivation to keep going and they show you that what you’re doing on a day to day basis is still working.

6. Don’t Give It Away For Free

When I launched my startup company StatFuse, we had this dream that we would give away our product for free and acquire millions of users. We were getting tons of users, but giving our product away for free wasn’t as beneficial as we thought it was. We were cash flow negative and our users weren’t close to as valuable as we expected them to be.

No matter what you do in the entrepreneurial world, cash-flow is what keeps the company afloat. Before you start giving out things for free on a hope that one day you’ll be able to monetize, figure out a way to generate cash from day one. This was one of the most valuable lessons I learned after 2 years of generating almost zero revenue with StatFuse.

7. Calculate Your Risk And Then Jump In With Both Feet

Don’t jump into something without knowing what’s really down there. Once you are ready to jump, don’t half ass it. That’s the simplest way to put it. If you’re going to make the decision to take a calculated risk, put your heart and soul in it.

In entrepreneurship, I have learned that half hearted efforts never go anywhere. Figure out the risks and the rewards and then see if it’s all worth it in the end. I can tell you from my experiences that taking risks is extremely crucial to long term success. Playing it safe in the entrepreneurial world can only get you so far!

8. Know Your Industry Better Than Anyone Else

Most people are not willing to put in the time necessary to learn and educate themselves. However, education is crucial to your success and it’s also the easiest way to stand out and have the upper hand on your competition.

The most important thing to learn about is the industry that you plan to build your business in. If you were to build a dream mansion, would you just stop in any random city and build it? Absolutely not. You’d study the geography of the land, the people in the city, the safety of the area and the shops/landmarks in the area before building your house. Entrepreneurship is the same. Study your industry inside and out before building your business!

Conclusion

Entrepreneurship is a long journey that hasn’t been perfected by anyone. In the long run of any business, every entrepreneur has several lessons they will learn as the journey continues. In this post, I shared with you are 8 life lessons I learned from becoming an entrepreneur at a young age.