I'm Finally 18!

[Owen]

It's official...I'm 18 years of age. If you're newish, you probably don't know why it's significant, but if you're Harold or anyone else, the day is here. I can finally start whatever business I please all by myself. I opened up a TD Bank checking account, savings, TD Ameritrade, and even applied for a credit card.

Let me tell you my plans now: I was going to go to Bryant University, but I'm not going now. I can't afford it. My parents have awful credit and I can't take out $40,000 a year alone in student loans. I am instead going to start a company and attend community college part time. I have no idea what company I'm going to start, but at the moment I'm leaning towards an event management company (small local EDM concerts) or I want to make an app of some sort. We'll see. :P

Thank you, everyone, who's read my complaining and ranting over the years. Special shout out to Van Gogh for not banning me.

[Fulcrum]

Happy birthday Owen. Took ya long enough.

I think it's a good idea to not take on 40K worth of debt (per year) when you're not sure what you want to study. Keep working and keep plugging away at getting your business running.

[Harold Mansfield]

Happy Birthday Owen. Bout time. Old enough to start a business. Old enough to take on debt. Old enough to go to war. Not old enough to drink. Hardly seems fair. Many more milestones to go. Don't forget to have some fun along the way.

[vangogh]

Happy Birthday Owen and congrats on reaching 18. I know you've been looking forward to this day for quite some time. Take Harold's advice and don't forget to have some fun along the way.


Special shout out to Van Gogh for not banning me.

Funny. Never crossed my mind even for a second. :)

[cbscreative]

Happy Birthday Owen. Bout time. Old enough to start a business. Old enough to take on debt. Old enough to go to war. Not old enough to drink. Hardly seems fair. Many more milestones to go. Don't forget to have some fun along the way.

Yeah, I got shafted on that one. While I was growing up, Michigan had 18 as the legal drinking age. Some group got a law passed to raise it to 19 before I turned 18 but to top that off, voters approved raising it to 21 which took effect before the 19 law was set to go into law. That 21 law took effect 2 weeks after my 18th B-day. I wasn't happy! The only real accomplishment of the 21 law is to promote rebellion and it worked really well on me back then. Really, if you have to break the law just to have a beer, what's to stop you from breaking other laws? People that live in their own bubble can be incredibly stupid.

Anyway, not for me to "complain and rant" so I'll congratulate you instead. Kudos for your smart decisions and business ambitions. When deciding on a business, don't think of it strictly as starting a biz. Find a problem and figure out how to solve it. Then you have a business.

My son was telling me just the other day about an 18 year old who worked as a server at a restaurant which was on the waterfront. He got the idea to start a jet ski delivery service and it's a huge hit. People on boats can now order delivery service.

[Gravity]

Dang young people! haha.

Cheers!

[Paul]

I may have to disagree with some of the good folks on here.

Mainly, don’t pass on a good education for the dream of a business. You are only 18. We all know a business is your “dream”. However, you cannot replace a good education. An education gives you the ability to move in many directions. Even if it doesn’t make you “smarter” a degree gives you some gravitas in the business world, especially with investors.

You should probably specialize in finance. My guess is that you are going to end up in some high end sophisticated business someday and an education will serve you well. I say all this because you are a bright ambitious person with virtually no limit to your future.

Don’t let the fear of college debt dissuade you. Even $ 40,000. The value over your lifetime is tremendous.

I say all this from personal experience. At 18 I did pass on college to start a business. I couldn’t wait. I thought I’d make millions in the four years I would have “wasted” at school. I didn’t.

I did eventually get educated but it was 10 times harder than if I had just gone and finished.

I say this as very personal advice to you based on the little I know of you from chatting on here. I might say something very different to a different young person who didn’t have the drive and intelligence that I believe you do.

[tallen]

I agree with Paul in that, at this stage in your life, I would consider going to school full-time, even if you are just starting at a local community college, and do business stuff only part-time, rather than the other way around. You don't have to go to an expensive private college or university, you can still get a great education from less expensive schools.

[Harold Mansfield]

I may have to disagree with some of the good folks on here.

Mainly, don’t pass on a good education for the dream of a business. You are only 18. We all know a business is your “dream”. However, you cannot replace a good education. An education gives you the ability to move in many directions. Even if it doesn’t make you “smarter” a degree gives you some gravitas in the business world, especially with investors.

You should probably specialize in finance. My guess is that you are going to end up in some high end sophisticated business someday and an education will serve you well. I say all this because you are a bright ambitious person with virtually no limit to your future.

Don’t let the fear of college debt dissuade you. Even $ 40,000. The value over your lifetime is tremendous.

I say all this from personal experience. At 18 I did pass on college to start a business. I couldn’t wait. I thought I’d make millions in the four years I would have “wasted” at school. I didn’t.

I did eventually get educated but it was 10 times harder than if I had just gone and finished.

I say this as very personal advice to you based on the little I know of you from chatting on here. I might say something very different to a different young person who didn’t have the drive and intelligence that I believe you do.


Also the college experience is pretty valuable. Meeting people smarter than you, getting exposed to new ideas and new ways of thinking, actually learning how to do things. You may even meet your future business partner there the same way Gates, Jobs, Wozniak, Larry Page, and every other millionaire entrepreneur that you idolize and want to emulate....pretty much all of them met each other or started in college.

If you really want to follow in their foot steps, then really follow in their foot steps.

[shrinkme]

Happy birthday! Good luck to you.

[Bobjob]

Smart thinking starting out in Community College. Work part time for a handy man. Do not forget to learn a foreign language and to play a musical instrument.

Here's your app idea. An App that you set to recognize everyone in your contacts. So when they call you the phone rings normal, but when you are receiving a call not in your contacts (usually a spam call) your phone rings different. My wife thought it up cause she hates fumbling through her purse for a Spam call.

[cbscreative]

Great feedback! The advice to start with community college and then attend a respected university is exactly what my son is doing now. He got his Associates at a community college (no sense in paying top dollar for core classes like math). He's about a year or so out from getting a Bachelor's from a well respected university. Tuition is not cheap but not "expensive" either.

Although finishing with the degree is in my son's plan, I was like Paul and didn't do college after high school. My reason was different though. I researched what graphic designers (back then called commercial artists) earn and I was appalled. I wasn't about to spend four years and thousands of dollars to earn less than a lot of factory workers! I did end up going to college in 2001 which was a 22 year split after high school. In my case I took classes for 5 years and didn't graduate because I was already running my current business since 2002 and my boss (me) said I got what I needed out of it.

I don't recommend dropping out but it is worth considering how that plays into your business ambition and situation as you proceed through school. Harold mentioned Gates and Jobs who both dropped out. Success stories vary.