What I would say if I met my 17 yrs old entrepreneur-self

The journey of being an entrepreneur has been a learning journey but also a challenging journey.  It is one that constantly bends my faith, tests my characters and challenges me to extend the limits of my tolerance every day.  Some days I am brought down to my knees other days I am lifted like an angel with wings.   Although I am one to believe it is better to look ahead than to look back, I believe therein lies in the past lessons that if I forget, will repeat itself until I have learn them.  As I look back and address my 17 years old self, I am also reminding my present self that with these battle scars, I know better and I will do better.   By no mean this is the complete list of all the things I would say but perhaps the ones that I would say right now if I were able to step in a time warp.

Be curious.
Curiosity allows you to absorb everything that is happening around, it create a sense of excitement that you will always experience something fresh but more importantly it will make you ask the question “Why?” and it is with that particular question you begin to find knowledge.  Keep watching Star Trek; continue to dream of travelling to a distant galaxy and embrace the unknown but investigate by asking “Why?”

Be playful.
Play doesn’t cost money, play doesn’t involve thinking because play is something you feel like you need to do and you can’t somehow justify it without giggling.  Smile often, laugh out loud and be silly.  Decorum and improprieties are for the 1800’s ladies who drink tea and wear corsets.   A wise lady named Laurel Thatcher Ulrich said, “Well-behaved women rarely make history.”

Be courageous.
Bad thing will happen to you.  That is a fact of life; you can feel weak from it but make the decision that the experience will not reduce you.  Tremble but forge ahead with courage.  Let me tell me how geeky girls are hot in the future so bear with teasing and bullying for now.   Keep standing out, shrinking down to be less a person that you are to please others is not.

Be wary of whinning.
If you don’t like something, change it.  It is within your power, you are in control of yourself and your mind.  You are not a victim of your circumstance.  Be proactive, be the change because “We become what we think about all day long” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Believe.
Be yourself, believe in yourself and be still.  People will say you are too young, not smart enough, wrong time, wrong place, too much of a girl, too ambitious, too emotional – too much of everything wrong and too little of anything worthwhile.   Hush up and believe me, you can be anything you want to be.  A lawyer, a microbiologist or an entrepreneur – whatever that path is, you get to choose and you have life’s permission to change your mind. Be still and hear your own voice, believe it as it will guide you – ignore it at your own perils.

Me and my friends at Templeton High School

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Followformation – Brian Wong

Some of the best people I have met are through random introductions. Brian Wong was introduced through a mutual acquaintance of mine and after five minutes of meeting, I was completely fascinated by his endless amount of energy, enthusiasm and all of that on two hours of sleep. Even more fascinating is the company he has started with his co-founders and what they are up to right now.Followformation is a media darling at the moment as they are the start-up company from Vancouver that is making big waves in the social media world. If you don’t believe me, at the end of the interview there is a list of the press coverage they have garnered so far!

1. Tell us what you do.
Right now, I’m the co-founder of Aer Marketing Inc., an online start-up. We are the dudes behind Followformation.  I am responsible for the ideation, the design concepts behind all our work, and business development (i.e. full-time networking) + anything else that needs to be done.

2. You just finished university, how did you find the time to run Aer Marketing and also startFollow Formation while dealing with exams plus an internship with 1-800-got-junk?
I tell people I practice polyphasic sleeping, but the real truth is just that I sleep very little. I would my manage my time by following what Tim Ferris would call a low-information diet, while separating certain parts of my day for certain things. Followformation was started during the summer, so it was a little less stressful then. But near the end of my last term at university I was working my internship during the mornings and early afternoons Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, going to classes in the remaining time during the day, and allocating “aertime” every evening between play-time and dinner to work on our projects.

3. What was the most challenging aspect of being a young entrepreneur from your perspective?
Young and old, I think the hardest challenge is to “keep trucking” – there are always things that get in your way, and every day, it’s a battle. All I know is that this work has empowered me as a youth to go out and learn new things and meet and work with amazing people – things I would not have been able to experience had I thrown myself at a yawn-worthy line of work.

4. You have had a ton of press lately from the Georgia Straight to the highly sought afterMashable.com, what was the biggest reason for your success with getting press for your company?
Mashable was a complete fluke, but I took it upon myself to leverage that buzz. I have been up very early every morning since then hitting journalists on their blackberry’s and iPhones right before they hit the office. I’m actually pretty bad at it though. The other big reason is, and I hear this a lot – if your idea or concept at its core is not sticky or buzz-worthy, pushing it can only go so far. I think all the blog posts and tweets are a good litmus test for that.

5. If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself regarding your business?
Don’t assume that everyone’s on the same page even when they’ve nodded their heads.

North America Press Coverage

Mashable: http://mashable.com/2009/07/14/followformation/
Fast Company: http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/chris-dannen/techwatch/super-charge-your-twittering-followformation
The Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/x-11216-Twitter-Examiner~y2009m7d16-Alltop-model-for-Twitter-from-Followformation
Killer Startups: http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/followformation-com-make-following-make-sense
InventorSpot: http://inventorspot.com/articles/migrate_followformation_30351
Blogger Institute: http://www.bloggerinstitute.com/2009/07/how-followformation-helps-your-blog/
Local – Techvibes: http://www.techvibes.com/blog/followformation-makes-sense-out-of-following-on-twitter
Local – The Georgia Straight: http://www.straight.com/article-241644/followformationcom
Local – Sauder School of Business Newsletter:https://secure.sauder.ubc.ca/360newsletter/20090716.htm

International Press Coverage

Brazilian business magazine: http://www.papodeempreendedor.com.br/tecnologia/para-tirar-melhor-proveito-do-twitter/
French social media blog: http://www.tubbydev.com/2009/07/qui-et-comment-suivre-sur-twitter-.html
Singapore top Tweeter blog (@techxav): http://techxav.com/2009/07/16/followformation-lets-you-follow-the-top-people-in-the-areas-of-your-interest/

 

And all the rest of our blog hits: http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?q=followformation

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Design Vetica – William, David and Alex

Starting a company is hard but it’s even harder when you are in high school! So if you have excuses such as – I don’t have the time, I don’t have the money, or I don’t have the connection to start my business, team Design Vetica will blow all those excuses out of the water. They are young, they are determined and they are having fun working on their business.  Follow the team on twitter @designvetica.

1. Tell us what you do.
Design Vetica is a Vancouver based interactive agency dedicated to web design and media production. With our core service being web design and development, we work with clients across all kinds of industries to aid them in staying ahead of the competition. Not only do we emphasize on businesses, we also create websites for individuals who want an online presence. In addition, within the next few months, we look forward to adding new media services offerings to what we currently provide.

2. What is the start-up story behind Design Vetica?
All of the partners in Design Vetica, before establishing this agency, have either worked as freelance web designer/developer, or have built some websites themselves. Most of the projects they received were referrals from friends; but long before that, they have done multiple projects for themselves. Recognized by what they can achieve, they were given one of their biggest projects: building their school’s site (and they were paid with school credits). In the following year, William and David started talking about building a company on the idea of web design and media production in IT class. Soon, they pulled Alex into the picture since he was very close in working on previous projects with William. On February 6th, 2009 Design Veticawas born.

3. What was the most challenging aspect of being a young entrepreneur from your perspective as your entire team is still in high school?
Our most challenging aspect of being a young entrepreneur is that we are STILL in high school! People who are not constraint with schoolwork can focus solely on their work (apart from all the other random stuff). However, we, as students have to juggle school work and getting good marks while keeping up with deadlines from multiple projects with clients. This has caused some problems already. For example, we had to drop potential clients during finals. Nevertheless, at times, we encourage each other to keep up our grades in school.

4. To what do you attribute your company’s achievement?
All of us at Design Vetica can attribute our achievements to the individual member in the team. Without such a dedicated and hard working team, Design Vetica wouldn’t be where it stands now.

5. What advices do you give aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those who want to start in high school?
It may sound cheesy, but DO IT; because you never know unless you try. The truth is when we think back to how we started, we were even shocked to find ourselves following such a crazy idea; but we are glad that we did it. Even if your idea fails, use it as an experience because we all learn from mistakes.

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The mobile entrepreneur

As high school students, we were just kids working in the basement spinning out codes and websites. We were not only young, we were solo entrepreneurs and we worked out of our basement. We had many requests for meetings and we used coffee shops many times to help faciliate business meetings. Granted we had to compete with the espresso machines most of the time with….WHAT??!!??? SORRYYYYY…..CAN U REPEAT???? and the awkward SHOUT over the espresso machine when it stopped and you didn’t realized it stopped. Company meetings were done in the basement with a big helping of snacks and lots of green tea – our meetings usually lasted around two hours. Why so long? Because we were so relaxed – we spent an hour and a half doing casual chatter until we realized we have to get down to business.

The cheques started coming in but where are they sending it to?? Well I guess my house will do for now…. My tip for every one out there starting a business: Do not use your house address unless you intend to find your client on the other side of the door and you in your pajamas completely and utterly stunned. Please don’t use your home address, EVER. My second tip? If you can’t answer your phone 80% of the business working hours, get a phone answering service. I was answering my cell phone at school and none of my teachers were impressed.

So we made the transition into using a commercial mailbox…. I then got a call from the UPS store from a gentleman who kindly informed me that a client of ours has shown up to our “office” to only find a UPS store and he was wondering if it was a mistake. You bet, a COLLOSSAL mistake – by us!

I seriously don’t know what the big deal with the fascination with working from home or in a coffee shop is.   It is a good place to start but leave as soon as possible…

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