Entrepreneurial Myths: June 2006 Archives

I saw this article in our local paper yesterday and it made me think about my post from the other day about entrepreneurs starting younger and younger.

Ephren W. Taylor II has a success story like no other.

Not many people can claim at the age of 23 that they have "come out of retirement" to become one of the youngest CEOs of a publicly owned corporation, but that's exactly what he has done.

And I thought that having a large numbers of 22 and 23 year olds coming out of college to begin their careers as entrepreneurs was an amazing. This young man makes them look middle-aged.

When he was 12, Taylor's first company designed 3-D computer games. Later, at the age of 17, he created a dot.com job search business for teens and college students. At the time it had a value of $3.2 million.

Taylor now splits his time between running two corporations, taking a third one public, extensive community and charitable work, and spending time with his wife and two children.

One of his companies is Amoro Corporation, which he took public in this past spring.

Its mission:

Amoro Corporation is a publicly-held investment development group dedicated to "Empowering Communities With Socially Conscious Development." Our focus is to create affordable housing for homeowners, especially in urban environments.

And the secret to his success?

"You have to visualize success. You have to see it coming."

The old advice used to be "go and work for someone for several years before you try and start a business." The thought was that you needed to learn about business, grow up, save some money, etc. Young aspiring entrepreneurs were discouraged from jumping in too quickly.

I rarely hear that kind of advice any more. We see growing numbers of young people leaving college and starting successful careers as entrepreneurs. Many even are starting their entrepreneurial careers while in school.

StartupJournal has some great advice for young, aspiring collegiate entrepreneurs (written by a young intern, but the way). Use your flexibility and low cost of living as part of your opportunity, leverage the resources and expertise that being a student entrepreneur can offer, and view your early experience as part of your education.

(Thanks to John Russell for suggesting this article).