
Young, Rich, and Calling Their Own Shots - 30 Under 30  - jasonlbaptiste
http://www.inc.com/30under30/2008/articles/intro.html
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kleneway
Last year I checked out this list and was shocked to see that one of the top
30 was a girl that I had dated a few years back! If only I had just "listened"
or "not made out with her best friend", I'd be set for life.

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pxlpshr
_Rahim Fazal, co-founder of Involver, started his first business when he was
in high school, and actually told his parents he was dealing drugs -- just so
they wouldn't find out about his company and make him focus more on his
schoolwork._

it's sad that our society is soo conditioned to corporate ladders... when in
fact entrepreneurs are the bread and butter of our economy.

~~~
ojbyrne
So how exactly does that work? Hey, mom, dad, I don't have time for school,
I'm too busy slinging...

If he's from the neighborhood where that actually works, I very much doubt
that he'd get funding from anyone. In other words, I'm calling bullshit.

~~~
zandorg
But he might not need funding, depending on whether it's an Intellectual
Property (IP) company or a franchise, or time hungry, manpower needed, etc
etc.

~~~
ojbyrne
So I looked further and on their about page it says he has an MBA from the top
business school in Canada. Again I call bullshit, either on the story or on
the MBA.

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mwinters58
and another year has passed and I see this list, realizing I'm getting closer
and closer to 30 (ok i'm not that close yet).

Does anyone else feel that it's about time for themselves to stop reading the
lists and start building something?

~~~
timr
Don't sweat it. Not that long ago, you didn't have a _prayer_ of starting a
successful business before the age of 30. The 20-year-old founder is a very
recent fad.

The demographics may be shifting, but it isn't your fault.

~~~
pchristensen
I wouldn't call the 20 yr old founder a fad but rather a new development. I
think that the new economics of distribution mean that starting a company at
20 with no cash will be a permanent option. I do think that it will take a
culture shift towards entrepreneurialism to make it more prevalent though.

(full disclosure: I'm 28 with no startup)

~~~
timr
Maybe. My guess is that the market for those companies that can be started
with little or no money will become saturated (this has probably already
started to happen), and the returns will fall. This will dampen some of the
current frenzy for young founders.

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anamax
> Rahim Fazal, co-founder of Involver, started his first business when he was
> in high school, and actually told his parents he was dealing drugs

Um, dealing drugs is a biz. Some dealers are owners. Some are employees. Some
are contractors.

And, a lot of dealers in the owner/contractor categories are under 30.

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nazgulnarsil
the article mentions that "entrepreneur" studies are being added to many
curriculums. this is fantastic, if the baby boomers retire fast enough there
might be a chance of real capitalism returning to the USA. entrepreneurs drive
every increase in standard of living.

~~~
dangrover
For some reason, I find an oxymoron in phrases like "entrepreneur curriculum."

~~~
ionfish
Quite. Surely we would be better improving the curriculum so that children
have a better chance of learning to think critically and imaginatively about
all classes of problems, rather than adding narrow vocational studies. A world
where everyone is an entrepreneur in spirit may be utopian; a world where
everyone is an entrepreneur in the limited sense that governments and
educational systems think of them sounds utterly dystopian.

