Start-Up: 5 Key Ways to Succeed as a Young Entrepreneur

Start-Up! is weekly column on entrepreneurship, start-ups, technology and innovation, powered by the Adams Hub for Innovation.

Every year it seems more and more people are looking into starting their own ventures, escaping from the corporate mindset and driving themselves to do more, be more—and let's not forget—earn more. These pioneers come from all walks of life, but the category that seems to be on the rise, and the one that I fall under, is that of the millennial entrepreneur.

The fierce competition to get into large corporate firms and industry giants is pushing young men and women to get creative and think outside the box to make a living. And they're making a killing of it. "This group is poised to be the highest density of entrepreneurs in history," according to Jeff Glass, director of the New Entrepreneurs Network, a youth-based program that teaches high school students in Carson how to think like an entrepreneur.

This upstart class of budding job creators is shaking up the playing field, changing the way this generation is viewed, as well as how they view themselves. "They want to be ambassadors of their own lives," Glass said.
In light of this, I've been thinking about my own aspirations, the things I want to achieve as someone who hopes to one day own his own company. I've also been thinking of all the lessons I've been learning on the way towards achieving those goals, towards becoming the ambassador of my own life. So here's the top 5 five things I've learned as a young entrepreneur to-be, the five things I think anyone (not just millennials) should know about starting a business in the 21st century, all from the eyes of someone who was thrown into it at its very cusp:

#5 Know How To (Social) Network
We are the "'Like' Generation". Much of our social lives exist on our smartphones and blogs. The currency we exchange are the likes, retweets, and shares we trade for empowerment as well as transparency into our disparate lives. Social media platforms are jungles, filled with endless streams of content and tangled webs of constantly-changing algorithms. Although millennial entrepreneurs may pride themselves in knowing how to traverse these jungles, it pays to become adept at what startup evangelist Guy Kawasaki refers to as "the art of social media". Creating sharable, interesting content while engaging with followers on a deeply personalized level is a double-headed challenge all startups must be prepared to face when establishing a brand.

#4 Use What Resources You Have Available
And if you feel you're out of luck because you think money is the only valuable resource, you're dead wrong. One of the biggest revelations I've found is that it isn't about capital, it's what you do with what you've got. It's all about timing and a lot of hard work, and you absolutely cannot do it on your own. Use what you've got on hand to make some handshakes, whether it's networking events and mixers, a friend of a friend who knows someone, or the greatest (free!) resource of the 21st century: the worldwide web. Pulling a company up by its bootstraps means making connections that matter, creating partnerships and strategic alliances that not only lighten your load, but significantly increases each party's chances for success. You may not have the resources, skills, or network you need at the moment, but I'll guarantee there's someone nearby that does. Go out there and meet them.

#3 There's Always a Way to Make it Work
I won't go into the multitude of reasons why some startups don't work. There's too many to count. Despite this, the entrepreneur is a creature of uncanny optimism. For every roadblock, it's our natural tendency to find a way around it, whether it be over, under, beside, or through it, there's always a way. It may not come easy, and it'll practically never come quickly, but the solution will come somewhere. Our job is to lead ourselves to it in the most practical, logical, and fluid way possible. And if it takes a complete pivot or even a reluctant scrapping of the original idea to make it work, then you're only the better for it.

#2 Opportunities Do Grow on Trees
The problem is, everyone's walking around a desert. It's a metaphor, of course, but the point I'm trying to get at is that opportunities are out there, and they're usually clustered together with other, bigger opportunities, as long as you know to how look for them. Look at your highest ambitions, your loftiest goals and missions, and place yourself in situations that you believe will lead you to them. Start small, say, clubs or organizations in your university or greater metro area. Do a quick search and you'll find dozens of ways to connect locally. Get to know the people that can point you in the right direction—or even better, lead you through mentorship or partnership and surround yourself with them. In this day and age, we are more connected than ever. This means even more chances for opportunities as doors continue to open. The problem then is choosing the right one to go through.

#1 Don't Just Help People, Serve Them
I'd say the best trait any entrepreneur can have is the capacity to serve. Business isn't about money. It isn't even about business, really. From the words of Mentor Extraordinaire Matt Westfield, "business is about people."

At its core, it all comes down to fulfilling a need. First, find out who the people you serve are. Usually you will find that there are pockets of underserved people in the market, all with a problem they can't seem to find an answer to. That's where you come in. Once you've got who they are, it's all a matter of finding what they're missing, what challenges they are facing right here, right now. If there's an immediate issue that you know you can solve, put yourself in front of it and be the person or company that ended up being the solution, even if you don't get anything back. "Serve people's socks off, without asking for anything in return," Glass said.

There's so much to be gained by having this mindset, and there's really nothing to lose.

Jonathan Sarmenta is a Journalism and Entrepreneurship Major at University of Nevada, Entrepreneur with BurnReady.com and Intern with Adams Hub for Innovation. Jonathan can be reached at jonathan@adamshub.com