I want to talk to you young kids for a second. Listen, if you’re thinking about starting a business and you’re, you know, a junior in high school, senior in high school, maybe you’re in your first couple of years in college, the best advice I can give to you is to start young, man. Take the leap of faith and believe in yourself.
When I started my first business, I was a senior in high school. Everybody tried to talk me out of it, but what I’m realizing now, just turning 31, couple weeks ago, is that my biggest advantage I have right now is me starting early. When everyone else told me that I could fail, when everyone else told me that I’d be more secure going to college and getting a degree and getting a job that, you know, entrepreneurship was risky and all that other sh*t they talk about. It’s absolutely true, right? It is risky. It is a challenge. It is difficult. It’s not easy, but if you’ve got it in you, like I knew I had it in me, then you have to follow that. You have to listen to it.
If you’re thinking about going into entrepreneurship, do it at a young age, so you guys can make mistakes. You can take risk. And the downside is very minimal compared to taking a risk later on in life. Proof and point is I lost a business when I was about 27, 28, it was a six figure company, half a million dollars worth of real estate. You know, that business is what made me a millionaire and put me over the top on my balance sheet…and I ended up losing it. Most people would freak out and say, oh my gosh, you know, I’m going to get a job. It’s all over now. But I didn’t because I knew I had time and I still have time.
That’s the greatest thing about this entrepreneurship game is you literally can play this like from the time you’re born all the way until the time you are on your death bed damn near. Like there is no retirement. There is no structure to it. And that’s honestly what I love about it more than anything is that there’s no rules, man. You can make up your own rules. You don’t have to play by anybody else’s rules. And that’s the one thing that I hated when I was trying to get started was that everyone wanted to put me in a box, right? They were like, no, DJ, you have to fit in this little box over here, otherwise, oh, it’s really, really risky. Like maybe some of us aren’t afraid of risk. Maybe some of us aren’t afraid. Period. That’s the whole point of entrepreneurship is being able to live fearlessly. That’s why my vlogs is called Fearless Days is because you can’t get ahead in life without taking risks. Jim Rowan, one of my mentors told me one time. He said, “Life is risky. You know how risky it is? Nobody makes it out alive.”
So if you’re young, you’re starting a business, I encourage you to do it. Do it, and get after it. You won’t regret it, I swear.
Here’s to your success.
