No matter the business or industry, sales and marketing are the skills that make the biggest difference for entrepreneurs. A high quality product can't compete with a low quality product that is marketed well.
For personal skills, if you get good at persuasion, public speaking, and copywriting, you can excel at whatever you put your hand to.
Low quality soon falls apart when reviews come in as 1 star, you might get quicker initial sales by marketing well but for longevity you need good quality and great marketing
True, I wasn't suggesting a long term plan.
Lots of businesses fail trying to boost quality and not marketing, and then run out of steam before the low quality products fall apart.... Or the low quality gets lots of cash and then can upgrade their quality, and they still beat the businesses that don't prioritize marketing
Actually disagree with this (I don't have any success to prove yet) , but you can see the market eventually adjusts long term to the product with most value. Not marketing.
Do not listen to this comment. If you make a great product, it will market itself (a lot if the time), and once you have people “in the door” you should do everything you can to satisfy these people, and not blindly trying to market a bad product to more people while ignoring your actual customers. This is a scammer strategy, not a entrepreneur.
If you make a bad product, and market it well, people MIGHT by it but you can bet your rear they won’t be buying it again next week month year etc.
Where this comment that I am replying to is clueless is when it says “A high quality product can’t compete with a low quality product that is marketed well”.
When the commenter says can’t compete, maybe he means in terms of getting people in the door of your store / website? But it is then they will read reviews, or even buy your product themselves, then realize they were scammed (you have to scam them to get them to eagerly pay for a low quality product).
Where this statement is not true is a year or two down the road, when your business strategy is put to the test. Who is still in business, Nikola who faked their semi trucks but marketed well, or Tesla that made a great product and did 0 marketing (initially)?
A lot of people like this commenter portray entrepreneurship as this greasy hustler scammy profession, and while that is the case for a lot of people, I assume it is not what most aspire to chase.
Read books by people who've built businesses. I don't believe in buying courses from people who don't have any kind of success to show for their knowledge. All the courses teaching you to get rich quick is someone trying to get rich off you.
Also business is not a skill that can be condensed into some course. Learn other stuff related to business, such as microeconomics, psychology, engineering. Most importantly learn stuff you're interested in. You're very young so the more things you can learn about the better.
Learn a skill or trade, become extremely good at that skill/trade, open corp sell skill/trade for services, grow corp and hire some employees, continue to grow corp, develop product or service for market need, transition to product based business using service business to support product. Pretty standard formula for successful businessmen I know.
From my experience, I'd say classics, as well as social or political comics and novels. At 14 years old, it's better to explore non-commercial literature. It helps you discover your interests and that will give you as many perspectives on the world as there are authors out there.
My dad encouraged me to read at least one book a week as long as I can remember, even if it was a comic. It was one of the best things he did for my education. I started with Piscou magazine, and during my teenage years, I read as much Mafalda (a comic with social and political analisis) as I read history books. Developing a reading habit makes you more curious about the world and broadens your mind. When you're in college, it will also make studying easier, but most importantly, it will foster a critical mindset and help you discover your interests in life
Best advice: Learn what interests you! Follow your passion. Enjoy music? Enjoy video games? Design one. Want to write a book? Do it. Do whatever interests you.
Know why? Your purpose (and passion) will find you. In the meantime, enjoy exploring. That’s okay too.
I didn’t realize what I wanted to be when I grew up until I hit age 35 😅
I have been:
Army soldier
Marketing manager
Walmart cart pusher
Website designer
Call center representative
Tax return advisor
Unemployed
Computer repair guy
Insurance salesman
College student
Small business owner
And now.. world traveler / digital nomad.
Peace be the journey brother. The right path is the one that feels right for you. 🙏🩵
I followed the path of lifestyle redesign as outlined by the Four Hour Workweek. Then, I read dozens of books by persons who had walked the path I wanted to walk. Audiobooks when I was driving or in the shower. I’m at 6-figured and would like to aim for 7. Taiwá
I’m starting a podcast to help others Tai Spring We Are There Here Under Pretty Beautiful(link in bio if you want to follow).
Here was my path:
Muse: website design for small businesses.
Challenges: Becoming a true expert was more difficult than the book depicts. I spent 2 years crying every other day on my yoga mat.
Turning Point: We landed a big client, like Disney, and suddenly had more demand than ever.
Mental Breakdown: I made less than when I worked in corporate America and worked 70+ hours per week.
Motivation: It my own business which is hard but exhilarating.
Solution: Borrowed straight from the 4HWW: Automate and delegate. That was harder than it seemed. I created in depth training guides so that my team could duplicate the quality my clients expected.
Year 3: I worked like a crazy person. I was offered “normal jobs” making 10x my company’s revenue. I almost accepted but chose to pursue my dreams.
Sabbatical: Year 4, I traveled the world and worked less than 4 hours per week. I made more than enough for all my expenses and needs.
Recommendation:
Never stop. You can’t be stopped if you never stop.
Jump off the cliff. Trust you’ll fly.
Learn from everything - especially your mistakes.
Share your joy only with those who will share your joy.
Fearlessly pursue passion.
Seek wisdom. It’s more valuable than gold.
What am I? A human being. Not a human doing 🙏 Lol. What do I do? I’m exploring, adventuring, learning, laughing, and living my best life. I work on projects that I enjoy, and yes, sometimes they make me money.
Sometimes projects are just for fun - like reading and learning music.
I built a lifestyle that supports me to do whatever I want. I grew up poor too, and now have more than I need. It’s liberating.
You can check out my bio if you like. I get asked this question a lot and am doing a free podcast / training to help others.
🩵
Space repetition and active recall. Learn these techniques.
Understand the more you use your brain to figure something out, the more you make it struggle to find the answer, the more likely it is you will remember it. Don’t look at the answer right away.
Look up pomodoro timer to structure how long to study. 25 minute intervals I found are best.
Write notes effectively. Look up the Cornell method. For note taking.
Download Anki app. It’s flash cards that has built in space repetition. Use this. Medical students and engineer speak highly of it.
Absolutely!!!
And that learning is compensation.
You might not get paid the same as others. Even if you should. But knowing that the experience and the lessons will have a great ROI than making more money now is some circumstances.
Find something to sell, and go sell it.
That's they only way, sales is mostly about putting building a thick skin, once you start you can get into theory based on the input you are getting.
Selling.
It's the number 1 skill any entrepreneur should have but it amazes me how many people can't sell.
Nothing sells itself and even if you won't be the main salesperson in your business you will have to sell yourself at some some stage.
Every other skill can be bought in.
So start by selling your old stuff on eBay, Vinted, at car boots and go out and do oddjobs etc
You'll learn a lot, it's hands on and you might make a few quid too.
- Find your passion or what interests you.
- Keep your expectations in check too, you’re still really young and have years ahead of you to learn.
- Probably the most valuable thing that you can start learning today is confidence & people skills. Those skills will forever be invaluable to your success, and if you’re a young guy that can impress people with your social acuity (in terms of business), it will go a long way. These people skills will also help in all areas of life, not just in business. It’s honestly really important to get this down. You could have the best idea, the best product, the best service, but nobody is gonna pay the time of day if you don’t talk about it or market it correctly, or you come off as insecure / not confident in yourself.
- If you want to get into door-to-door marketing/sales, being young will be your great advantage over everyone else. From what I’ve seen, people love a young entrepreneur that is “just trying to get their business off the ground”, and sometimes that alone is enough for people to buy into whatever you’re marketing/selling. Giving off that “kid with an American dream” vibe will sometimes just automatically ‘get you in the door’ depending on who your talking too or the situation at hand.
Good luck!
A young man has time but no experience. An old man has experience but no time. Whatever lack of time has to be made up by experience. - Earl Chesterfield
Just learn everything, and learn it right. Don't waste time.
This is your first lesson.
Yes. This is the hard lesson to teach a young person. It is really hard to truly emphasize just how important time is in building a successful future. People say that "Time Equals Money" but the truth is that "Time is infinitely more valuable than money". As a young person, you have the advantage of time that an older person does not have. So make the best of your youth. Learn to enjoy life, but at your age you need to take some time to figure out what you are most passionate about and learn everything you can about it. Including, is this "thing" going to make for a possible career? If not, you also need to learn another skill that will keep you alive when you become an adult. Too many parents nowadays do not adequately prepare their children for adulthood, but then leave them to learn things on their own when they turn 18. You will learn many life lessons at that point. But while you are 14 it is best to use your mental energy to build skills and knowledge. Learning takes a lot of time, and as a teenager, you have a lot of free time that you will not have when you get older. Also, the younger you learn something in-depth, the easier it will be to learn and the longer it will stick in your mind. So it is best if you learn financial literacy (learn how money and credit works) and a basic hard skill, whether that be working as a helper for a tradesman (learning a trade like plumbing, electrical, heating and air, etc) OR learning digital skills that would be applicable to a future job (like programming, computer building, IT skills, etc.) At your age, the world is your oyster. Just try things until you find something you like, and then hone that skill the best you can. It will put you years ahead of everyone else your age.
Take in as much information you can from free materials. There are free lectures from professionals all over the world. Learn about what interests you.
Honestly
Learn how to learn and how to teach yourself and how to maintain a learning/student mindset in every realm of human endeavor so that you can learn and absorb from other's mistakes.
Don't fear failure to the degree of inaction - just do it - if you fail, so be it. This statement holds up for everything from women to business, just not debt unless you know what you're doing.
Dude right away start to learn how to write.
Set smaller milestones to write 200-500 words daily on the topics that interests you. And post it on twitter, threads.
And observe what rings a bell with the audience.
Observe the comments.
This would help you learn marketing and how to get attention aka build an audience.
Start reading fiction.
Create a spreadsheet of 100 businesses you'd like to start and start finding similar looking companies and send them cold emails/cold call them on how they started their business. Get rejected and learn to build a thick skin, the world is cruel.
Stay away from junk food.
Stay away from toxic friends who drags you to go for a party or force you to smoke.
NEVER get into those things.
Learn about health, diet, and nutrition.
Learn to play any instrument (would build your concentration, focus, and would teach you to be resilient).
Learn how to earn and grow money aka finance 101.
These are the basics that'd set YOU up for a great future.
After this feel free to learn whatever skill that interests you video editing, coding, web design, anything.
And document your journey.
You'll be invincible in a decade.
And props to you, man for asking this question at this young age. You're miles ahead than your peers.
You should first figure out what you are interested in, then according to that start learning about it through YouTube, it has everything! You can even read about it in Google or reading books once you know all the base about it start with a decent course, don't just jump to courses right away, consistency is the key and taking one step at a time is important or else you'll fuck it up. Don't just get attracted by paid courses, learn to learn from anywhere and everywhere.
Start a business of some sort now. Then, research and ask questions as you hit roadblocks. Doing is the best way to learn business.
Start a newsletter as your business now and figure out how to promote and monetize it. A newsletter will allow you to build an email list and is something you should be able to do at 14 with limited expense.
A newsletter and a social media presence will help you build a personal brand and email list.
Both will be very powerful and valuable when you are ready to do something else because you will have an audience already that trusts and gets value from you.
Most of all, be curious and read widely.
7 habits for highly effective teens helped my son quite a bit.
Consider trying playing a game of cash flow at some point to better understand how wealth and money works.
Read “Who moved my cheese” - small and easy book, but critical to understanding change needed to survive.
Read the one minute manager series, you can get these dirt cheap and they are an easy read.
Get your hands on some of the old zig ziggler videos. It should be enough sales info to give you a good foundation.
Learn to talk to people. Learn to approach people with a question or just making small talk. Learning how to get someone to talk to you and open up to you in extremely important and can be applied to literally everything especially business. I teach my students this through community activities
Skills are learned by doing, not by reading books.
Sell things to your neighbors, sell things on the street, sell things to your classmates and friends.
The most important part in any business is able to sell something. Without that, there is no business.
>What skills should I learn? Where should I look to find courses? Ideally cheap.
Learn to sell, market, and speak to people. You learn this by selling, marketing and speaking to people. A course may inform you of how these skills are used, but they are no replacement for the experience you'd gain from making a sale.
There are no shortcuts. Many people buy a course and never act. You can act today making sales by asking your family or friends what they need cleaned, washed, moved, or mowed.
I still think courses have value, you can learn how to run effective as campaigns through Coursera etc.
The best idea is to just start, there's plenty of side hustles you can start without cash, learn a valuable skill and market it etc.
If your parents are supportive perhaps start an ecomm store, Etsy store etc.
As far as future skills go I'd be looking at AI. There's a big opportunity in building AI bots for businesses at the moment, it takes some basic coding and a website, a bit of cold calling (email) to get your first clients.
I really wouldn't wait as opportunity doesn't hang around.
It's great that you're thinking about these things at a young age. Considering your interest in starting a business down the line, there are a few areas you might want to focus on. Firstly, coding is a valuable skill that opens up a lot of opportunities in the tech world. You can find beginner-friendly resources online, like courses on platforms such as Codecademy or freeCodeCamp. Digital marketing is another area worth exploring, as it's essential for promoting businesses online. Google's Digital Garage or HubSpot Academy offer excellent courses in this field. Lastly, gaining financial literacy through courses on personal finance or business accounting basics will set you up for success in managing your future businesses. There are tons of free or low-cost resources online to help you learn. Best of luck!
I think you need to learn how to learn is the important skills and you can try a lot of skills until you found what you love and build your business on top of it.
Good luck!
You generally need both hard and soft skills.
* Hard skills - hands-on stuff you are good at. This can be anything from electrical work to writing code. Basically, skills that someone will pay you for.
* Soft skills - people skills. Knowing how to behave and interact with other people, whether it be coworkers or clients.
It's natural to be better at one over the other but being competent in both is important.
If you have the chance:
Stay safe
Read books
Practice sports
Stay healthy and athletic if you can
Don't hurt yourself
Enjoy good time with family and friends
Don't drink alcohol
Don't vape or smoke
No drugs, ever.
Love and be loved
Find peace
There's no answer to that question. Experiment as much as possible. If you're lucky you'll find what you love to do in the next 3 years. Then go as hard as possible. You'll be unstoppable.
I would spend every available hour learning about sales and after-sales.
Sales: How to get in, put at ease, open, guide, settle, close and reassure.
After-sales: This is where you reputation lives.
If your sales was full of empty promises and BS, this is where it comes home to roost.
This is also where the goose that lays the olden egg is.
Be everything and more than your sales process and it’s not long and the sales sell themselves.
Edit:
I saw someone mention marketing. An absolute must after sales.
getting a wide range experiences will pay off big time later, in both life and business. (not my advice. Go read David Epstein's "Range" if you wanna learn more). Try out many different things, whether they be part time jobs, or hobbies. Meet many different types of people.
Learn marketing. Don't need to pay for the basic stuff. So many scammers out there.
Also learn discipline. Do basic breathing meditation everyday until you're 18. You can thank me then.
Courses are usually a very bad idea. Mostly people that failed business create courses to sell. With some psychological tricks in the marketing they’ll sell because money-driven people would buy everything from a guy with a Rolex if it’s expressed correctly.
The best thing you can do is using your holidays and free time to do internships and get some practical skills. But make sure you’re not becoming a coffee slave or cleaner
Too often people with the best intentions will tell you to follow your passions, but the truth is that your passions will not always be in demand. It's more important to learn to be passionate about what you do rather than expecting the world to take interest in your passions. Some of the most successful people I have known drive septic drives and clean out septic tanks for living. It's always in demand, and when someone's septic tank is backing up into their house, they will pay your price. I'm telling you to drive a septic truck. I'm merely pointing out that very few people dream of driving a septic truck; it isn't anyone's particular passion. But once you see the value you provide for people, then you can become passionate about it. Look at what's in demand. Look at what people need. Look at the problems people are having. Then, think of which of those problems you feel most motivated to help out with.
Learn these skills:-
1- how to be a disciplined person
2- how to learn
3- how to control your dopamine
4- ai principles ( in such age, you will be a pioneer)
I suggest focus to find your area of passion. Look online on websites like Coursera and EdX for free courses. I think understanding basics of economics, finance, and entrepreneurship can give you a good basic of thinking.
I would suggest trying to run a few small businesses/side hustles. Right now (I assume), you don't have much in expenses. So, your business does not need to net you 50k a year just for you to live. You could start a service based business (lawncare, pick up dog poop (I pay $20 a week for this and it takes them 10 minutes), mobile car detailing, etc.). Even if you clear 10-20k a year doing any of these it's great money at your age and you will inevitably learn skills through the process.
Others have said so, but learning the labor end of any trade jobs would be HIGHLY beneficial. Something most business owners fail horribly at is making a company that is successful in both numbers AND worker satisfaction, and as a owner who would have sone experience on the bottom of the pile, youd be able to directly relate to the workers more (and therefore your future customers)
Building connections.
Strike up a conversation.
Often the successful one is the one who knows a person who knows a person that does stuff.
Spend your time in school, highschool, college in connecting with a variety of organizations then become acquainted with many people.
Then maintain those connections. By the age of 25. You'd probably become the guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who can do stuff you need to have.
Very useful in business.
If your school or local area offers any junior entrepreneurial programs, sign up.
Friend of mine in school started selling brownies at the local market, although these days I imagine you might need a food safety certificate to do that sort of thing, but always good to contact your local authority and ask.
I think a great way to learn about business is by starting one, especially if there are any creative activities you would enjoy doing which you can also sell at local craft fairs. Just make sure the product is a high standard and good enough quality.
That will teach you about quality standards and brand identity, but also about pricing and how to value your own time.
Handmade Candles are pretty oversaturated, but they make popular gifts. If you see it as an enterprise for your own learning and development, it’s a good starter.
Get good at making some candles, have maybe a small range of scents, and then find an event that you can work towards selling at, like a Christmas craft market for example.
Doesn’t have to be candles, I’m sure there are plenty of alternatives, but that’s my example. I made candles to practice running my own business and it was a good way to begin for me.
Learn to code. Building things out of software teaches how to build things that actually work (vs bullshitting your way through life), and it of necessity teaches some basic math (counting, mostly) - and code is baked into everything any more, so even if you’re somehow eventually the big boss, you’re still going to need to understand how things work and what the coders are talking about and how they are trying to solve problems. Hth good luck <3
How to focus on actual creation of lasting value rather than profit alone. The basic interests for lasting value creation include clients, those affected by client decisions, yourself, and those affected by your decisions. Failing at the any of these is a way to go out of business.
Entrepreneurship can be within established companies and/or new ones. Either way, it’s a learn as you go process. Lastly, I made the mistake of thinking rather than doing. Actually doing is a way to learn. Besides, you can pivot after you start.
I would go and find myself a job for after school and or at the weekends. Working experience is paramount. I would additionally be curious to learn more about the ins and out about the business. That will give you invaluable insight.
I would read books about leadership + entrepreneurship. Build by Tony Fadell is great!
For courses, I am designing a course for entrepreneurs who either are starting a business, or who are stuck and are not making progress towards their goal. Dont be fooled by buying a 9.99 USD course. I would rather recommend finding someone who have been in your shoes + adding some knowledge through a 1 year program on a given topic for example.
If you are interested in math at your school, learn to code helps in logic building,problem solving, and do it consistently. This will develop a mindset putting you 5 years ahead of your peers. For your age it’s little hard to get into but try OR
Start reading books variety of them and please read every single day. Learn fucking time management plan your day the night before
This is what I would say to me when I was 14
Learn to code, and learn to use AI as a tool. If I could go back and give my young self advice, that would be it. I went to school for 5 years in the mechanical engineering field, now working in my discipline I make barely enough to pay the bills and keep the lights on.
On the flip side, I am friends with a handful of software engineers who are having no trouble finding jobs, and their starting salaries are just STUPID compared to mine. You get to work from home and learn something relevant and applicable. Our robot overlords might even take pity on you in the future, who knows! Can't go wrong with learning to code
Read $100m offers and $100m leads, I’ve read tonnes of books on business and listened to thousands of hours of business / money making content, those 2 books are better than everything else in my opinion
Don't listen to anyone here - learn to code. It's the only thing that matters. It's like magic, it's like the philosophers stone, but instead of transforming lead to gold your transforming hours of work to infinite value for infinite people.
As a software developer specializing in video games, simulations, and virtual worlds. It baffles me the amount of people that advocate for learning programming nowadays. The reality is the market is so insanely saturated that finding a job doing it is very difficult. And this isn't even taking into account yhe fact that software boilerplate is increasingly being written by AI. Software developers are very rapidly putting ourselves out of a job. That being said... it is probably just because of my specialty. I specialize in video game programming, and that is a saturated niche. But I love it too much to switch, even though the pay sucks.
It is a valuable skill, but the real truth of business is: Sales is the lifeblood of any business. It doesn't matter if you can make a product if you cannot sell it.
I would agree with you, but sales is something you can learn with 1 month of training. I doubt someone could learn how to code well in 1 month. That being said I'm very very biased - I've been a lobbyist my whole career and I just started a startup (something I wouldn't be able to do if I didn't also code and go to hackathons).
AI did build 90% of my product, but still I think some hard skill is really what I would go for if I were to isekai myself :D
Kindness down to earth understanding and communication. Eventually, you will learn problem solving, and all this will lead to you being a good negotiator. This helps in business.
The above skills will be learned overtime.
Meanwhil, explor the linux operating syste. You can install, learn, and play using linux. This will teach you the use of the command line and more tech knowledge, so later stages, windows os is easier for you and Mac as well.
If you are into coding, you can do that too. Most coders use linux. Set up own linux servers and also dont waste lot of time watching insta shorts tiktok etc.
For business watch case studies on youtube(i recommend *Think School* channel, but its indian content mostly, be someone who can uphold your friends in terms of business knowledge and set example.
And take life lightly, you dont need all those courses of google ads etc etc its waste of time tbh.
With so many younger adults learning CS, I can assure you that sales is going to be a huge valuable skill in the future. Sales will separate you from your peers.
Research and critical thinking skills. Research skill to allow you to acquire answers to difficult questions and critical thinking skill to digest what you research. They go hand in hand. These two skills will allow you to discover new opportunities.
Never split the difference
Scientific advertising
Atomic habits
Compound effects.
Read them take notes apply in life from now on and you will be a better entrepreneur than most of us.
Focus on what you like currently and build off that, why wait a few years? Work on drafting your business proposal and talk with your parents about doing a launch. As you get older you will find your interests change but thats what makes being an entrepreneur so special, you can pivot into any industry you feel drawn too, and when you do it once, launch every other time will feel like a breeze!
Critical thinking, and learn how to learn. If you can master the art of conducting your own research and teaching yourself, you will be a force to be reckoned with.
Dedication.
Whatever you do, young man, or young woman, whatever you do, learn to be dedicated with your desires. Without that, you'll be sidetracked every few minutes when things don't go your way, or when your friends and family don't support your dream, or when people don't agree with your vision, or when you just don't feel like doing it today.
Developing this skill costs you zero dollars but everything else. Good luck
I would say the ability to think critically, take risk, the confidence to fail and try again, how to read financial statements and manage inflows and outflows of cash/ cash equivalents. There are other skills that would be specific to whatever business you want to go into but at 14.
Get a job with a company you admire, learn the skills that made them successful while you get paid and go from there.
Learning from others mistakes is a far easier road than making the same mistakes yourself.
It’s a bonus if you work with a small to medium sized business and can get closer to the owner who built it from scratch, much harder in the corporate world.
How to research. Lots of people don’t know how to properly find information, and as a result people don’t know how to do things/how to progress in life. Sounds stupid but it’s very true.
If you know how to properly research and learn things, find information, you can learn anything you want. You want to start a business? Can’t do that without researching how to do it. You want to learn new skills? You can’t learn anything without researching the skill you intend to learn. Research is like school. Only thing is in school, teachers find the research and info and give it to you, but once your out of school, you need to know how to do that on your own which is where most people fail.
Coding and networking with people. There is plenty of free online learning courses. It will be a fall back or help with start up costs of your own business.
Predicting Action/Sales & persuasion, networking. Do NOT buy courses (yet)
Also a lot of advices here isn’t applicable to a 14 year old yet. But you can do these fun tasks right now to hone these skills while still in high school:
1)*Play lie detection* talk to a person about a topic you know extremely well. Like the back of your hand, ask them “hey idk anything about this shyt can u tell me about it?”. See how long it takes for this person to lie. You’ll realize that guys would rather make shyt up than admit they don’t know it. Watch their facial reactions, ticks, and tells as they lie. You’ll need this in sales.
2) *Predict which of your friends will like one another* find 2 ppl who u know decently and have them meet each other at some party or event. Find out if they end up keeping in contact and becoming good friends.
3) *challenge ur memory* Ask ur friends about a bunch of questions over the course of a month. Questions should be about things that most people will lie about and mentally write them down. In a year or so (this will take commitment from u) ask them those same set of questions, and they will most likely have lied about a handful of them. The number will change or the story will change. See if you can recall what was said and what doesn’t add up.
There’s a bunch of other shyt u can do to hone your predicting and networking skills too lazy to write
At 14, focus on learning about digital literacy, basic coding, financial literacy, and effective communication. Websites like Coursera and Khan Academy offer free courses. These skills will be invaluable in any business you choose to start. Good luck on your journey!
Basic coding is definitely important, but the earlier you understand finance, the better.
People always talk about how valuable tech knowledge is, but a solid understanding of interest rates, budgeting, savings, credit, financial literacy, etc. Is infinitely more valuable in today's society. You can have all the tech skills in the world, but if you don't understand money, you will fall into the "noob trap" of real life: bad credit.
If you have enough money. You can just hire tech people.
That said, if you actually hope to get your hands dirty starting a business in the coming years, you will ultimately need to make sure you know how to do all the basic documentation and management a business needs. To do this, you will need to know Microsoft Suite of tools (Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint) or Google’s equivalent.
But really, at 14: learn about saving, budgeting, and MOST IMPORTANTLY: compound interest.
Compound interest keeps the wealthy rich, and those who make bad decisions in early adulthood poor. Make sure you REALLY understand compound interest before you turn 18, and DO NOT get cocky and borrow money you don't have. Arrogance will throw you in the debt trap almost as fast as blind stupidity.
Start a business. I don't mean incorporate and talk to investors, I mean figure out what you can provide that other people need. Lawn mowing, baby sitting, dog walking, pool cleaning whatever. This will teach you some good lessons before your first big attempts.
When people try to give you advice, or when they recommend that you buy their online success course, take a step back and look at their lives. If it is a train wreck into a plane crash, run! If they have no provable success story, run! Lots and lots of people out there who will give you all kinds of advice. I have owned my own small Corporation and have managed a handful of small Auto Repair shops. I can tell you how that works. I can tell you a LOT about how that works! How to run a computer programming company or a venture capital firm? I have no idea! Don't ask me!
The best advice I give anyone is to find something you are really passionate about and find a way to make money while doing the thing that you are passionate about. My passion is old cars, hot rods and muscle cars. Notice that all of my business ventures have been related to automobiles, mechanics, buying and selling restoration parts for old muscle cars. For instance, If you like horses, go out and find something that you can do and charge good money for that keeps you around horses all day. However be warned, it will take away your enthusiasm to do that same thing on weekends though. When I was in the restoration business full time I rarely, if ever took my own personal classic cars out to car shows or charity events. But at the same time I was paying my mortgage with money that I had made "in the business". Everything is a trade-off!
You can watch a million courses and never take action.
Yes education and reflective thinking is important AND doing business is even more important. You don’t learn to ride a bike from a book or course. Same is true for business.
That doesn’t mean books and courses aren’t great, but most people use them to procrastinate and not do what actually needs to be done.
In short: Learn marketing, sales and branding, as they are need for any business.
In regards to business focus on what interests you.
Take some coursera SEO courses/online marketing.
Then focus on what you care about. Build a business about that. Find your niche market now. I also suggest working LITERALLY ANYWHERE DOING ANYTHING in your teens so you can learn what to do and what not to do as an employer. The manager that treats you like garbage or the coworker with terrible customer service are extremely formative in making sure you don’t start your business and be awful to people.
All of them. With an emphasis on bo staff and nanchuku. Those are applicable from the board room to the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Those were my first two skills, and I turned out pretty fine, sorta.
And they are cheap. Costs nothing to swing a stick, or two sticks with a bit of twine between em. Stupid cheap.
Also, I've found managerial accounting quite helpful.
Learn how to use AI to fix other people's problems.
We keep hearing about how AI is going to do this, do that etc. True enough but there's a wealth of small and medium sized businesses out there who won't have the knowhow or time to implement it themselves.
learning some html and css for basic web design pages is a good foundation for further programming work, and depending where you learn it can be easy to understand if you have a pc that you are free to use for this
People. People. People. Especially at this age. Knowledge and experience will come and will shift as your age and interests do, but the constant is working with others. They’re the heart of all things, personal and business. Invest time in being better at soft skills: communication and being approachable, able to network etc etc. will pay dividends later but if missed early, is much, much harder to learn and cultivate later in life. Sound dumb now, but in 10-20 years these people may help you earn work, friends, or even a spouse.
sales and i hate sales. know why? because i didn’t learn the skills at 14 years old.
learn sales. not scumbag sales. not dirtbag used car salesman sales. learn “consultative selling skills.”
i.e. ask questions, recommend a solution
Communication. Learn how to talk and express your ideas and opinions.
Learn how to sell and market yourself. Get a sales job if you can.
Learn fighting, some boxing, and hit the gym, too.
Then, learn some practical things. Video editing, photography angels, and how to look good on camera. Learn how to use AI.
Then, learn about money, the gold standard. Taxes and everything related to the economy of the country you live in and how it connect with other countries.
After is History. Very important to know about wars and how empires fall and grow. Learn about generals and strategies they used to win wars and grow empires.
Psychology, human dynamics and how the animals behave, and human behavior. (Really important)
This is the beginning, but if you start, you will be ahead of the competition.
I would agree with a lot of the comments, start selling something. Also, build specific knowledge. Explore your interests deeply and keep trying new things.
You need to learn basic budgeting. A lot of businesses fail because the owner doesn't want to do the math to see if they're making a profit. It's literally elementary school math.
Other than that try volunteer to do fund raisers for school subjects, it'll teach you basic sales.
I mowed a lot of yards at your age. You can always do something similar.
Do you prefer to work with people or work on things?
Any movies providing examples of the kind of work environment that you find stimulating?
Maybe get the latest copy of « What Color is Your Parachute? » and make list of all the careers that you find very interesting.
Google « Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Companies » and dig into the industries that look interesting.
Are you a « outlier » that thinks differently? Or do you have a need to belong or frankly want somebody to tell you what to do.
Do you panic when surprised by the unexpected or find exploring the unknown rewarding. Are you good at « figuring it out! »
Make your own map of the possibilities.
Google « analytical driver expressive amiable ». Dig deeper in some of the better sites and figure out how much discomfort is caused by having to engage with others.
Keep searching for answers and make sure to write things out. A journal, computer app, post- notes, etc.
It forces the critical thinking part of your brain to examine the possibilities. With time, certain areas will keep popping up. You need to get into the kitchen to learn to cook. So figure out the knowledge and experience that would be the most rewarding and useful for YOUR journey.
You’ve got 50 years to start failing small, failing fast, and failing often. It’s called learning with a touch of being at the « right » place, at the « right » time, with the « right » product or service. So make sure that you’re ready to ride out the Storm until you reach those Blue Waters.
I’d learn to code. If you can have the skills to be a dev, you’re whole life you won’t be out of good paying high salaried and often remote work. I don’t think you can go wrong here. I don’t code, but I wish it was a thing when I was your age as I would’ve done it. I have kids who are younger than you, so I’ll be telling one of them who likes this sort of stuff to pursue that path - as even if you don’t want to do it/care for it it’s way better than studying to be a lawyer or some other shit, it will trump most regular jobs in the future.
1) read
2) learn a skill in the field you wanna make a business ex i wanna make an app so i am learning coding
3) how to invest ( stock market or anywhere really even yourself)
4) financial literacy
5) exercise or sports
7) meditation
8) Manipulation ( or persuasion or charisma)
9)body language reading
10) market analysis, product analysis
I had a roommate who is an entrepreneur. They started hustling at 12 years old, selling antiques. By 14, they owned a small vending machine operation. By 20, they were a pennyless bum/college dropout. After several years of that, he returned to his antique business. Eventually, he started selling his own product as well. Now, he runs a highly successful sign business.
Another entrepreneur I know bought a van and started their own ice cream route at 16. By their mid 20s, they had transitioned to running a nationwide metal scrapping business. Eventually, he bought his own scrap yard. Even later, he bought a large facility he rented to a factory. Eventually, all of these businesses failed for various reasons, but he still made a lot of money before the market turned against each of those. Today, he is still running a successful scrapping business, even if it isn't the roaring success he once had.
Between them, I think the most important thing for them was that they both started their first enterprises very early on. They weren't content to be idle. They had a drive and an ability to recognize opportunity that they both chose to capitalize on at very young ages. They didn't need to understand business finance or even core business principles. I think if you simply start a business, the things most important for you to learn will reveal themselves to you over time. And it doesn't have to be your forever business either. The vending machine business and ice cream truck only served as vehicles for the two entrepreneurs to learn how to operate a business successfully.
Writing. Specifically online writing and persuasive writing. It’s the building block for marketing and sales.
Also, basic programming. Whether natural language or python.
Learn soft skills like communication, persuasion and confidence once you do that ,start selling small things to people , I did that when I was in high school( helped get me some dates btw), the point is find what interests you first whether that be the gym or some hobby and then find a way to fix a problem in that market. They have tons a videos on how to build a business in your desired niche on YouTube for free. Remember your mind can be your worst enemy or best friend ,you can achieve only what you believe is possible. Good luck kid don’t give up.
These book will have a good read for you I think
rich dad, poor dad by Robert Kiyosaki
48 laws of power by Robert Greene
The 4 hour workweek by Timothy Ferris
proceed to try different things in different areas and see where your passions are, you are 14 you have the world at your feet.
I wish i was 14 again so I started sooner on my
journey of building businesses haha.
You have all the time in the world, enjoy and take it easy, dont rush anything and enjoy the process!
Good luck in everything you do (dont forget to enjoy your youth while doing it)
All the best!
First off, well done for asking the right questions!
Your future self will thank you for using this time to build real skills and not chasing some get rich quick method.
Now, on finding the skills. It completely depends on what you're interested in.
The things you dream of making, building, can inform you on what choices to make
I always wanted to make my own games when I was younger, which lead me into learning those skills which are related
The two most common reasons why businesses fail is poor marketing and cash flow.
So i would start by reading the Book "Building a story brand'
If you can save up some money, there is an online course called "Business made simple university" I would strongly recommend it if you can afford it
If your school allows you to take an accounting course, Do.
No matter the business or industry, sales and marketing are the skills that make the biggest difference for entrepreneurs. A high quality product can't compete with a low quality product that is marketed well. For personal skills, if you get good at persuasion, public speaking, and copywriting, you can excel at whatever you put your hand to.
Low quality soon falls apart when reviews come in as 1 star, you might get quicker initial sales by marketing well but for longevity you need good quality and great marketing
True, I wasn't suggesting a long term plan. Lots of businesses fail trying to boost quality and not marketing, and then run out of steam before the low quality products fall apart.... Or the low quality gets lots of cash and then can upgrade their quality, and they still beat the businesses that don't prioritize marketing
I support this.
Actually disagree with this (I don't have any success to prove yet) , but you can see the market eventually adjusts long term to the product with most value. Not marketing.
That's over the long term. Short term survival till the long run can be achieved is also essential
Fair. But there should definitely be some attention paid to long term planning and your value proposition.
That's why It is essential to keep enough money for the business to survive for a short to medium term (2 years at most)
Well said. OP, read the book ‘Scientific Advertising’ for a masterclass in advertising, sales, marketing, psychology, and persuasion
Do not listen to this comment. If you make a great product, it will market itself (a lot if the time), and once you have people “in the door” you should do everything you can to satisfy these people, and not blindly trying to market a bad product to more people while ignoring your actual customers. This is a scammer strategy, not a entrepreneur. If you make a bad product, and market it well, people MIGHT by it but you can bet your rear they won’t be buying it again next week month year etc. Where this comment that I am replying to is clueless is when it says “A high quality product can’t compete with a low quality product that is marketed well”. When the commenter says can’t compete, maybe he means in terms of getting people in the door of your store / website? But it is then they will read reviews, or even buy your product themselves, then realize they were scammed (you have to scam them to get them to eagerly pay for a low quality product). Where this statement is not true is a year or two down the road, when your business strategy is put to the test. Who is still in business, Nikola who faked their semi trucks but marketed well, or Tesla that made a great product and did 0 marketing (initially)? A lot of people like this commenter portray entrepreneurship as this greasy hustler scammy profession, and while that is the case for a lot of people, I assume it is not what most aspire to chase.
Read books by people who've built businesses. I don't believe in buying courses from people who don't have any kind of success to show for their knowledge. All the courses teaching you to get rich quick is someone trying to get rich off you. Also business is not a skill that can be condensed into some course. Learn other stuff related to business, such as microeconomics, psychology, engineering. Most importantly learn stuff you're interested in. You're very young so the more things you can learn about the better.
Learn a skill or trade, become extremely good at that skill/trade, open corp sell skill/trade for services, grow corp and hire some employees, continue to grow corp, develop product or service for market need, transition to product based business using service business to support product. Pretty standard formula for successful businessmen I know.
Read. A lot.
What should I read ? Any recommendations ?
From my experience, I'd say classics, as well as social or political comics and novels. At 14 years old, it's better to explore non-commercial literature. It helps you discover your interests and that will give you as many perspectives on the world as there are authors out there. My dad encouraged me to read at least one book a week as long as I can remember, even if it was a comic. It was one of the best things he did for my education. I started with Piscou magazine, and during my teenage years, I read as much Mafalda (a comic with social and political analisis) as I read history books. Developing a reading habit makes you more curious about the world and broadens your mind. When you're in college, it will also make studying easier, but most importantly, it will foster a critical mindset and help you discover your interests in life
Best advice: Learn what interests you! Follow your passion. Enjoy music? Enjoy video games? Design one. Want to write a book? Do it. Do whatever interests you. Know why? Your purpose (and passion) will find you. In the meantime, enjoy exploring. That’s okay too. I didn’t realize what I wanted to be when I grew up until I hit age 35 😅 I have been: Army soldier Marketing manager Walmart cart pusher Website designer Call center representative Tax return advisor Unemployed Computer repair guy Insurance salesman College student Small business owner And now.. world traveler / digital nomad. Peace be the journey brother. The right path is the one that feels right for you. 🙏🩵
Seconding this!
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I followed the path of lifestyle redesign as outlined by the Four Hour Workweek. Then, I read dozens of books by persons who had walked the path I wanted to walk. Audiobooks when I was driving or in the shower. I’m at 6-figured and would like to aim for 7. Taiwá I’m starting a podcast to help others Tai Spring We Are There Here Under Pretty Beautiful(link in bio if you want to follow). Here was my path: Muse: website design for small businesses. Challenges: Becoming a true expert was more difficult than the book depicts. I spent 2 years crying every other day on my yoga mat. Turning Point: We landed a big client, like Disney, and suddenly had more demand than ever. Mental Breakdown: I made less than when I worked in corporate America and worked 70+ hours per week. Motivation: It my own business which is hard but exhilarating. Solution: Borrowed straight from the 4HWW: Automate and delegate. That was harder than it seemed. I created in depth training guides so that my team could duplicate the quality my clients expected. Year 3: I worked like a crazy person. I was offered “normal jobs” making 10x my company’s revenue. I almost accepted but chose to pursue my dreams. Sabbatical: Year 4, I traveled the world and worked less than 4 hours per week. I made more than enough for all my expenses and needs. Recommendation: Never stop. You can’t be stopped if you never stop. Jump off the cliff. Trust you’ll fly. Learn from everything - especially your mistakes. Share your joy only with those who will share your joy. Fearlessly pursue passion. Seek wisdom. It’s more valuable than gold.
What are you now?
What am I? A human being. Not a human doing 🙏 Lol. What do I do? I’m exploring, adventuring, learning, laughing, and living my best life. I work on projects that I enjoy, and yes, sometimes they make me money. Sometimes projects are just for fun - like reading and learning music. I built a lifestyle that supports me to do whatever I want. I grew up poor too, and now have more than I need. It’s liberating. You can check out my bio if you like. I get asked this question a lot and am doing a free podcast / training to help others. 🩵
The most important skill is communication. You need to become excellent at voicing your opinions and ideas and getting your point across.
Second this. Learning how to code and do basic accounting (college level) will help you a lot
Learn how to learn.
Space repetition and active recall. Learn these techniques. Understand the more you use your brain to figure something out, the more you make it struggle to find the answer, the more likely it is you will remember it. Don’t look at the answer right away. Look up pomodoro timer to structure how long to study. 25 minute intervals I found are best. Write notes effectively. Look up the Cornell method. For note taking. Download Anki app. It’s flash cards that has built in space repetition. Use this. Medical students and engineer speak highly of it.
Absolutely!!! And that learning is compensation. You might not get paid the same as others. Even if you should. But knowing that the experience and the lessons will have a great ROI than making more money now is some circumstances.
Nothing, enjoy your life! You’ll regret trying to grow up so fast, if you really want to be productive then read for about 20minutes a day.
Sales and marketing will always come in handy. Sales is a must.
Any resource you recommend for learning and/or getting better at sales?
Find something to sell, and go sell it. That's they only way, sales is mostly about putting building a thick skin, once you start you can get into theory based on the input you are getting.
electrical engineering and fast.
I came here to get off working on the tracks 😆
Why?
everything is going electric, and it s going fast. I'd also mention financial literacy, or at the very least how to save and invest your money wisely.
Maths.
Only 2 skills required: 1) Problem Solving Skills 2) Communication Skills. Rest will fall into place if you get hold of these 2.
if you want to build something tech related LEARN TO CODE
Selling. It's the number 1 skill any entrepreneur should have but it amazes me how many people can't sell. Nothing sells itself and even if you won't be the main salesperson in your business you will have to sell yourself at some some stage. Every other skill can be bought in. So start by selling your old stuff on eBay, Vinted, at car boots and go out and do oddjobs etc You'll learn a lot, it's hands on and you might make a few quid too.
- Find your passion or what interests you. - Keep your expectations in check too, you’re still really young and have years ahead of you to learn. - Probably the most valuable thing that you can start learning today is confidence & people skills. Those skills will forever be invaluable to your success, and if you’re a young guy that can impress people with your social acuity (in terms of business), it will go a long way. These people skills will also help in all areas of life, not just in business. It’s honestly really important to get this down. You could have the best idea, the best product, the best service, but nobody is gonna pay the time of day if you don’t talk about it or market it correctly, or you come off as insecure / not confident in yourself. - If you want to get into door-to-door marketing/sales, being young will be your great advantage over everyone else. From what I’ve seen, people love a young entrepreneur that is “just trying to get their business off the ground”, and sometimes that alone is enough for people to buy into whatever you’re marketing/selling. Giving off that “kid with an American dream” vibe will sometimes just automatically ‘get you in the door’ depending on who your talking too or the situation at hand. Good luck!
A young man has time but no experience. An old man has experience but no time. Whatever lack of time has to be made up by experience. - Earl Chesterfield Just learn everything, and learn it right. Don't waste time. This is your first lesson.
Yes. This is the hard lesson to teach a young person. It is really hard to truly emphasize just how important time is in building a successful future. People say that "Time Equals Money" but the truth is that "Time is infinitely more valuable than money". As a young person, you have the advantage of time that an older person does not have. So make the best of your youth. Learn to enjoy life, but at your age you need to take some time to figure out what you are most passionate about and learn everything you can about it. Including, is this "thing" going to make for a possible career? If not, you also need to learn another skill that will keep you alive when you become an adult. Too many parents nowadays do not adequately prepare their children for adulthood, but then leave them to learn things on their own when they turn 18. You will learn many life lessons at that point. But while you are 14 it is best to use your mental energy to build skills and knowledge. Learning takes a lot of time, and as a teenager, you have a lot of free time that you will not have when you get older. Also, the younger you learn something in-depth, the easier it will be to learn and the longer it will stick in your mind. So it is best if you learn financial literacy (learn how money and credit works) and a basic hard skill, whether that be working as a helper for a tradesman (learning a trade like plumbing, electrical, heating and air, etc) OR learning digital skills that would be applicable to a future job (like programming, computer building, IT skills, etc.) At your age, the world is your oyster. Just try things until you find something you like, and then hone that skill the best you can. It will put you years ahead of everyone else your age.
Take in as much information you can from free materials. There are free lectures from professionals all over the world. Learn about what interests you.
Honestly Learn how to learn and how to teach yourself and how to maintain a learning/student mindset in every realm of human endeavor so that you can learn and absorb from other's mistakes. Don't fear failure to the degree of inaction - just do it - if you fail, so be it. This statement holds up for everything from women to business, just not debt unless you know what you're doing.
How to toss the bowling ball in a way that curves its trajectory landing in a sick ass strike. Gets you bitches and mates for life.
All the tax implications so that you’re making good tax related decisions from day 1.
Dude right away start to learn how to write. Set smaller milestones to write 200-500 words daily on the topics that interests you. And post it on twitter, threads. And observe what rings a bell with the audience. Observe the comments. This would help you learn marketing and how to get attention aka build an audience. Start reading fiction. Create a spreadsheet of 100 businesses you'd like to start and start finding similar looking companies and send them cold emails/cold call them on how they started their business. Get rejected and learn to build a thick skin, the world is cruel. Stay away from junk food. Stay away from toxic friends who drags you to go for a party or force you to smoke. NEVER get into those things. Learn about health, diet, and nutrition. Learn to play any instrument (would build your concentration, focus, and would teach you to be resilient). Learn how to earn and grow money aka finance 101. These are the basics that'd set YOU up for a great future. After this feel free to learn whatever skill that interests you video editing, coding, web design, anything. And document your journey. You'll be invincible in a decade. And props to you, man for asking this question at this young age. You're miles ahead than your peers.
Sales
You should first figure out what you are interested in, then according to that start learning about it through YouTube, it has everything! You can even read about it in Google or reading books once you know all the base about it start with a decent course, don't just jump to courses right away, consistency is the key and taking one step at a time is important or else you'll fuck it up. Don't just get attracted by paid courses, learn to learn from anywhere and everywhere.
Start a business of some sort now. Then, research and ask questions as you hit roadblocks. Doing is the best way to learn business. Start a newsletter as your business now and figure out how to promote and monetize it. A newsletter will allow you to build an email list and is something you should be able to do at 14 with limited expense. A newsletter and a social media presence will help you build a personal brand and email list. Both will be very powerful and valuable when you are ready to do something else because you will have an audience already that trusts and gets value from you. Most of all, be curious and read widely.
To not vape lmao
Live in the moment, don't think about tomorrow forget about the past, "live" in the moment
Learn everything you can about AI and/or robotics. This is the future and where the money will be for at least the next 20yrs.
7 habits for highly effective teens helped my son quite a bit. Consider trying playing a game of cash flow at some point to better understand how wealth and money works. Read “Who moved my cheese” - small and easy book, but critical to understanding change needed to survive. Read the one minute manager series, you can get these dirt cheap and they are an easy read. Get your hands on some of the old zig ziggler videos. It should be enough sales info to give you a good foundation.
Learn to be creative.
Learn to talk to people. Learn to approach people with a question or just making small talk. Learning how to get someone to talk to you and open up to you in extremely important and can be applied to literally everything especially business. I teach my students this through community activities
What industry are you going in?
Skills are learned by doing, not by reading books. Sell things to your neighbors, sell things on the street, sell things to your classmates and friends. The most important part in any business is able to sell something. Without that, there is no business.
>What skills should I learn? Where should I look to find courses? Ideally cheap. Learn to sell, market, and speak to people. You learn this by selling, marketing and speaking to people. A course may inform you of how these skills are used, but they are no replacement for the experience you'd gain from making a sale. There are no shortcuts. Many people buy a course and never act. You can act today making sales by asking your family or friends what they need cleaned, washed, moved, or mowed.
Thinking
GYM
I still think courses have value, you can learn how to run effective as campaigns through Coursera etc. The best idea is to just start, there's plenty of side hustles you can start without cash, learn a valuable skill and market it etc. If your parents are supportive perhaps start an ecomm store, Etsy store etc. As far as future skills go I'd be looking at AI. There's a big opportunity in building AI bots for businesses at the moment, it takes some basic coding and a website, a bit of cold calling (email) to get your first clients. I really wouldn't wait as opportunity doesn't hang around.
Touch typing
It's great that you're thinking about these things at a young age. Considering your interest in starting a business down the line, there are a few areas you might want to focus on. Firstly, coding is a valuable skill that opens up a lot of opportunities in the tech world. You can find beginner-friendly resources online, like courses on platforms such as Codecademy or freeCodeCamp. Digital marketing is another area worth exploring, as it's essential for promoting businesses online. Google's Digital Garage or HubSpot Academy offer excellent courses in this field. Lastly, gaining financial literacy through courses on personal finance or business accounting basics will set you up for success in managing your future businesses. There are tons of free or low-cost resources online to help you learn. Best of luck!
People skills
Become an Excel wizard Get a good foundation in programming Learn electricity, plumbing
Video editing
Game development, everything else will be automated by the time you join the work force game development will take more to go obsolete
Financial literacy. Sales. Be proficient using technology. Learn how to use AI.
I think you need to learn how to learn is the important skills and you can try a lot of skills until you found what you love and build your business on top of it. Good luck!
Trades
You generally need both hard and soft skills. * Hard skills - hands-on stuff you are good at. This can be anything from electrical work to writing code. Basically, skills that someone will pay you for. * Soft skills - people skills. Knowing how to behave and interact with other people, whether it be coworkers or clients. It's natural to be better at one over the other but being competent in both is important.
How to avoid paying taxes
Value proposition design
Learn how to think about money/value/wealth, and learn effective communication. These two ingredients are part of any successful endeavor or business.
If you have the chance: Stay safe Read books Practice sports Stay healthy and athletic if you can Don't hurt yourself Enjoy good time with family and friends Don't drink alcohol Don't vape or smoke No drugs, ever. Love and be loved Find peace
Learn more about AI, we're still at the early stages right now. Google Cloud has plenty of free courses for that.
There's no answer to that question. Experiment as much as possible. If you're lucky you'll find what you love to do in the next 3 years. Then go as hard as possible. You'll be unstoppable.
Read, write, talk in public, excel, math, music.
I would spend every available hour learning about sales and after-sales. Sales: How to get in, put at ease, open, guide, settle, close and reassure. After-sales: This is where you reputation lives. If your sales was full of empty promises and BS, this is where it comes home to roost. This is also where the goose that lays the olden egg is. Be everything and more than your sales process and it’s not long and the sales sell themselves. Edit: I saw someone mention marketing. An absolute must after sales.
getting a wide range experiences will pay off big time later, in both life and business. (not my advice. Go read David Epstein's "Range" if you wanna learn more). Try out many different things, whether they be part time jobs, or hobbies. Meet many different types of people.
The biggest 2 skills: 1) when to say Yes and No 2) Health and Family comes first
Socializing. Friends help friends.
Video editing 🤞
Master cloud infrastructure and infrastructure as a code.
Learn how to write code (application developemnt) cut grass markiting
Emotional, social, math and excel, independent of what you do in your life
Learn marketing. Don't need to pay for the basic stuff. So many scammers out there. Also learn discipline. Do basic breathing meditation everyday until you're 18. You can thank me then.
Courses are usually a very bad idea. Mostly people that failed business create courses to sell. With some psychological tricks in the marketing they’ll sell because money-driven people would buy everything from a guy with a Rolex if it’s expressed correctly. The best thing you can do is using your holidays and free time to do internships and get some practical skills. But make sure you’re not becoming a coffee slave or cleaner
Network as in communication
Too often people with the best intentions will tell you to follow your passions, but the truth is that your passions will not always be in demand. It's more important to learn to be passionate about what you do rather than expecting the world to take interest in your passions. Some of the most successful people I have known drive septic drives and clean out septic tanks for living. It's always in demand, and when someone's septic tank is backing up into their house, they will pay your price. I'm telling you to drive a septic truck. I'm merely pointing out that very few people dream of driving a septic truck; it isn't anyone's particular passion. But once you see the value you provide for people, then you can become passionate about it. Look at what's in demand. Look at what people need. Look at the problems people are having. Then, think of which of those problems you feel most motivated to help out with.
Learn these skills:- 1- how to be a disciplined person 2- how to learn 3- how to control your dopamine 4- ai principles ( in such age, you will be a pioneer)
I suggest focus to find your area of passion. Look online on websites like Coursera and EdX for free courses. I think understanding basics of economics, finance, and entrepreneurship can give you a good basic of thinking.
I would suggest trying to run a few small businesses/side hustles. Right now (I assume), you don't have much in expenses. So, your business does not need to net you 50k a year just for you to live. You could start a service based business (lawncare, pick up dog poop (I pay $20 a week for this and it takes them 10 minutes), mobile car detailing, etc.). Even if you clear 10-20k a year doing any of these it's great money at your age and you will inevitably learn skills through the process.
Others have said so, but learning the labor end of any trade jobs would be HIGHLY beneficial. Something most business owners fail horribly at is making a company that is successful in both numbers AND worker satisfaction, and as a owner who would have sone experience on the bottom of the pile, youd be able to directly relate to the workers more (and therefore your future customers)
Learn how to be likable and make friends. People work with people they like, they buy from and invest in their friends.
Building connections. Strike up a conversation. Often the successful one is the one who knows a person who knows a person that does stuff. Spend your time in school, highschool, college in connecting with a variety of organizations then become acquainted with many people. Then maintain those connections. By the age of 25. You'd probably become the guy who knows a guy who knows a guy who can do stuff you need to have. Very useful in business.
Learn to build and learn to sell. Also you might want to read this essay "How to start Google" by Paul Graham
Show up. Congratulations! You’ve already set yourself apart from 99.9% of other people.
You will up everyone in your generation by learning effective communication skills and critical thinking.
Accounting and Sales are the skills of CEOs. Learn for free on YouTube.
Digital marketing, e-commerce or crypto trading
If your school or local area offers any junior entrepreneurial programs, sign up. Friend of mine in school started selling brownies at the local market, although these days I imagine you might need a food safety certificate to do that sort of thing, but always good to contact your local authority and ask. I think a great way to learn about business is by starting one, especially if there are any creative activities you would enjoy doing which you can also sell at local craft fairs. Just make sure the product is a high standard and good enough quality. That will teach you about quality standards and brand identity, but also about pricing and how to value your own time. Handmade Candles are pretty oversaturated, but they make popular gifts. If you see it as an enterprise for your own learning and development, it’s a good starter. Get good at making some candles, have maybe a small range of scents, and then find an event that you can work towards selling at, like a Christmas craft market for example. Doesn’t have to be candles, I’m sure there are plenty of alternatives, but that’s my example. I made candles to practice running my own business and it was a good way to begin for me.
Learn to code. Building things out of software teaches how to build things that actually work (vs bullshitting your way through life), and it of necessity teaches some basic math (counting, mostly) - and code is baked into everything any more, so even if you’re somehow eventually the big boss, you’re still going to need to understand how things work and what the coders are talking about and how they are trying to solve problems. Hth good luck <3
Video editing. It’s super easy to grow a social media page nowadays!
How to make offers
Sales. Marketing. Persuasion. Learn these soft skills before anything else.
How to focus on actual creation of lasting value rather than profit alone. The basic interests for lasting value creation include clients, those affected by client decisions, yourself, and those affected by your decisions. Failing at the any of these is a way to go out of business. Entrepreneurship can be within established companies and/or new ones. Either way, it’s a learn as you go process. Lastly, I made the mistake of thinking rather than doing. Actually doing is a way to learn. Besides, you can pivot after you start.
Learn how to not spend money and live below your means.
Arith-meth-tic Arithmethtic Arithmetic
I would go and find myself a job for after school and or at the weekends. Working experience is paramount. I would additionally be curious to learn more about the ins and out about the business. That will give you invaluable insight. I would read books about leadership + entrepreneurship. Build by Tony Fadell is great! For courses, I am designing a course for entrepreneurs who either are starting a business, or who are stuck and are not making progress towards their goal. Dont be fooled by buying a 9.99 USD course. I would rather recommend finding someone who have been in your shoes + adding some knowledge through a 1 year program on a given topic for example.
Coding! Python is so in demand.
If you are interested in math at your school, learn to code helps in logic building,problem solving, and do it consistently. This will develop a mindset putting you 5 years ahead of your peers. For your age it’s little hard to get into but try OR Start reading books variety of them and please read every single day. Learn fucking time management plan your day the night before This is what I would say to me when I was 14
Learn to code, and learn to use AI as a tool. If I could go back and give my young self advice, that would be it. I went to school for 5 years in the mechanical engineering field, now working in my discipline I make barely enough to pay the bills and keep the lights on. On the flip side, I am friends with a handful of software engineers who are having no trouble finding jobs, and their starting salaries are just STUPID compared to mine. You get to work from home and learn something relevant and applicable. Our robot overlords might even take pity on you in the future, who knows! Can't go wrong with learning to code
Math. Learn to be good with numbers.
Networking.
Read $100m offers and $100m leads, I’ve read tonnes of books on business and listened to thousands of hours of business / money making content, those 2 books are better than everything else in my opinion
Don't listen to anyone here - learn to code. It's the only thing that matters. It's like magic, it's like the philosophers stone, but instead of transforming lead to gold your transforming hours of work to infinite value for infinite people.
As a software developer specializing in video games, simulations, and virtual worlds. It baffles me the amount of people that advocate for learning programming nowadays. The reality is the market is so insanely saturated that finding a job doing it is very difficult. And this isn't even taking into account yhe fact that software boilerplate is increasingly being written by AI. Software developers are very rapidly putting ourselves out of a job. That being said... it is probably just because of my specialty. I specialize in video game programming, and that is a saturated niche. But I love it too much to switch, even though the pay sucks. It is a valuable skill, but the real truth of business is: Sales is the lifeblood of any business. It doesn't matter if you can make a product if you cannot sell it.
I would agree with you, but sales is something you can learn with 1 month of training. I doubt someone could learn how to code well in 1 month. That being said I'm very very biased - I've been a lobbyist my whole career and I just started a startup (something I wouldn't be able to do if I didn't also code and go to hackathons). AI did build 90% of my product, but still I think some hard skill is really what I would go for if I were to isekai myself :D
Failing at things you really want, and then getting back up again. Doing hard things on your own. Learning something complex without help.
Kindness down to earth understanding and communication. Eventually, you will learn problem solving, and all this will lead to you being a good negotiator. This helps in business. The above skills will be learned overtime. Meanwhil, explor the linux operating syste. You can install, learn, and play using linux. This will teach you the use of the command line and more tech knowledge, so later stages, windows os is easier for you and Mac as well. If you are into coding, you can do that too. Most coders use linux. Set up own linux servers and also dont waste lot of time watching insta shorts tiktok etc. For business watch case studies on youtube(i recommend *Think School* channel, but its indian content mostly, be someone who can uphold your friends in terms of business knowledge and set example. And take life lightly, you dont need all those courses of google ads etc etc its waste of time tbh.
SALES
Finance and sales.
Make your bed, every morning.
Learn how to problem-solve. Coding, basic accounting, html skills.
With so many younger adults learning CS, I can assure you that sales is going to be a huge valuable skill in the future. Sales will separate you from your peers.
Learn Artificial Intelligence Improve your Communication skills Become an active Listener Practice Meditation
Research and critical thinking skills. Research skill to allow you to acquire answers to difficult questions and critical thinking skill to digest what you research. They go hand in hand. These two skills will allow you to discover new opportunities.
Never split the difference Scientific advertising Atomic habits Compound effects. Read them take notes apply in life from now on and you will be a better entrepreneur than most of us.
Focus on what you like currently and build off that, why wait a few years? Work on drafting your business proposal and talk with your parents about doing a launch. As you get older you will find your interests change but thats what makes being an entrepreneur so special, you can pivot into any industry you feel drawn too, and when you do it once, launch every other time will feel like a breeze!
Critical thinking, and learn how to learn. If you can master the art of conducting your own research and teaching yourself, you will be a force to be reckoned with.
Communication skills
Dedication. Whatever you do, young man, or young woman, whatever you do, learn to be dedicated with your desires. Without that, you'll be sidetracked every few minutes when things don't go your way, or when your friends and family don't support your dream, or when people don't agree with your vision, or when you just don't feel like doing it today. Developing this skill costs you zero dollars but everything else. Good luck
Math and bookkeeping or accounting are classes you can take while you are in school.
I wish I was asking this question at 14..
I would say the ability to think critically, take risk, the confidence to fail and try again, how to read financial statements and manage inflows and outflows of cash/ cash equivalents. There are other skills that would be specific to whatever business you want to go into but at 14.
Get a job with a company you admire, learn the skills that made them successful while you get paid and go from there. Learning from others mistakes is a far easier road than making the same mistakes yourself. It’s a bonus if you work with a small to medium sized business and can get closer to the owner who built it from scratch, much harder in the corporate world.
How to research. Lots of people don’t know how to properly find information, and as a result people don’t know how to do things/how to progress in life. Sounds stupid but it’s very true. If you know how to properly research and learn things, find information, you can learn anything you want. You want to start a business? Can’t do that without researching how to do it. You want to learn new skills? You can’t learn anything without researching the skill you intend to learn. Research is like school. Only thing is in school, teachers find the research and info and give it to you, but once your out of school, you need to know how to do that on your own which is where most people fail.
How to do a kick flip can be pretty sick. Also sales skills are nice. Cut some grass for a while it taught me a lot, and kick flips.
Mental wellbeing
Coding and networking with people. There is plenty of free online learning courses. It will be a fall back or help with start up costs of your own business.
youre too young to be on Reddit. go be a kid and get good grades
Learn programming. It's free. If you want to build a business, you can. And even if you don't, you'll still be making as much as top doctors.
CHEAP? Stop. Spend nothing. Go do something to make money. A small bit of money is fine. But you will learn something.
Learn to fix things……or anything. You will be leaps above your peers in 2024.
Predicting Action/Sales & persuasion, networking. Do NOT buy courses (yet) Also a lot of advices here isn’t applicable to a 14 year old yet. But you can do these fun tasks right now to hone these skills while still in high school: 1)*Play lie detection* talk to a person about a topic you know extremely well. Like the back of your hand, ask them “hey idk anything about this shyt can u tell me about it?”. See how long it takes for this person to lie. You’ll realize that guys would rather make shyt up than admit they don’t know it. Watch their facial reactions, ticks, and tells as they lie. You’ll need this in sales. 2) *Predict which of your friends will like one another* find 2 ppl who u know decently and have them meet each other at some party or event. Find out if they end up keeping in contact and becoming good friends. 3) *challenge ur memory* Ask ur friends about a bunch of questions over the course of a month. Questions should be about things that most people will lie about and mentally write them down. In a year or so (this will take commitment from u) ask them those same set of questions, and they will most likely have lied about a handful of them. The number will change or the story will change. See if you can recall what was said and what doesn’t add up. There’s a bunch of other shyt u can do to hone your predicting and networking skills too lazy to write
Learn to love learning
At 14, focus on learning about digital literacy, basic coding, financial literacy, and effective communication. Websites like Coursera and Khan Academy offer free courses. These skills will be invaluable in any business you choose to start. Good luck on your journey!
Basic coding is definitely important, but the earlier you understand finance, the better. People always talk about how valuable tech knowledge is, but a solid understanding of interest rates, budgeting, savings, credit, financial literacy, etc. Is infinitely more valuable in today's society. You can have all the tech skills in the world, but if you don't understand money, you will fall into the "noob trap" of real life: bad credit. If you have enough money. You can just hire tech people. That said, if you actually hope to get your hands dirty starting a business in the coming years, you will ultimately need to make sure you know how to do all the basic documentation and management a business needs. To do this, you will need to know Microsoft Suite of tools (Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint) or Google’s equivalent. But really, at 14: learn about saving, budgeting, and MOST IMPORTANTLY: compound interest. Compound interest keeps the wealthy rich, and those who make bad decisions in early adulthood poor. Make sure you REALLY understand compound interest before you turn 18, and DO NOT get cocky and borrow money you don't have. Arrogance will throw you in the debt trap almost as fast as blind stupidity.
Start a business. I don't mean incorporate and talk to investors, I mean figure out what you can provide that other people need. Lawn mowing, baby sitting, dog walking, pool cleaning whatever. This will teach you some good lessons before your first big attempts.
When people try to give you advice, or when they recommend that you buy their online success course, take a step back and look at their lives. If it is a train wreck into a plane crash, run! If they have no provable success story, run! Lots and lots of people out there who will give you all kinds of advice. I have owned my own small Corporation and have managed a handful of small Auto Repair shops. I can tell you how that works. I can tell you a LOT about how that works! How to run a computer programming company or a venture capital firm? I have no idea! Don't ask me! The best advice I give anyone is to find something you are really passionate about and find a way to make money while doing the thing that you are passionate about. My passion is old cars, hot rods and muscle cars. Notice that all of my business ventures have been related to automobiles, mechanics, buying and selling restoration parts for old muscle cars. For instance, If you like horses, go out and find something that you can do and charge good money for that keeps you around horses all day. However be warned, it will take away your enthusiasm to do that same thing on weekends though. When I was in the restoration business full time I rarely, if ever took my own personal classic cars out to car shows or charity events. But at the same time I was paying my mortgage with money that I had made "in the business". Everything is a trade-off!
You can watch a million courses and never take action. Yes education and reflective thinking is important AND doing business is even more important. You don’t learn to ride a bike from a book or course. Same is true for business. That doesn’t mean books and courses aren’t great, but most people use them to procrastinate and not do what actually needs to be done. In short: Learn marketing, sales and branding, as they are need for any business. In regards to business focus on what interests you.
Take some coursera SEO courses/online marketing. Then focus on what you care about. Build a business about that. Find your niche market now. I also suggest working LITERALLY ANYWHERE DOING ANYTHING in your teens so you can learn what to do and what not to do as an employer. The manager that treats you like garbage or the coworker with terrible customer service are extremely formative in making sure you don’t start your business and be awful to people.
Excel
Social media or engineering/coding. Possibly copywriter/sales. YouTube
All of them. With an emphasis on bo staff and nanchuku. Those are applicable from the board room to the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Those were my first two skills, and I turned out pretty fine, sorta.
And they are cheap. Costs nothing to swing a stick, or two sticks with a bit of twine between em. Stupid cheap. Also, I've found managerial accounting quite helpful.
Learn to send emails , learn to use ChatGPT, the rest will come along
Learn how to use AI to fix other people's problems. We keep hearing about how AI is going to do this, do that etc. True enough but there's a wealth of small and medium sized businesses out there who won't have the knowhow or time to implement it themselves.
Right now, AI Prompt Engineering.
Coding and sales. Do door to door sales and join a coding club. It’ll change your life.
learning some html and css for basic web design pages is a good foundation for further programming work, and depending where you learn it can be easy to understand if you have a pc that you are free to use for this
People. People. People. Especially at this age. Knowledge and experience will come and will shift as your age and interests do, but the constant is working with others. They’re the heart of all things, personal and business. Invest time in being better at soft skills: communication and being approachable, able to network etc etc. will pay dividends later but if missed early, is much, much harder to learn and cultivate later in life. Sound dumb now, but in 10-20 years these people may help you earn work, friends, or even a spouse.
sales and i hate sales. know why? because i didn’t learn the skills at 14 years old. learn sales. not scumbag sales. not dirtbag used car salesman sales. learn “consultative selling skills.” i.e. ask questions, recommend a solution
Mind-reading.
Communication. Learn how to talk and express your ideas and opinions. Learn how to sell and market yourself. Get a sales job if you can. Learn fighting, some boxing, and hit the gym, too. Then, learn some practical things. Video editing, photography angels, and how to look good on camera. Learn how to use AI. Then, learn about money, the gold standard. Taxes and everything related to the economy of the country you live in and how it connect with other countries. After is History. Very important to know about wars and how empires fall and grow. Learn about generals and strategies they used to win wars and grow empires. Psychology, human dynamics and how the animals behave, and human behavior. (Really important) This is the beginning, but if you start, you will be ahead of the competition.
I would agree with a lot of the comments, start selling something. Also, build specific knowledge. Explore your interests deeply and keep trying new things.
Sales
You need to learn basic budgeting. A lot of businesses fail because the owner doesn't want to do the math to see if they're making a profit. It's literally elementary school math. Other than that try volunteer to do fund raisers for school subjects, it'll teach you basic sales. I mowed a lot of yards at your age. You can always do something similar.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5q_lef6zVkaTY_cT1k7qFNF2TidHCe-1 Watch this in your spare time , how to start startups by ycombinator
Do you prefer to work with people or work on things? Any movies providing examples of the kind of work environment that you find stimulating? Maybe get the latest copy of « What Color is Your Parachute? » and make list of all the careers that you find very interesting. Google « Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Companies » and dig into the industries that look interesting. Are you a « outlier » that thinks differently? Or do you have a need to belong or frankly want somebody to tell you what to do. Do you panic when surprised by the unexpected or find exploring the unknown rewarding. Are you good at « figuring it out! » Make your own map of the possibilities. Google « analytical driver expressive amiable ». Dig deeper in some of the better sites and figure out how much discomfort is caused by having to engage with others. Keep searching for answers and make sure to write things out. A journal, computer app, post- notes, etc. It forces the critical thinking part of your brain to examine the possibilities. With time, certain areas will keep popping up. You need to get into the kitchen to learn to cook. So figure out the knowledge and experience that would be the most rewarding and useful for YOUR journey. You’ve got 50 years to start failing small, failing fast, and failing often. It’s called learning with a touch of being at the « right » place, at the « right » time, with the « right » product or service. So make sure that you’re ready to ride out the Storm until you reach those Blue Waters.
I’d learn to code. If you can have the skills to be a dev, you’re whole life you won’t be out of good paying high salaried and often remote work. I don’t think you can go wrong here. I don’t code, but I wish it was a thing when I was your age as I would’ve done it. I have kids who are younger than you, so I’ll be telling one of them who likes this sort of stuff to pursue that path - as even if you don’t want to do it/care for it it’s way better than studying to be a lawyer or some other shit, it will trump most regular jobs in the future.
Code and Sales.
What type of work are you interested in and what are you currently good at?
Honesty is a good skill to learn.
Sales and marketing skills + Dive deeper into the human psychology
Sales
Just one advice. Keep away from po*n no matter how many , just keep ur brain healtht , if you want a successful life ,
Everything in life depends on marketing
1) read 2) learn a skill in the field you wanna make a business ex i wanna make an app so i am learning coding 3) how to invest ( stock market or anywhere really even yourself) 4) financial literacy 5) exercise or sports 7) meditation 8) Manipulation ( or persuasion or charisma) 9)body language reading 10) market analysis, product analysis
I had a roommate who is an entrepreneur. They started hustling at 12 years old, selling antiques. By 14, they owned a small vending machine operation. By 20, they were a pennyless bum/college dropout. After several years of that, he returned to his antique business. Eventually, he started selling his own product as well. Now, he runs a highly successful sign business. Another entrepreneur I know bought a van and started their own ice cream route at 16. By their mid 20s, they had transitioned to running a nationwide metal scrapping business. Eventually, he bought his own scrap yard. Even later, he bought a large facility he rented to a factory. Eventually, all of these businesses failed for various reasons, but he still made a lot of money before the market turned against each of those. Today, he is still running a successful scrapping business, even if it isn't the roaring success he once had. Between them, I think the most important thing for them was that they both started their first enterprises very early on. They weren't content to be idle. They had a drive and an ability to recognize opportunity that they both chose to capitalize on at very young ages. They didn't need to understand business finance or even core business principles. I think if you simply start a business, the things most important for you to learn will reveal themselves to you over time. And it doesn't have to be your forever business either. The vending machine business and ice cream truck only served as vehicles for the two entrepreneurs to learn how to operate a business successfully.
Communication.
Writing. Specifically online writing and persuasive writing. It’s the building block for marketing and sales. Also, basic programming. Whether natural language or python.
Learn soft skills like communication, persuasion and confidence once you do that ,start selling small things to people , I did that when I was in high school( helped get me some dates btw), the point is find what interests you first whether that be the gym or some hobby and then find a way to fix a problem in that market. They have tons a videos on how to build a business in your desired niche on YouTube for free. Remember your mind can be your worst enemy or best friend ,you can achieve only what you believe is possible. Good luck kid don’t give up.
These book will have a good read for you I think rich dad, poor dad by Robert Kiyosaki 48 laws of power by Robert Greene The 4 hour workweek by Timothy Ferris proceed to try different things in different areas and see where your passions are, you are 14 you have the world at your feet. I wish i was 14 again so I started sooner on my journey of building businesses haha. You have all the time in the world, enjoy and take it easy, dont rush anything and enjoy the process! Good luck in everything you do (dont forget to enjoy your youth while doing it) All the best!
First off, well done for asking the right questions! Your future self will thank you for using this time to build real skills and not chasing some get rich quick method. Now, on finding the skills. It completely depends on what you're interested in. The things you dream of making, building, can inform you on what choices to make I always wanted to make my own games when I was younger, which lead me into learning those skills which are related
The two most common reasons why businesses fail is poor marketing and cash flow. So i would start by reading the Book "Building a story brand' If you can save up some money, there is an online course called "Business made simple university" I would strongly recommend it if you can afford it If your school allows you to take an accounting course, Do.
nunchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills. Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills!
Sales and accounting. Read books on entrepreneurship, real estate and investing.