One of the biggest risks you may ever take in your life, especially if you are only a teenager,
will be leaving school and diving head-first into becoming a self-made entrepreneur. Many books
about internet marketing it always start off with a quote that says something like "98% of people
will fail to make a full-time living with this," and I can only assume that the casualty rate is
higher when you consider that you must completely abandon all mainstream wealth creation methods
when you leave college or high school to start your own business.
Who Should Read This Article
This article is mainly directed at teenagers who may be in their final year of high school or first
year of college. You may be older and that is fine, the only requisite is that you feel excited by
the notion of being able to create your own life to the fullest extent. You may be younger as well,
if so you are in a special scenario which will be addressed a little later on.
Leaving school in order to be completely self-sufficient is not something that everyone can handle,
and it is certainly not something that everyone can succeed at. You need to have a certain type of
personality, you need to be driven and disciplined (these are both learned skills which you can
start today), you need to have a concrete idea of how you will make money, and you need to have the
support of at least one close family member or friend.
The Personal Requirements For Success After Leaving School
As a first step, start by recognizing exactly why it is that you want to quit school. You may not
precisely *want* to start your own business (i.e. you might just want to let your musical creativity
flourish and begin learning different instruments), but you realize that money in today's world is a
necessary part of living a comfortable and stress-free life.
Take a few moments one day to really examine yourself and your own personality, because your
personality type can play a large part in your success rate. It is important to feel adventurous,
and I can tell you right now that if you are the type of person who is bouncing up and down in their
chair at the thought of abandoning their old life and starting a new one where the only rules are
the ones that you set for yourself, and where you can enjoy the freedom to be completely creative in
your own way and to enjoy the full benefits (monetary and otherwise) of your own creative
expression, this is probably the best path for you. Passion and excitement are just so incredibly
important, because when you are working all alone for yourself and you hit a roadblock, you need to
be able to reach within yourself into your own personal untapped reserves and surmount any obstacle
you are presented with.
It is important to be driven and disciplined, but this is meant in a way that you may not be
entirely familiar with yet. I bet even when you just hear the word 'disciplined,' you might
understand that to mean 'you need to work hard and turn in your homework on time' because that is
the only understanding of this concept that you have been taught. You need to be disciplined in a
more laid back and less structured kind of way, which equates to having a desire to be free and
independent and translating that desire into a consistent schedule where you can devote a certain
(even small) number of hours each day that you can work towards achieving your business goals.
Working hard might not be the most exciting notion, but try to understand the concept of discipline
in the light of taking a certain amount of time each and every day to simply blow through the boring
stuff so that you can enjoy the freedom to focus unabatedly on the things that truly excite you in
this world.
The Practical Requirements For Success After Leaving School
One of the most important things that you must have if you want to be independent and succeed on
your own after leaving school is having at least one person who will support you and encourage what
you are trying to do.
It is a truly sad set of circumstances when a brilliant child has parents who are 'dream killers'
that tell their child to just do their homework and work hard simply because they do not know any
better, so if you feel that your parents or relatives are like this then it is important for you to
break away from them and find at least one person that will encourage you to feel excited about
taking risks and acting on your dreams.
This is especially true if you are 18 or younger and are considering leaving school to be fully
independent and creative. You absolutely must have a parent or relative that can support you
emotionally and also financially, because it is not possible to create huge profitable ideas and to
be fully creative if you are constantly worried about how you will survive and pay the bills.
You might not have much money as you are starting, but it is important to save up around $500 so
that you can set up your own business and corporate structure called a limited liability company
(LLC). This is an important and professional first step that will help you build a real tangible
business that is owned by you, and it can allow you to completely separate business costs from
living costs. You can also get started building business credit, which can be important later on if
you want to build your business to run on autopilot where all you need to do is spend a few hours
per day managing the profit infrastructure you have created.
Remember that this is your choice and your company (and your life!), so try to have as much fun with
this as possible. Get creative and come up with a cool title for yourself, like 'President & Chief
Innovation Officer.'
Final Thoughts For Leaving School and Being Free and Independent
When you finally do decide to leave school, you are presented with a unique opportunity to basically
tell your teachers 'I am better than you!' in the most polite way possible, so I encourage you to
really have fun with this and use this opportunity to fuel your passion for personal success.
Very few feelings in this world can match the one you will experience when you write an email to all
your teachers saying 'I am going to become a millionaire and I don't have to take your crap
anymore,' and then throwing away the password to your college email account and never opening it
again. This is your moment and it is your life, so embark on this new journey with passion and
excitement, for if you can simply maintain those truly powerful emotions then everything will tend
to simply fall into place.
