Why I started a business at the age of 14.

At 14 years old, I was failing most of my classes and my life was miserable - waking up early in the morning just to get to school on time and return home late at night. It was repetitive and tiring. Eventually, I almost gave up and started bunking classes, calling in sick just to get an extra day to relax. That's the context. I also remember thinking to myself, "Don't really famous businessmen and women start their businesses really early?" or something like that and that was more or less when I decided to start making some kind of income. I also viewed this as an opportunity to escape my failing academics and feel successful in one area of my life.

That was when I started doing research into different types of businesses, how a business should be run etc. Keep in mind, I had absolutely no experience regarding what a business was at that point in time because my parents had regular jobs and no one I knew of had a functioning business. I remember it taking an awful lot of time before becoming confident about what a business was and starting something. Despite it being awful, it was enjoyable and I value that learning process to this day.

Around the same period, I came across an online website called "Ali express" and I thought that I hit the jackpot. Items were being sold for maybe 20 to 30 % of what they are being sold for. Then it hit me. "Why don't I just buy a bunch of these for a low price and sell them for higher?". I basically thought I invented retailing and that was my first business venture and a friend of mine and I named it Manji. Returning to the main question at hand, why did I start a business when I was 14 years old? Honestly, if there was one word to describe why I did it, it would be instinct. I just felt like I should start a business and I was very lucky to have full support from my parents, who encouraged me to start one as well. So one thing lead to another and thanks to numerous free resources available online, the whole process was easier than I thought. I wanted my first business venture to be a great start and so I did the whole circuit that included product research and marketing. More on Manji in another post. But hopefully, you can see that all you need to start a business is the mindset and you definitely don't have to create the next apple on the first try because, starting out, the experience matters more than the outcome.