About Starting a Business from Young Entrepreneur

Throughout my younger years, wearing a blazer, collared shirt, and nice pants to preschool always set me apart from my classmates. As I got older, selling pencils to kids who needed them right before a test sparked my interest in starting a business. That business model then quickly led to my fascination with the website eBay (very new at the time), which promised more ways to expand my bank account.

When my parents allowed me to stay home alone for the first time in my early teenage years, they said to me, “Michael, please do not sell the house on eBay while we are gone.” They said that for a very good reason: I was selling nearly everything I had -- games, toys, anything -- on eBay. Jokingly, my response was, “At least I won’t burn the house down like most kids.” My parents did not see the humor in my statement. My first sale in grade school was simple and easy: a single video game. It inspired me to start my own eBay company. At the age of fourteen, I already had a stellar eBay business record, having completed deals and transferred funds to and from the Far East. My rapidly developing business acumen made me unlike any other young teenager. I had already sold memorabilia from my recent childhood: X-Boxes, PlayStations, stereo systems, and tons of video games.

Many people now contact me for my eBay expertise; I have earned the trust of people throughout my community. Before I was in high school, I was buying and selling numerous cell phones and computers through eBay. That piqued my creative business mind, giving me the confidence to deal with a client list that quickly became global. I have learned that it is critical as a businessman to always stay professional and to never be discouraged.

This was a unique accomplishment as a young teenager, but I consider it only a steppingstone for what is yet to come. I wish to apply what I have learned from eBay to my studies in the near future and hope to operate my own full-time business. Gaining knowledge through my eBay experiences has only gotten my feet wet in the vast business world -- with more education and experience, I hope to dive in headfirst.