Sold His First Company For $100,000 At Age 14

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Do you remember what you were doing at age 14?

I remember cutting a few lawns and using the $10 or so I received to buy the latest record album and some junk food…you can bet that money was gone within 24-48 hours though.

So when you read stories like this one about kids at 14 building businesses and then selling them for 5 and 6-figures, sort of grabs your attention doesn’t it?

In fact, what you tend to find is that people who learn very early on (though it’s never too late) the secret to finding problems and solving them for dollars will continue to go on and start more businesses and achieve greater heights of business and financial success.

Makes sense doesn’t it?

If you take a JOB through high school then what you are learning about primarily is how to work for someone else.

Those experiences mold you, reinforce your ability to be EMPLOYED, but also lessen the experience, confidence and thinking around starting your own business.

$100,000 At Age 14

This excerpt came from WeWork sharing the experience of entrepreneur Brett Jacobson who is that person selling his first business barely into highschool.

“Besides selling gift certificates, I set my sights on other ways to generate income. I walked around the neighborhood trying to come up with an idea. I thought back to all my father’s stories when he had nothing and always had to do everything on his own. Wondering why he put me in this position, I thought about how none of the kids I went to school with had to deal with my predicament.

Then it dawned on me. I had a massive distribution network that was virtually free. I could get kids at school to deliver practically anything to their neighbors for a couple bucks.

I racked my brain and thought of every product that was needed door-to-door. I came up with pool chemicals. They didn’t take up a lot of room. They were expensive and everyone I knew had a pool or a hot tub.

I knew that one of my neighbors was the largest pool manufacturer in the country. That is to say I knew he sold pools, had a big house, and drove a Rolls Royce. So I knocked on his door and proposed a business opportunity. I then found myself sitting in a library with a man, who I later learned was a billionaire, and told him that I could distribute $1,000 worth of pool chemicals a week, thinking that this huge number would get his attention. He laughed and said, “How about $2,000?” I paused for a second and snapped back. “No problem.”

He thought for a moment and then confessed that as much as he admired my tenacity, he couldn’t hire a 13-year-old. He actually sold pools, not pool chemicals. Instead he offered me a job doing yard work for $7 an hour. I told him I wasn’t there to do yard work and he laughed out loud and said, “I’ll tell you what. I get free samples from the chemical companies. You can have them and sell them for whatever you like and give me 20 percent.”

Of course I said 15 percent and just like that, I had my first deal. I set up a distribution network of kids delivering pool chemicals door-to-door. The business became so successful that I contacted the chemical companies and negotiated for more free samples and additional chemicals at a discount to wholesale. I built the company until I sold it for $100,000 at the age of 14.

Like the Karate Kid, I had learned so much from my father over the years without knowing it. Despite his shortcomings, he had taught me how to do business. He had taught me to work smarter and not just harder, that it never hurts to ask, and to put your best foot forward. Clichés yes, but they were valuable lessons that allowed me to be successful in multiple industries.

Brett Jacobson is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 15 years’ experience in launching successful businesses in a variety of industries including the consumer goods and technology industries. Jacobson’s new venture sees him enter the multi-billion dollar lottery industry, where he is the CEO of Lottolotto, the disruptive free lottery app, which enables users to quickly and easily check the results for every U.S. lottery from multi-state to daily drawing. Jacobson was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, but went on to spend his childhood in Sydney and London, and then moved to the U.S. where he completed his primary education in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia.

To Read The Full Story Originally Published At WeWork – You Will Find It Here

Moral Of The Story…

There are TONS of ways to match demand with supply (of a service or product) and make money in the process.

The key is to search for problems, inefficiencies, frustrations, and demand for improvements…match that with improvement and then determine how to make it scale are the keys to growing a successful business.

The same holds true of online business, there are inefficiencies in software, information/training, access to resources, offline that can be helped via online technologies…a great number of opportunities to “test” idea of improvement and then scale it when those tests work out.

Of course, this means being driven to start your own business in the first place and it means understanding the true value of taking action.