Without nay hesitation nor second thought, 2010 is going to be the Year of the TEEN Entrepreneur! You heard it hear first folks. Entrepreneurship for young people is an evolutionary phenomenon that stemmed from the Internet (continue reading to learn how this came about).

Teens are often "lumped in" with another category of people older or younger than them and don’t really identify with either of those groups or they are just mulled over. People have high expectations of them yet give them every road block when they try to move forward- SORRY TEEN, I would love to work with you but the problem is you don’t have enough EDUCATION….MATURITY….EXPERIENCE….Sound familiar?  They have had to take a back seat for far too long and they are tired of being labeled and told they are unmotivated and apathetic. They don’t need >> to calm down, shut up and listen, to hear you tell them what it ‘all’ means. Nor do they want to be spoken of in future tense. They are present now. They are successful now. They are making impact now. They are making contributions now and they need and want to be given credit and recognition NOW.

What can you do NOW? Open the space up for them. How will you know if you have succeeded? They will have a ‘real conversation’ with you and will return to you at some point in the near future and start another one. And if they really love you, they’ll even tell their friends!

Teen Entrepreneurs are claiming their space in the universe and owning it! And it’s about time. It takes about 15 years for a movement to evolve to something much greater than that. So it’s time! There are many a tell tale signs that is built on what has been evolving over the past decade and additionally, the number and types of inquiries we are getting from teens across the globe tells a story in itself. Not to mention, in the month of November three more teens surpassed the $10,000/mo revenue mark….whooop!

Entrepreneurship for young people (more specifically teens) is an evolutionary phenomenom that stemmed from the power of the ‘Internet’. Growing up with technology showed teens in real life and real time that they have the power to control and ‘manipulate’ their world (more or less). Manipulate should not be taken in a negative context here.  In the 1980’s with the evolution of the PC, Microsoft  perpetuated this world of ‘ignorance’, if you will, about entrepreneurship and technology. So in the 1990’s the Internet gave everybody the dream about the possibility- this is going to be the next big thing. Everybody bought into the ‘dot com world’ but not employed into it, hence, the dot com bust. The Boomers were not working in the dot com industry, they were working their ‘established’ jobs and following this Internet thing on the side. They were never truly connected to it and therefore, could not really approach it and take advantage of it. In theory, it seemed good and it was even more exciting with all these ‘virtual’ millionaires and companies that emerged every other day but then they pretty much disappeared almost overnight. While being generated like a job to these boomers and new age younger thinkers, kids of that time, were truly involved and connected. And those kids were the ones like dem Google boys who went on to develop apps and media and the Internet companies that really made it. They lived it and created it. They not only saw the possibility, they actually made it happen. So let’s think about it. It takes about 15 years for a movement to become more than a movement. So that time is upon us….although still in its very embryonic stages.

Now, let’s take a modern day example: Facebook. It is like a modern day rolodex. That’s cool in the sense of real life, because it’s kinda like seeing the newspaper on the Harry Potter movie come to life. So young people see this metaphorical representation of ‘power’ (social capital, social influence what have you) and they say if I have this power, What Can I Do With It? So they begin to think of economic solutions. Then they realize, you know….I’ve always wanted to do X. Now they have an idea that can get started on a micro level, in a virtual sense and without any real barriers to starting a business. This is SOOOO not to be confused with an ‘Internet Marketing Business’. Teens don’t buy into that (for a number of reasons) but let’s just say that it is viewed kind of like runoff from the dot com era (Patricio, would that be accurate to say :))?

Teens are truly reinventing the culture of entrepreneurship - they don’t even use the term for the most part. Business and entrepreneurship to teens and young people is not the same as adults see it. It is an extension of their life. It is open and collaborative. It is about thrill seeking. It is globally inclusive. It is creating something that you haven’t seen before. Entrepreneurship is not a mindset, but a level of consciousness. You must live it in order to learn it and fully understand the power.

Ideas and the ability to expand and evolve them through this thing we call the Internet reaffirms that everything in the future will be micro and perpetually valuable. Whether you create an idea or a physical product, it ties back to its original creator. And through RFID or some electronic tag you will get a small licensing fee over and over again. I saw it in the mid to late 1990’s when I believed that after the Information Age would come the Creative Age and then the Age of Micro Business. It is something that many adults are trying to grasp and understand but something that teens already get….because they already created it.

This thing in them continually opens up another dimension in this world ‘all of their own’….a world ‘we’ call….a business!