Career Planning Orangeville ON

Michael Simmons started his first business, Princeton WebSolutions, when he was 16. Then as a business school student at New York University, he created Extreme Entrepreneurship Education, which was incorporated after he graduated and now helps college students get into an entrepreneurial mindset.

Today, Simmons’ student-startup gets 100,000 hits a month on its Web site and he preparing to take his materials and perspective on the road to 50 schools across the country.

The country’s full of people like Simmons – young upstarts whose school-based endeavors blossom into profitable careers.

The reason? Students have little to lose. StartupNation’s founders, the Sloan brothers, ate lots of meals at their folks’ house and endured piles of PB&J sandwiches to get their Battery Buddy project off the ground. Rich Sloan was in college when he and brother Jeff launched.

Simmons explains the student advantage: “The worst thing that could happen if your business fails is you get a job, have an incredible credential on your resume and have experience that will increase your chances of success in the future.

“The best thing that can happen is you'll become the next Microsoft. That’s better than choosing between no job and jobs that you're in just for the money.”

Randal Pinkett, entrepreneur and author of Campus CEO: The Student Entrepreneur’s Guide to Launching a Multimillion- Dollar Business (Kaplan, 2007, $16.95), agrees.

“It’s easier to take a risk when you’re young,”.

Copyright 2009 StartupNation, LLC

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