Hey Guys! Kai here from Generation Kai! As a 12-year-old author from Phoenix, Arizona I am so honored to be writing this article about being a young entrepreneur. Last year I published a book called, “Digest This Now for Kids!” In the book I focus on how our body truly works and why we as a society are getting so sick these days. The cool part is I wrote it specifically for kids. My Mom’s wrote a similar book for adults and I saw how much their book helped people and I wanted to help people too. I thought how cool would it be to teach kids this information at such a young age so they can make changes now and avoid getting sick in the future. Taking all that important medical and nutrition information and putting it in kid’s terms was tough. From start to finish it took me almost two years to get the book published, but I never gave up. I think that’s why they wanted me to write this article on being a young entrepreneur.
Honestly, I never even thought about myself as an entrepreneur. Simply put, I’m just a kid who wants to make an impact in the world. What is an entrepreneur anyway? When I look it up in the dictionary it states, “a person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money” or “one who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business or enterprise.” Note the common keywords business and risk.
I think I was encouraged to write my book and start my YouTube channel because I’ve watched my Mom’s be true entrepreneurs. They started their own medical practice over ten years ago and then their wellness business quickly followed a couple years after that. They manage two businesses and take on much risk not only financially but also professionally with taking care of thousands of patients every year. Their definition of entrepreneur is something like Steve Tobak’s:
Entrepreneur + Capital (Money / Investment) = Products + Customers = Business.
If I look at myself in this equation I truly am an entrepreneur. When I went to my Mom’s and said I wanted to take their book and make it for kids, they decided to invest in me. That was my capital. I used their money to help me write, design, publish and market my book, which is my product. Every day my book gets in front of customers not only through their medical office but through emails that get sent out through their email list of thousands of patients and wellness clients. I also have my own website www.generationkai.com where people can buy my book online. When I sell a book to someone whether it’s through the practice, wellness business or online through Amazon, I officially have a business.
Now let’s talk about the risk factor because I’ve never considered the risk involved in doing what I’m doing right now. Although most of the financial risk is on my Mom’s, I actually do have a lot at stake. At my age my reputation is pretty important to me. I started a YouTube channel for my book endeavor called Generation Kai. They are fun videos teaching kids how to live healthy. A year before I started this channel however, I had created a personal YouTube channel called, Kai the Spy. These are videos about me and my life and fun things I like to do. I wanted there to be a clear separation between each YouTube channel because I wanted them to grow on their own for different reasons. This has been very difficult for me as I continue to make videos for both channels – keeping a clear line of separation has been challenging.
Another thing to consider is how I’m treated by my friends. Most of my friends know about my book and think what I did is pretty cool. Other friends give me a hard time about being the “nutrition expert.” Asking me silly questions at lunchtime about what they’re eating or poking fun at what I eat. As a young entrepreneur and author, this is what I have to deal with on occasion to accomplish my goals of making a difference in the world. Not everyone has a passion to make a difference in the world, or for that matter, they don’t even understand what it means to make a difference in the world. I have to look past what others think of me and do what I know is right. I think that is a super important part of being an entrepreneur.
If you have an idea on how you’d like to make a difference in the world, tell someone about it. You never know where it might lead. Your best bet is finding adults that are doing things that you want to be doing, you’ll definitely have a much better chance at convincing them of your dream. And if you get lucky, you might just find someone to invest time and money into you and your idea like I did. After that, there’s nothing stopping you!
