Car spotting has never been more popular nowadays with multiple Youtube channels built to hear the wonderful sounds of exotic cars as well as tons of dedicated automotive photographers. They all share this common passion for the beauty of the automobile and these channels allow these individuals to get close to their dream car. However, spotting these cars can be hard to come by, especially if you live in a less affluent area. In comes Roland Marlow, who created the iPhone Car Spy app and social network which helps enthusiasts spot cars and share them with friends.

What is your business?

My business is an iPhone and Android app. The app is called CarSpy: Mobile Car Spotting. It is basically something for all the car enthusiasts who like to see and share what rare and exotic cars are around them. The car spotting community is pretty large and I wanted to make an app that reflects that. Smart phones are the new thing, almost everyone has them so the business opportunity is there. There have been many very successful app developers and I wanted to get into the market.

How did you come up with the idea?

I came up with the idea when I was seeing all my friends post pictures of exotic and rare cars that they see when they are out. It clicked that it would be cool to have a specific app for it. I did some research and there was one similar app but it was missing some features and wasn’t setup very well.

What makes your business unique?

The car spotting community is larger than most people would think and with most people having smart phones these days, there really wasn’t and app that catered to them. There are apps like Instagram that people use but to me, I don’t think a $2 million Bugatti or a $400,000 Rolls Royce should be next to a picture of someones dinner. I wanted to create something that was specific to car spotting and that is what the app turned out to be.

Tell us about the growth of your business.

Growth has been slowly picking up. My app is basically a social network app where it relies on other users to post pictures. If people don’t post pictures, no one will want to use it. At first, there weren’t many pictures being uploaded but slowly I am seeing the number of uploads grow an grow. The number of downloads is going up as well but I believe many of the users are continuing to use the app now instead of downloading it and then forgetting about it. I don’t think this is an overnight app, I think it is one I need to keep working on and growing, eventually, it will catch on.

What’s your greatest achievement so far?

My greatest achievement so far? Hard to answer that to be honest. Looking through the app and see people using it, all over the world, is pretty cool to me. Seeing all kinds of car uploads including a Zonda and a few Bugatti’s, and of course there have been many Ferrari’s and Lamborghini’s. It was hard to imagine that the app would get to this point, but I am extremely happy that it is mine, I was the brains that created this. No matter where it goes after this, I will never regret anything from it.

What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve had to overcome so far?

The greatest obstacle I have faced so far is funding this project. As anyone knows, programming is not something you can learn over night and it costs a premium. Hiring a quality developer was crucial and the price reflected that. I’ve never spent that much money before on anything, so it was something very new to me. I questioned if I was nuts or not but you have to take chances if you want to be successful. I just buckled down and started doing what I could to make money. I managed and it was all well worth it.

Tell us your single best piece of advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs.

Never stop learning. I’m always trying to learn as much as I can, education is power. It doesn’t have to be expensive formal education either, self education can be just as powerful. It is amazing how cheap books are compared to the value of the information they hold. My Kindle is full of books, many I have yet to read but I’ll find time to finish them. It’s people who stop learning who will fail in life, people who think they already know everything. I’d like to believe I know a lot, but the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

This is a tough question to answer, 5 years seems so far away and so much can happen. Looking back just a few short years ago, I never thought I would be where I am now. You can learn so much in a short amount of time that can drastically change your life. I’d like to be running my own company in 5 years, preferably in commercial real estate investing. I love real estate and know it can be a very lucrative business.

Where can readers find/contact you?

Facebook

CarSpy App Official Website

CarSpy App on iTunes

A few years ago, we ran a story on why poor people stay poor and we got a lot of criticism by people who told us that perhaps we are all born with different circumstances and that money isn’t everything. We, of all people, will be the first to tell you that money is certainly not everything but it does have its weight for the majority of the population, because money is ultimately a facilitator of happiness even if materialist things are not on your agenda. Today we are going to dig into the reason why poor people stay poor as it holds true to The Third Circle Theory.

If you have followed Secret Entourage, then you are no stranger to Third Circle Theory that has helped change the perspective of many accredited entrepreneurs worldwide. When thinking of why poor people stay poor, we must think of the argument that the Third Circle brings up between Habit vs Action. The essence of people not changing as explained in the book is primarily based upon the fact that the focus to change is driven through action, rather than habit. If you ever wondered by poor people make the same financial mistakes over and over despite knowing it is not helping them, it is because their habit has taught them to do that and therefore they cannot change how they are by adding one new action. As long as the habit exists in a negative fashion, the more it outweighs any positive action taking place.

A great example to analyze when deciphering habits vs actions is looking at workout videos and their marketing strategies. Workout DVD’s cater to the action piece, and not so much the habit, partly because any video that actually creates the change it promises only keeps you from buying the next one that comes out. So as a result, workout DVD’s cater to an action and its immediate result and often sound like “get the body you want in 20 min a day” instead of a very powerful and habitual message like ” become healthier in 20 min a day”. Every one of these DVD’s work and regardless of what type of workout you actually like, all of their routines are good and efficient but unfortunately cannot be sustained by the untrained mind, as doing a workout routine is an action that anyone can participate in but remaining consistent with it is much different and often not a mindset those buying the DVD have which is why they buy it to begin with. The person who buys the DVD doesn’t understand habits vs actions and is looking for a solution fixer, rather than examining the solution and understanding that the root of the problem is not their workout but rather their entire daily routine which is not healthy in nature or does not encompass exercising. As a result, they seek an action that fixes the problem, rather than look to change a habit which takes much longer and much more work to accomplish. This goes back to our segment about The Biggest Scam in the World.

This now leads us to the aspect of money and why poor people will continue to remain poor. Many will say that during tough economic times, the government should not have bailed out banks but rather given back to the people which as a result would have boosted the economy but that certainly would not have been the case. If the habit of poor people is to spend more than they have and to not understand and control their emotional dependance on money, then injecting them with more money is not going to help solve any problem other than further the problem itself. The reason why poor people remain poor is not because of their lack of knowledge around what to do, but rather their ability to execute on what they know consistently and make money making and saving, a habit rather than an action. Identifying that habit is the missing element is important as most people are in denial that habit is what drives change and not so much a simple action.

Next time you question why you are not financially where you need to be, simply start looking for habitual changes instead of single action fixes.  Here is a good example to leave you with. Most people who don’t make enough money always look for more money making opportunities which is why they never actually make more money and also the reason many of those get rich quick online systems keep popping up. People just look for more ways to make money while either working their job or simply working additional jobs but never really pause to analyze their spending and how they are currently making money. So most would look for a better job, and or a side job instead of starting a business so that they eventually are out of the constant rat race, because starting a business takes time and effort and is not a quick fix. Someone who lives understanding the Third Circle will look at things differently as their vision has expanded from 3 to 10 years now and the benefits of long term planning simply looks much more attractive to them but there is also more to the equation since making money is often looked at as a gross figure by most. While that may be fine, there can be a lot of money between a gross and net number and understanding how to close that gap could leave you with the same amount as someone making 1.5 times what you make.

In conclusion, the reason why poor people stay poor is because they don’t understand how to differentiate action from habit and certainly not only do not understand how money functions within the system, which as a result makes them dependent on such systems, but also have no ability to disconnect their personal emotions from money. The sad part is that all of that can be fixed fairly quickly through the Third Circle Theory observations.

Gumball 3000 has already been won by Jon Olsson and it hasn’t even started yet. As you may know, Jon has a passion for fast cars which is why his previous Gumball rally cars consists of Gallardo’s, LP670-SV’s, GTR’s, R8’s etc. But what do you do when nothing out there excites you and you have a clear vision of the ultimate car? You build your own street legal race car and you call it the Rebellion R2k.

The Gumball 3000 is the premiere automotive event if you ask me and in a league of it’s own. Nothing else brings out the most outrageous cars with the coolest owners, all while traveling 3000 miles in the ultimate test of mental strength. As we once covered before in The Life of a Gumballer, the people you meet and the stories you can pass on for generations make it well worth it.

This years 2013 Gumball 3000 will start in Copenhagen and eventually end at the most prestigious race event, the Monaco F1 Grand Prix.

The brains behind Jon’s vision was none other than Leif Tufvesson, a former R&D engineer at Koenigsegg Automotive.

While details are slowly coming out, the core is essentially based on an Ultima GTR. However, very little components are transferred over.

The engine is most likely a twin turbo V8 that can support up to 1,000 horse power. We’re guessing itll sound as beastly as it does in this Rebellion R1k prototype video.

The wheels that grace this car are from our good friends ADV1 Wheels.

Needless to say, we’re excited to see more footage of this beast in the coming months and wish Jon a safe trip. All we can do is leave you these incredible photos shot by the talented Oskar Bakke.

The taste of entrepreneurship is all it takes to get hooked and we’re happy to see Generation Y noticing that their future lies in their hands. This statement is true for Kiran Ravindra who sees that lots of opportunity exists and that the “norm” no longer has to be that. With college ahead of him and business ventures like Carbon Trim Solutions, we’re exciting to see what’s in store for Kiran since he simply ‘gets it’.

What is your business?

CarbonTrimSolutions is a startup aiming to bring original and unique carbon fiber products to the market for reasonable prices but without any compromise in construction, durability, or quality whatsoever. We’re not satisfied with seeing carbon fiber tucked away under engine bonnets and hidden deep inside automotive frames. We want to see it where you can actually see it and appreciate it, because it’s far too beautiful a material to conceal, whether it’s in the form of a phone case, a car emblem, or an automotive interior.

How did you come up with the idea?

Well, I think that a lot of people share the same opinions as us here at CTS regarding the aesthetics of carbon fiber — it’s the perfect archetype of a sleek, sexy material deeply rooted in raw functionality, durability, and efficiency, all things that people love to see today. We want to share this affinity for carbon fiber and turn black on black into the new gold, so to speak, while setting a new standard for every day carbon fiber products.

What makes your business unique?

What makes CTS unique is that we’re going to be offering a very intuitive approach to carbon fiber automotive interiors, among other applications. Instead of producing replacement parts or thick adhesive pieces which attach to OEM/stock interior pieces, we’re focusing on making exceedingly thin, but still very durable shells which are flexible enough to fit right over the car’s existing pieces. Additionally, because of the particular methods which will be used to create the product, our price point will sit comfortably below those of our competitors.

Tell us about the growth of your business.

CTS is set to launch in late Spring/early Summer of this year — let’s follow up then!

What’s your greatest achievement so far?

My greatest achievement, I would say, is simply taking the initiative to deviate from the norm, and doing something other from what is expected of kids my age, at nearly 17 years old. Friends, peers, and classmates are focused on, no, obsessed with their school grades and plans for college while making chump change at fast food restaurants or retail shops (which don’t get me wrong, is great, it’s important to work with and for others to gain experience with people — but you can do that from behind a keyboard working online all the same). Meanwhile, however, I try to focus more on the long term implications of my actions today and how they will affect my future. For example, I’m a fiercely individual kid with a burning, passionate hatred for our one-size-fits-all educational system and I take a lot of flak from others, mostly friends and my parents, for my out-loud thoughts on it on an almost-daily basis. But if you really believe that something’s wrong, that something’s screwed up, and it’s not changing anytime soon, then all you can do is work though it and change it yourself. And that’s what motivates me: to see to it that I can help change our dismally screwed educational system someday (among a few other main motivating factors). But that’s a whole different topic.

What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve had to overcome so far?

My biggest obstacle, I would have to say, is being put down by others, even if it’s just a passive thing. Lots of people will tell you that you think too highly of yourself, your ideas, your role models. Essentially everyone will, probably even your parents will. They’ll tell you that the chances of making it in the real world as an entrepreneur are slim. But who’s the expert on that? Them, or you, the one reading an article on a site by successful, young entrepreneurs for aspiring young entrepreneurs? Tune out the static and tune in on your goals.

Tell us your single best piece of advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs.

Couple things. 1.) In the 21st century, ignorance is a choice. Network, network, network! Read everything you can, online, in books, on forums. Friend successful entrepreneurs on Facebook, follow them on Twitter, interact, get on their radar screen. You never know when they might be able to give you some valuable advice or assistance, and knowing people opens up their whole rolodex of contacts to you at the touch of a button and a simple “please”. 2.) Sleep is an evolutionary weakness. Forget about it and use the night to your advantage. School and work hours may end at 3 or 5 o’clock, but the day does not end at that. Hustle hours begin when work hours end, and the former are a lot more productive and have infinitely more potential. 3.) Find your passion, know your motivation, and keep on moving. It never ends. It never should. Entrepreneurship is a not an occupation, not a hobby, not a habit, but a way of life.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

In five years, I see myself in my senior year of college. Not going to college is not an option for me in my family, (not that I wouldn’t necessarily go if I weren’t forced to do so). But just because I’ll still be in school doesn’t mean I won’t be keeping myself busy with being an entrepreneur. One of my main goals in college, if not my single main goal, will be to connect with other like-minded individuals to help work on making some of the startups I’d like to see happen a reality.

Where can readers find/contact you?

Whether you’d like to talk to me about collaborating on a project, partnering with CarbonTrimSolutions, or just talk about all things entrepreneur, I can be reached right here on the Secret Entourage forum (user kravindrasc) or via email at kravindrasc@gmail.com.

Have you ever thought about what makes your business unique? If you think about it, there is probably another business that provides a very similar product or service that you do. After all, a little competition should be embraced as it drives businesses to compete. So why so should a consumer do business with you rather than your competitor? That’s where your unique selling proposition (USP) comes into play.

Unique Selling Proposition Definition

A unique selling proposition is short description of an unique marketing differentiator that sets you apart from your competitors. Usually your USP is synonymous with your brand and its vision. Think of it as an elevator pitch as to what you are selling, how it benefits people, and why people should choose you over a competitor. It is usually short and concise being no longer than a single sentence. Usually USP’s are based on facts and not assumptions. For example, everyone believes they have the lowest price or the best customer service. That’s still too broad to be considered an advantage over your competitors. Whatever USP you choose will have an imprint on all aspects of your business and can often help dictate the direction in which you operate. It becomes what you are known for.

10 Examples of Unique Selling Propositions

1. Nike - Just Do It
2. Zappos - Powered by Service
3. Redbull - Gives You Wings
4. McDonald’s – I’m Lovin’ It
5. Domino‘s – Hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less — or it’s free
6. Lowes - Never Stop Improving
7. Rolex - Quality Takes Time
8. Men’s Warehouse – You’re gonna look good. I Guarantee it.
9. Staples - That Was Easy
10. Samsung Galaxy S4 – The Next Big Thing is Here

Brand Association

We see, interact, use, come across hundreds if not thousands of brands every single day. Most are are not household names but many are globally recognized. When you think of a famous brand, usually you can easily associate one thing about them quickly. For example, car manufacturers have a clear vision of who they want to market to and why someone might buy their car:

• Volvo - Safe
• Subaru - All wheel drive
• Toyota - Reliability
• Lamborghini - Exotic
• BMW - Handling

While these are not the USP’s for these particular companies, they’ve done a great job over time to distinguish themselves as leaders for a specific segment in a very competitive automotive industry. It’s a little difficult to compare apples to apples to a smaller business, but these companies now have USP’s that mirror what is the perceived benefit of purchasing a vehicle of theirs. For example, Subaru’s USP is “Confidence in Motion” and BMW’s USP is “Ultimate Driving Machine“.

Ways to Create a Unique Selling Proposition

• Find your audience - All businesses have a target demographic who is their ‘ideal’ customer would be. This includes age, location, gender, interests, income, etc. You’ll have to start a little broad and narrow in as it all comes to shape. A perfect example are social networks. Facebook was for college students. LinkedIn is for professionals.
• Customer psychology - Think about if your customer is buying something based on wants versus needs. Are they in dire need for something to fix an immediate problem or can they wait a little bit before purchasing your product/service? You can model your USP around this sense of urgency. For example, Amazon is now commonly known for it’s guaranteed two-day shipping.
• Identify the problem – You have something that someone is looking for. Now you must identify what problem you are solving when someone purchases your product/service. Refer to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Someone may be trying to improve their self confidence, healthy, happiness, productivity, etc. For example, GrassHopper offers virtual phone systems that make you “Sound like a Fortune 500 Company”.
• Benefits they’ll receive - By purchasing your product/service they must benefit greatly from it as this is the end result. This ultimately your competitive advantage and what separates you from the rest. This is the indirect guarantee someone will receive. There’s a ton of energy drinks out there but 5-Hour Energy is unique since it’s small, zero sugar and carbs, and a proclaimed 5 hours of extra energy.
• Continue to Tweak – USP’s are always changing and it’s absolutely OK. Keep in mind your brand can have a different USP from the actual product/service you provide as seen above with the Samsung Galaxy S4 reference.

Closing thoughts

As I said earlier, it’s hard to compare yourself with big brands as they’ve been around for decades so their USP doesn’t need to drive home as much. For you, as a small business, it’s crucial to understand the elements of a well crafted unique selling proposition. So now I ask yourself this: Why should anyone buy from you?

Some of the best business ideas come from frustration with personal matters. This couldn’t be any more true for both Alex Wojcik and Ismael Meskin, a dynamic duo of entrepreneurs who teamed up together to create Kimoby. Kimoby is a web based application (SaaS) that helps businesses send out appointment reminders via text message. At only the age of 19, these guys have already worked with clients like Audi and Porsche.

What is your business?

Kimoby is an Appointment Reminder web application. It allows businesses to save time and money by using the power of reminder via text message (SMS).

How did you come up with the idea?

We came up with the idea of Kimoby from our own frustration. Calling your home phone to confirm an appointment when you’re never there during the day made no sense to us.

We wanted to reach everyone, anywhere, at any time. The simplest solution was text message. Most people always have their cellphone in their pockets at any time of the day. We then decided to create a web application that could allow businesses to send personalized appointment reminders to their clients by text message. Our solution also allows businesses to recoup revenue from no-shows and save tremendous time reminding their clients by phone calls.

What makes your business unique?

Our main objective is to give the best solution and the best customer service to all of our clients. Our web application was developed with one goal in mind, simplicity. We have seen many web applications, with too much fluff around the principal features and we didn’t want our application to be like that. So we came up with an user-friendly design.

To improve our application, we always listen to feedback from our customers. At the end, it’s our customers that use our application everyday.

Tell us about the growth of your business.

We started selling Kimoby 6 months ago. But before that it took us 6 months to build the software. In our first 3 months, sales were slow, as we had to adjust the application based on the market need. As for the last three months, it’s been crazy in terms of sales and we started to get new customers who have been referrals by our satisfied customers.

What’s your greatest achievement so far?

To prove that even if you are 19 years old, with barely any experience in sales, you can sign big clients like Audi, Mazda, GM or even Porsche. If you bring to the table a great product that can save business a lot of time and money, most of them will be willing to pay you for your product.

What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve had to overcome so far?

Having to convince managing directors that they had to move to new technology in their management process.

Tell us your single best piece of advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs.

Work hard, make it easy, work easy make it hard.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

We plan on making acquiring other software companies and we hope to have acquired significant knowledge and experience to help our business success and grow through time.

Where can readers find/contact you?

Kimoby

Kimoby Blog

Ismael Meskin LinkedIn

Alex Wojcik LinkedIn

We all have unique hobbies and usually the interests we have often present the greatest opportunities. What is great about this is that the knowledge already lies within but more importantly the passion is already there. Mike Santibanes took his hobby of collecting unique time pieces to the next level when he noticed he could not find a carbon fiber buckle that would go with his watch strap. He took it upon himself to create a brand new business and created the first carbon fiber buckle for the watch market. He is this weeks entrepreneur in the making.

What is your business?

My business is called Sabre Precision, which manufactures 100% carbon fiber watch buckles right here in the USA!  To my knowledge I was the first person to ever make a 100% carbon fiber buckle.  Because of how small the units are, it can be extremely difficult to make these if the time and effort are not put into them.

How did you come up with the idea?

One of my biggest passions is watches, and I love the technology and engineering that goes into them.  I came up with the idea while I was browsing a watch forum.  The aftermarket watch industry opens a whole new door to individuality and having a truly unique item.  I was looking for custom watch buckles and was having trouble finding ones that I really liked.  I really wanted a carbon fiber one, but I found no one selling them.  After a few weeks of scouring the internet, I couldn’t find anyone that had heard, or had tried to accomplish this task.  Right then and there I decided that I wanted to try and make these.

What makes your business unique?

What makes my business unique is probably the most obvious in that I am the first, and I still believe the only person who is currently making these.  Not only that, but because these are made in the US, the quality is unsurpassed.  The carbon fiber is extremely high quality, and when you pick the buckle up, you can tell right away that it was not made in some assembly line overseas.  Although it would have been cheaper, and probably easier to go overseas, quality was top priority for me.

Tell us about the growth of your business.

Growth happened slowly but steadily ever since the final mold was created.  I first started to get the word out by using my existing network, as well as posting on watch forums.  I then contacted strap makers and online distributors to see if they would be interested in using/carrying my product.  To be completely honest, my growth has mostly been hampered by failing to find reliable, domestic contract manufacturers to actually produce the buckles.  The demand and the “wow” factor that these buckles have created has been very humbling.  In fact, the only people who were not interested in carrying my product were companies that had their own line of custom straps/buckles and they looked at me as a competitor.

What’s your greatest achievement so far?

My greatest achievement will probably seem trivial to most.  For me to be able to find something that had never existed, and actually see this project all the way through to the end has been a huge achievement.  Many people have never created a world’s first product; instead they build off of other’s ideas.  I decided to go against the odds and try my hand at creating a product that has never been made yet.  When I received my first order of completed units, the feeling I got was hard to explain.  It was a satisfaction that I don’t think could be replicated in any other way.  Even with future projects that I might be involved in, this project was my first venture that I started on my own, and completed on my own.

What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve had to overcome so far?

My biggest obstacle was getting through the mental roadblocks I had had.  Sure, people can say “I can do this”, but when they actually try is when their spirits get tested.  This whole project took close to two years to complete.  Not many people can stick with an idea for that long.  It was one of the biggest mental tests I have ever had, and now I have first hand experience with putting my mind and effort towards a project and not stopping until it is done.

Tell us your single best piece of advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs.

I truly believe that success comes within.  No amount of talking to will make you become more motivated.  I think entrepreneurs are born, not made.  They have to have a drive and a motivation that cannot be taught.  And if they have enough drive, they will figure out their own path in life to becoming what they want to be.  I’m learning everyday on what the right path is for me to take to becoming a success.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

In 5 years I will probably be involved in a few different projects but hopefully by that time I will have become the success I want to be and I would be in more of a mentor position.

Where can readers find/contact you?

Readers can read up more on the company at Sabre Precision, or email me at Sabreprecision@gmail.com

For the past few months, the topic of school-based education seems to have been continuously brought up when discussing entrepreneurship and success, and while you may have heard the power of real world education as in the Third Circle Theory, we have decided to ask our founder to write a piece for all of you on school-based education and its impact on your life.

It was only ten years ago that graduating from an accredited university meant opening doors just about everywhere.  Today’s job market, global economic climate and changes in the way we do business certainly have changed the entire business world’s view on education and not only its impact, but its necessity to achieving a successful lifestyle. More and more businesses leverage experience over education and more entrepreneurs take pride of being able to have succeeded without a college degree or the debt associated with it. I, myself, achieved a level of success above the average and yet chose to not go to college. I explained in detail my observations that allowed me to succeed in the Third Circle Theory instead of the traditional school route. So does today’s education system truly live up to the potential debt you most likely will accumulate by finishing and is the alternative truly a better option?

As I think of education, I don’t necessarily associate it with school-based education but rather education as a whole, which encompasses much more than teachings done in a classroom setting. Since school-based education is a topic we could argue about for quite some time, I decided to break this topic into four core categories.

1.    Why is college losing its appeal.
2.    Who should go to college.
3.    What values college can teach you.
4.    Is the cost worth the outcome.

Since I never graduated from college, many will believe that I naturally will side against school-based education. This highly inaccurate assumption should not be made until you have fully read my thoughts and understand my views on the whole concept first. This is especially important as many younger individuals who have yet to go to college are reading this, and are themselves on the verge of making a life-changing choice.

As I describe in the Third Circle Theory, your observations are your best source of education, above and beyond all else. I broke down for all of you the power of what you see rather than what you hear or learn from others. To date, there has yet to be one person who has disagreed with my theory. More importantly than my theory is how this applies to today’s education system. Think about how all schools advertise their courses and their institution. Many guarantee job placements, while others focus on those who are unhappy in their current role only to tell them to work in a technical field instead, and one of my favorites — the one that tells you that you will be more valuable to employers with an online degree. All these target different aged groups individuals all with different objectives and different goals but ultimately promise the same thing: a better lifestyle than the one you currently have. The education system has ultimately evolved to become a giant and profitable business and the accreditation they provide is ultimately their only piece of cheese left. If you take away the accredited piece from all those online based education systems, then you certainly have a large void, as the content taught and the way it is taught is outdated and not relatable, but certainly not as relevant as we would like it to be.

Should entrepreneurs go to school?

Everyone — every single person — should go to school because we all need a minimum level of compliance to the society we live in, regardless of how many ways we disagree with it. We must learn to function within our society before we can learn to outsmart it and shift its rhythms. Going to school enables us to understand how to do that, which again is assuming we are paying attention. This teaches us the basics we need to survive within this so-called society we have created.

In order to innovate society and shift the rhythm of how others think, we as entrepreneurs, must understand how others function and why they are that way. By going through the system, we get an inside scoop as to what is going on around us and what others in our environment deem as common sense. Once we belong to the system and are learning through the school-based education system that was put in place, we start to understand the dynamics of how things work and must choose when to detach ourselves from this system to pursue a new level of education. What makes entrepreneurs different is their ability to see the world for what it can be, not what it is, and it only makes sense that at some point or another we feel that we no longer belong to that environment we work within. This might very well be during our college years or past our college years. The important factor here is to understand that if you choose the less conventional way of doing things, the world only gets harder and obstacles become larger. This happens because you are venturing down an unpaved road, rather than one that others have paved for you. It should be clear that as a result you are likely going to be faced with obstacles that will test your strength and ability to look past your fears much faster than those who followed the safer route and remained in school.

Keep in mind that, in addition to the fact that we should all go to school, we should ensure that we stay in school as long as we personally see a benefit in it. Part of the reason more and more high school students are failing and need constant mentorship is the fact that they spend their time in school disengaged and feel as if it is an obligation rather than a personal choice.  This disengagement is the result of poor parenting and home dictatorship that simply forces young individuals to go to school rather than take a few years putting in their heads the importance of the material being taught. Most parents even agree that they themselves either loved or hated their high school years based on the status they held in school and hardly speak of their own learning through the years. Once you graduate high school, you are faced ultimately with two choices: the choices are not about going to college or not, but rather to continue the traditional education route or to take that less traveled path and experience life. If your goals lie in a technical field like medicine or law, then the road has already been paved for you, and you are not allowed to yet venture out into the world. Instead you are faced with the need to continue remaining part of the system for another few years, because those occupations require compliance to the system of society and venturing out of it becomes very difficult. For everyone else, who instead wants to go in the world of business, marketing, or simply wants to chase money (which is what we are taught to do our entire life no matter what the reason), you can choose to venture off and seek a different path than conventional school based education, but must realize that continuing to learn should never stop. Rather, how we learn is the only variable that changes.

Entrepreneurial minds are often quick at choosing the adventurous way, but are often not conditioned to survive the hardships of doing so.  Many of these people simply believe their worth is above others’ because they see a bit more of life early on, but are far from realizing the difference between confidence and arrogance. And so despite being quick to jump out of the system, only find themselves faced with the exact opposite of what they envisioned, they consider further education, as the road they chose was harder than they had expected. As a result they re-integrate into the school-based education system as a fail-safe option.

For those of you that continue to seek higher school-based education, you simply go to school to attempt to absorb the content and often fail to realize that the actual teaching is more than the textbook – the interactions and discussions. Those of us who have been programmed to feel that school is mandatory put even less emphasis on learning and rather go just to earn a diploma. We simply forget that a diploma won’t get us the lifestyle we want, but rather our ability to apply what we learn will. Making our time in school highly invaluable and forcing us to once again seek more direction by an employer. The system is almost killing our entrepreneurial sense with each day that goes by. The purpose of this so-called school-based education system is to always find a way to lure you back in as it becomes a false sense of safety, the entrepreneurial euphemism for mediocrity. All it is ultimately doing is making you delay your entry into society, into the real world.

Why the disengagement?

What once used to be a pre-requisite to living well and successfully is slowly losing its appeal – but why?

BUY IN – The lack of buy in to what the school system teaches is what is missing. Right from the beginning, students go into the educational system not believing in its value.

As long as the economic climates allow for continuous growth, then the same old rules apply, but if you think about quality, it diminishes. It diminishes because more unprepared individuals come out with degrees, but are placed due to a market need, rather than a position need. We saw a great example of this during the rise of banks around 2001 and the rise of real estate that went along simultaneously. But we also saw the adjustments of the economic climate with layoffs of unqualified people in the years to follow the crash of those same markets.  Many people may have felt those companies weren’t doing well and therefore got rid of those they couldn’t afford to pay, instead think of it as these companies needed lots of people to work there and no one applied, so the first few that applied got away with a better job than they expected (or were qualified for). Since most, however, believed that their past experience earned them their role, in reality, the lack of talent did. They stopped learning and became complacent even if they weren’t very good at their role.

The same can be said about the educational system. The overcrowding due to the growth of the population makes supplies scarce and demand high, but drives the prices of existing accredited schools higher, making it harder for people to attend. As a result, the market calls for alternatives to allow everyone to go if they want. The issue is that similar to the problem above, the system is now forced to measure up to demand with all these additional online and technical-based schools to supplement its lack of man power. As a result, the quality diminishes and ultimately turns what we believe to be a need to be successful into a business for someone else to gain from. The market changes the rules on you, and you are forced to settle for less than you want and ultimately turn getting a degree into a means to an end rather than a learning experience. And so we go to school to guarantee better jobs and come out disappointed when that outcome doesn’t occur. We never take the time to self-reflect and realize that education doesn’t guarantee success but rather we do.

The school-based education system has simply lost its appeal, and it has lost it because it is no longer relevant to what others want to do with their lives. Think of it in the simplest of forms. People from Generation X who learned a certain way and applied certain experiences are teaching Generation Y whose interest, ways of learning, and rationale is very different. Furthermore, the practices taught no longer apply in the real world. This creates disengagement and makes those students lose interest and buy into mediocrity, and as a result cannot be sustained for 4 whole years with any enthusiasm.

Think about how free information is in today’s marketplace and how accessible it is to all of us. Think about how many of us rely on the internet on a daily, maybe hourly basis to understand the answers we seek to just about anything. That’s the reason why our generation is learning early on that instant gratification is a way of life, simply because we are so used to getting what we want. In education, the same can be said with why we lose, why we give up, and why we buy into more time in school. If we are set on accounting as a major, we have to still learn about biology and chemistry and it is clear that we don’t care at all for these subjects. Yet we still continue to be exposed to it, forced into memorizing numbers, figures, facts. Since we find no value and it is not immediately quantifiable, we lose interest and lose buy in into future learnings in that class.  What we fail to realize is how much more education teaches us than just its content. But we are not programmed to know this at that young age. Things like patience, discipline, learning to deal with things we dislike, learning to express our opinions, understand the power of influence and peer groups and most importantly, learning to interact with one another.  All of these behaviors are taught all around us but our core focus in school is to pass the class because those of generation X teachers only understand that your success is based upon a grade you earn, not your participation or understanding of the matter.

So is it worth the cost?

Well, that can be subjective and depends largely on what you plan to get out of it. If your plans are to simply go for guaranteed employment then save your money and instead invest in coaching classes on resume writing, interviewing, and start gaining experience by working entry level within a field, you are more likely going to move up through the ranks faster than 4 years and will earn money along the way. On the other hand, if you are going because you lack education in a field or want to take in information about a specific field (even if non-technical) then college might be the right place for you to gain knowledge and interact with others in similar positions but it will not teach you much unless you actually put in some serious effort and expand your field past the learning in the classroom. You must think of the teaching as a baseline only geared to appeal to your curiosity, and it won’t be until it is applied in the field or further studied that you will understand the core of the subject.

Here is the dollar-and-cents argument.  The average college costs $9000 a year to attend if you live off-campus. That’s about $36,000 for the 4 years. Now, if you account that you are losing $36,000 for the 4 years, you are mistaken as you are also losing the time you could be working elsewhere each year earning $30-$40,000 a year plus the fact that in 4 years you will be entering the workforce while others already have 4 years of experience in the role. The reason experience outweighs education is because experience showcases your ability to function in a peer group and your understanding of the applicable functions of the role. A good example of this is a finance degree.  Those with finance degrees do not make great bankers in all cases and in most cases actually wouldn’t like the role of being the banker. This is a perfect example of why someone who graduates with a finance degree is less likely to get the role of a bank manager versus someone who actually has been in banking for 4 years. The skills needed to succeed in banking are sales, service, and leadership and while these are touched on in the finance curriculum of most schools, they are not the focus nor the final outcome of the degree. Someone who has been in the role 4 years without a degree will have demonstrated that ability to interact with clients, sell products and services, and lead teams in various scenarios.  This is a not to say that those with degrees and those without degrees are looked at equally all the time, but rather to say that if the individual is self-motivated and capable enough to own their success, the degree will not be the determining factor of their success.

Final words

For those of you who understand the power behind the understanding of your environment and comprehend based on reading the Third Circle Theory that your observations are the key to unlocking your potential, then you are not bound to a college education in order to actually succeed.

For everyone else…

College and further education has a lot of value, but because of the inconsistency in the teaching, the methods being ancient and outdated, and its lack of focus on teaching practical real life methods makes its true value hidden to the untrained eye. The argument remains that if the goal of college is to train to open your eyes to the world then how can it be effective if its true value is also hidden.

At age 15, most kids you know are probably either not working or working a deadbeat retail job for near minimum wage. Now there’s nothing wrong with that as any kind of work experience can be beneficial. However, to think big and be entrepreneurial is definitely a trait you won’t find in teens at that age. Vojtech, on the other had created a unique wallet / case for the iPhone and turned to crowd sourcing to raise funding. We’re impressed enough to feature him here today.

What is your business?

I am currently working on a couple of things. One of them is iwallie.com – iPhone 5 wallet case. Another project worth of mentioning is r8apps.com – place to get paid for beta app testing and download new premium apps for free. For app developers it will be a place to get feedback, reviews, downloads and exposure for their apps.

How did you come up with the idea?

iWallie was simply a need. I got my iPhone 5 when it came out and I was looking for a case combined with a wallet, that will let me use my phone even when it’s inside the case. With most of the cases I found, the screen was closed inside the case. Which I didn’t find practical. I am using a screen protector so there is no reason why the screen shouldn’t be exposed.

With R8APPS, it’s an ongoing process and constant evolution. It started as a place where developers will be able to exchange 5 star app ratings on iTunes. I just got into the app business and when I realized how ratings can affect the success of your app so I wanted to create something that will give developers that much needed boost. Later however I realized the system I wanted to create would be against Apple’s terms and could get developers into trouble, so I had to modify the whole thing. I also saw a lot of developers are searching for beta app testers without getting the results they’re looking for such as either not getting enough people to test their app or getting poor reports. So I decided to take these two problems I saw and build a platform for it, where hopefully I can create a community that will help solve them. Another thing I realized is iTunes is terrible for finding new apps. 63% of all users find apps via search. But what if your app isn’t something people would search for? Not because it’s a bad app, but because they doesn’t know it exists! I am convinced there is so many great apps in the app store that just didn’t quite have the exposure they needed to get noticed. This is another thing we hope R8APPS can help with.

What makes your business unique?

Execution. Unique is such an overrated word in the business world. What is unique today can be tomorrow’s standard. If unique is the only thing your business has to offer, you’re not going to be around for a long time. I am building things which I would like to use myself, and I believe that if I do it properly, people will come. It’s not about what you do, but how you do it.

Tell us about the growth of your business.

Well this part is tricky. Marketing is my Achilles heel so step number 1 would be to find a partner. If anyone reading this would be interested, shoot me an email. With iWallie we are looking to expand to Samsung and tablets. With R8APPS it’s too soon to talk about growth.

What’s your greatest achievement so far?

A: Being featured on Secret Entourage. My second greatest would be being on Mashable.

What’s the biggest obstacle you’ve had to overcome so far?

I am dealing with one right now. We didn’t raise as much as we hoped for on Indiegogo for iWallie so now we have to find the rest to get the case manufactured. To answer this question you will have to get back to me in a few weeks.

Tell us your single best piece of advice for other aspiring entrepreneurs.

Emulate success. Find people that did what you want to do and study how they did it.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Running MillionDollarProject.com and teaching others how to make their first $million. I am documenting everything I do with my projects to show once successful how I did it.

Where can readers find/contact you?

iWallie