Teenage Adrian
My love for creating products and services for people started at a young age. From age 9 to 13, I sold sodas and snacks at sports parks and, at times, at my school. At age 14, I created a service that hacked video game consoles. These were the early steps I took in entrepreneurship. I am the first in my family to start a business. I never really knew where I was headed. But I knew there were opportunities out there somewhere. It was a long journey.
My most notable work as a teenager:
AVID Football League
The great recession of 2008 caused schools nationwide to cut spending for many extracurricular activities. This impact was clearly noticeable when school clubs suddenly shut down. Afterschool buses were no longer available, and teachers became frugal with their paper stock. Before the recession, teachers used paper like it grew on trees, no pun intended. I felt like I had to do something for my school.
After interviewing fellow students, I conceived the idea of an afterschool football league. I was required to have a teacher oversee the program. The selected teacher requested that I create and manage the league alone, so I did. This was a months-long program I founded and managed for my school at age 14.
Mural Development Club
This was not a business, per se. I made this business plan for a school club (that was never launched successfully). I created this plan without guidance and assistance (no teacher wanted to help). Still, I persevered and ultimately found a way to form my business plan.
This project helped me understand that working with my school would only limit my creative abilities. This project helped me realize that the government, or in this case, my school, hindered innovation with excessive oversight and bureaucracy. While my high school approved my plan and offered to fund the program, I passionately declined to continue.
To learn about my capabilities as a 15-year-old, I recommend reading this 16-page plan. I developed the format and did not use a template or a defined process. This process was entirely created with my intuition. This is open source; you can utilize this content as you please.
Dirty Night Promoz (DNP)
At age 17, I held several teen nightclub events in my hometown, Corona, California. I was the first one to host a teen nightclub event in Corona. My ultimate goal was to create a youth entertainment business. The money I made helped fuel some early projects at the time. This endeavor was short-lived, but not for reasons you may think.
At my 2nd event, I met a girl that ultimately became my girlfriend (now former). She came with my photographer before the event started. I had paid a local artist to paint 2 large graffiti paintings for my photobooth. While I was setting up the paintings at the facility, she offered to help. She ultimately became my girlfriend. After my 4th event, she told me she did not want to be a part of the event industry and wanted to focus on college. While my 5th event was my most prominent, it made me reflect that I no longer wanted to be a part of the industry either.
I ended this business to focus on college. And Corona never saw another teen nightclub event again.