WIRED 2015: Next Generation is our annual event dedicated to inspiring young minds, where innovators aged 12 to 18 years old gather at London’s Tobacco Dock for talks, hands-on workshops and Q&As. For more from the event head to our WIRED NexGen Hub.
If you want to be an entrepreneur you have to start with a good idea. "You want to think outside the box," 12-year-old Zac told 16-year-old Miko at WIRED 2015 Next Generation. "You want to create something that's better than what people are already buying."
For example, there are "tons of ways" Apple could improve the iPhone, according to Zac. If you think the camera's bad, you should go about making a new one, he said.
Miko had asked the panelists at the "how to become an entrepreneur" workshop where he should start looking for business ideas.
For most people being an entrepreneur is associated with a glamorous lifestyle of money, parties and important meetings. But at WIRED 2015 NextGen, things are a bit different.
One of the most popular questions was asking how much paperwork entrepreneurs have to do on a regular basis? "Do you have to pay taxes if you're an entrepreneur?" asked one of the older girls on the front row. "How much paperwork do you have to do?" asked a boy who said he's "approaching paperwork age."
Three young entrepreneurs who held the workshop -- Joanna Montgomery who runs Little Riot, Vivi Frederika of Blackbullion, and 20-year-old Bejay Mulenga of Supa Academy -- covered everything from inspiration, creativity and personality, to numbers, taxes and paperwork.
The 33 workshop attendees were intensely focused -- instead of throwing paper questions at the panel as they'd been invited to do, they twiddled their pencils, thinking about how they can launch their own successful businesses.
They also chimed in with questions -- curiosity spawned by the entrepreneurs' experiences. "What was your business when you were six? [...] What did you study at university? [...] What would you say is a good age to start your own business? [...] How did you get people to start taking you seriously?"
Out of the discussion, WIRED learned that if we want to set up our own business we need 100 percent determination, excitement about our product, and top admin skills.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
