Teen entrepreneurs inspire young viewers to follow their confidently creative lead

“Kid Tycoons”

Teen entrepreneurs and moguls are the rage these days, so it’s no surprise that the TLC channel has given them their own TV show, “Kid Tycoons.”

The telecast we recently viewed featured three midteeners who are already running their own businesses—and their employees even included their own parents. Talk about the kids wearing the pants in the family.

Of course, their folks were doing it not really out of financial need, but because they wanted to make sure that their precociously gifted and ambitious children would succeed in the grown-up world of business and self-promotion.

After all, competing with adult and even old moguls is no picnic, so it makes sense that the kid tycoons also have adults on their teams, to more effectively and aggressively compete with the big bruisers.

This key lesson was quickly learned by 15-year-old Margo Gianos, who came up with her own lip balm product, but had a hard time selling it in the highly competitive cosmetics market.

Her product was inexpensive and beneficial, but she was hesitant to “push” it in sales campaigns, because she feared rejection.

She had to quickly learn that, if she didn’t believe in herself enough, she couldn’t succeed—and that being occasionally rejected and even harshly critiqued was part of the business challenge.

After she had gotten over that psychological obstacle, she was happy to realize that her newly discovered self-confidence and faith in her product resulted in impressive sales that convinced other outlets to carry her lip balm line—and that’s no lip service.

In addition, the fact that she was experiencing success while still in her midteens inspired other teens—and even tweens—to be similarly creative and ambitious.

Many were the youths who approached her on her sales blitzes to share that they, too, were going into business at an early age, due to her amazing example.

Another enterprising youth, Gabrielle, was a teen jewelry artisan who moved her business up a notch when she “dared” to get a well-known local TV personality to endorse and wear her designs.

At first, she was hugely intimidated by the TV program host and her uncompromising standards and demands, but she “forced” herself to rise to the daunting challenge—and she was similarly successful.

She even summoned up the “respectful gumption” to contradict her big-deal client and insist that a particular necklace was right for her, even if it didn’t conform to her original preferences.

The program host was impressed and convinced—and her endorsement made other people realize that Gabriella should be taken seriously, despite her youth.

Finally, Grayson was a precocious game and web designer who had thought up a new game that got such a good response from other youths that he quickly found the financing he needed to get his game into the big leagues.

In this instance, his youth wasn’t a liability but a decided asset, and his new financiers followed his lead, because they valued his being a part of, and spokesperson for, their intended market.