Kids That Are Making Most Adults Look Like Failures

Take for example Ben Casnocha who at age 19 has already started a software company and written a book. PC World reports that he was inspired by a teacher who made him memorize Apple's Think Different ads. He founded Comcate, which sells software designed to help local governments resolve citizen complaints. The specific impetus came from having a personal experience where he realized how poor some local governments were at dealing with customer service. How many of us has had the same realization and have done nothing about it? It was the second company Casnocha had started; he was 14 years old.

The article goes on to show many other kids who are doing well above the norm of most adults in the country. Included on the list of top ten kids making a difference were the following.

• Stephen Yellin who at age 19 is one of the most well-known politcal bloggers. He counsels candidates on how to use the internet to reach voters.
• Ashley Qualls is probably the most well-known since her title as the myspace millionare. The 17-year old has made endless money by selling advertisements on her site whateverlife.com. The site offers free backgrounds to myspace pages.
• Eighteen-year-old Andrew Sutherland turned studying for a test into a money-making adventure when he developed created a software program that turned into Quizlet, a web-based program that anyone can use to memorize vocabulary terms.
• Garrett Yazzie, 16, took real life troubles he was facing like having limited running water and no electricity and created a scientific solution that has earned him recognition and awards. He invented a solar home heater out of a 1967 Pontiac radiator and 69 aluminum soda cans. Then invented a water wheel using an industrial-size cable spool connected to a 10-speed bicycle and an alternator. The wheel produced enough electricity to power a refrigerator or light up a mountain cabin.
• Anshul Samar only is 14. His creation? He created Elementeo,a card game based on chemical elements in which players battle to reduce their opponents' electrons (and ultimately their in-game IQ) to zero.
• Sean Belnick, 20 launched bizchair.com at the age of 14 that sells office furniture direct to companies. His client list includes Google, Microsoft, etc.
• Nineteen-year-old Matt Wegrzyn created bodis.com a domain parking service.Last year, he pulled in revenue of $1 million.
• George Hotz, 18, is the famous hacker of the Iphone. Since the hack he has been hired as a consultant for a firm that resells handsets. Also received a new car and three Iphones with the hack.
• Eighteen-year-old Catherine Cook started myyearbook.com, a social networking site that is the 7^th largest in the world.

The article on MSN that interviews all these kids is astounding. It amazes me the intelligence of these kids. It is like they are adults trapped inside little bodies. They are more mature than most adults.

I think it is amazing how much opportunity the internet has opened up for individuals to be successful, even the younger ones. But how healthy is it for these kids to have this kind of life at such a young age. One kid says his day starts at 10 a.m. and he goes to bed at 5 a.m. the next morning. One girl had to drop out of school just to keep up with the demands of running her business.

I think it is excellent, but how long will these kids be able to keep this type of work up? Will they burn or fizzle out before the age of 30? What about the stress level-is it good at such a young age?

I will say that the interviews I read, the kids all seem to be grounded and really down to earth. I just can't imagine the pressure at such a young age. What ever happened to just playing sports or going out with friends to a dance?

I will admit that I wish I could bottle up just a tenth of their intelligence or energy and sell it. Then I could be a millionaire, too!