When high school students think about the
future, the ambitious ones seem to think
no further than the transcript. Plenty of
teens are content to party their way through
their school years, committed to classes
or not. Those who do commit, do so to wrangle
a top spot in college. But can your career
start early? If you can, who shows you how?
Jeff, John, Scott, and Wyatt, of CastleWave,
LLC (Spanish Fork, UT), have discovered that
ambition and adolescence make a perfect match.
At the age of seventeen, these four friends
have bypassed the food service industry to
go straight into the online realm. Called
the “Asset Managers” at their company, they
have done more before college than many students
do after—even the ambitious ones.
When Rich Christiansen and Ron Porter began
writing a hands-on guide to “bootstrapping
your own business,” they realized that the
principles needed proving. As part of the
experiment, they founded a website, Bootstrap
Business, and hired these four young
entrepreneurs to start fleshing things out.
Their goal? Make one million dollars—but
start with only $5,000. Rich and Ron theorize
that anybody with a worthy goal, a work ethic,
and a bit of solid know-how can succeed.
Among Jeff, John, Scott, and Wyatt, the responsibilities
they carry sound just like an upper-division
corporate engineering team. They research
markets and demographics, brainstorming ideas
that give birth to website ventures. High
school life and high tech research produce
websites that range from Dating to Pizza
Coupons, even to free
clip art. One of their biggest accomplishments
was pushing 1Pizzacoupons.com to
the top ranks of Google when you search “pizza
coupons”, they did this in an amazing 5 weeks!
While Jeff and John spearhead most of the
web asset management, each of the four takes
a role in managing at least one of the company’s
assets (hence the name “Asset Managers”).
In addition to that responsibility, Scott
also leads out with managing an engineering
team in India and Wyatt is the assigned theorizer-ponderer—that
is, his brain does most of the storming and
testing.
While other high school students are learning
how to grease a lawnmower or potato slices,
these four teens learn monetization methods,
Internet marketing, human and asset management,
and the structure and process of consulting.
All of these lessons and more come directly
from Rich and Ron’s tutelage, as well as
from their book and website. More than making
money, these students break new ground. They
prove that high school isn’t just for AP
tests, after all.
Most recently, the Linkers created UniversalClipart.com, which
offers free
clipart. This website received praise
from another image library for its “clean,
professional layout in contrast with the
often messy and hard-to-navigate layout of
similar sites.” Read that article here.
With the likes of Cats and Dogs-Tell also
under their belt, the Linkers prove their
unique job even while Rich and Ron prove
the principles of their book.
Money definitely helps—all four are saving
for college and a volunteer mission for their
church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints—but more importantly, these four have
learned just what Rich and Ron wanted to
teach. In high school and in life, transcripts
are secondary to what actually transpires.
If they do it right, they can make it meaningful—and,
maybe, they can make their millions.
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