It doesn’t necessarily take an adult with higher education to create a successful business.

JP/Suherdjoko

In fact, some of the world’s most famous entrepreneurs didn’t have a degree or dropped out of university when they started their businesses. Take Richard Branson for example, the founder of the Virgin brand that now includes 360 companies, or Gabrielle Coco Chanel, a seamstress who created the Chanel fashion empire.

This time, it was American junior high school student Benedict T. Casnocha’s turn to prove it is possible to start a successful business at the age of 14.

While his peers were still busy overusing their thumbs on a Playstation, or living the couch potato dream watching television, Casnocha decided to veer off the usual path taken by his fellow teenagers. His mission: Change the world. So he set up Comcate, Inc., now a leading e-government software company.

“Local governments use my software,” said Casnocha after lecturing to dozens of students from the Walisongo State Islamic Institute (IAIN) in Semarang last week, to impart his entrepreneurial insights.

Walisongo students may not have realized they were sitting in front of a very smart 22-year-old man.

Although he appeared to be the same age as them, he was far beyond in terms of ideas and business acumen.

Casnocha has written a bestseller entitled My Start-Up Life: What a (Very) Young CEO Learned on His Journey Through Silicon Valley, which the New York Times described as an exceptional, informative and entertaining book.

The young entrepreneur’s brilliance was also recognized in the dozens of international media like CNN, The Economist, and CNBC. PoliticsOnline named him one of the 25 most influential figures on the Internet and in politics, while BusinessWeek listed him as one of the most prominent entrepreneurs in America.

According to Casnocha, one has to be rebellious to become an entrepreneur. “Entrepreneurs have to develop their own ideas, which should be different from the mainstream, or from their parents, friends or the government. It means they must live the way they want. They have to be unique individuals,” he said.

Secondly, entrepreneurs must be optimists. “One should think that tomorrow will definitely be better than today... Entrepreneurs may be down or in a state of despair for some time [but] it’s easy to get out of that state.”

With his sturdy Western physique, far bigger then the average Indonesian, he still maintained a semblance of modesty, wearing a simple green long-sleeved shirt, black trousers and running shoes. The hair on his face gave him an extra ten years.

Casnocha also spoke of failure. He quoted Japanese entrepreneur Souchiro Honda’s “Success is 99 percent failure”. For business people, failure is a learning process. “If one never experiences failure, one never knows what success means,” he asserted.

The young man then joked about his own failings last year. “I was brokenhearted. But some people won’t allow themselves to fall in love because they are scared of getting hurt,” he remarked, to which students responded with laughter.

Casnocha added it was very important to have a mentor. All founders receive help from other people.

Those mentors can be friends or members of the family, or others.

“Support can come from your partner in a loving relationship,” he noted, adding that families also provided good support, but were often less objective when making suggestions.

Owning capital at the start of a business is not always a must, he went on. “The important thing is to offer ideas that can solve many people’s problems. For instance, how can traffic jams in Jakarta be overcome? Such bright ideas serving as solutions will win the trust of investors,” he assured.

“Who is usually willing to lend capital?,” he asked. “The 3Fs: first, family members; second, friends; and third, fools.”

The discussion between this young businessman and the college students eventually turned into a dialogue between peers. Various issues of entrepreneurship were thrashed out and Casnocha tackled questions thrown at him with enthusiasm.

Casnocha has been actively writing on his blog, which Silicon Valley Business Journal named one of the 25 leading blogs in Silicon Valley.

In addition, he is a commentator for public radio, a contributor to the American Enterprise Institute, Newsweek, and a consultant for the US State Department.

His expertise has led him to present lectures at countless colleges and organization all over the world. He has visited 25 countries and joined Silicon Valley Junto, a community for business and technology executives.

Casnocha has stepped forward to become an information technology business executive, a successful entrepreneur, and an upcoming billionaire. Many property businessmen and government officials far older than him have invited him to discuss technology and business issues.

But like any other normal 22 year old, Casnocha engages in social activities, spending his like playing chess, table tennis, and reading a wide variety of books.

His blog can be visited at http://ben.casnocha.com.

Popular

The fragile promise of pluralism, religious freedom in Southeast Asia

Coffee, gold push up inflation to 1.95 percent in April

Power begins to return after outage in Indonesia's Bali island