I agree on all except the word of mouth one. Word of mouth is rarely slow and rarely takes a long time. If there's word of mouth, it will usually spread like wildfire. Most people can't gartner bona fide word of mouth, usually since their product isn't extraordinary. If you can gartner it, you know you have something special. So it's sometihng to work towards, I think.

Not to sound rude, but what makes you qualified to be laying out entrepreneurial ground rules, Michael? It's a little ironic you're saying things like "entrepreneurs are famed for having big egos" and "the earlier you can humble yourself, the better". Maybe when you have a business earning at least $1 million+ yearly in profit (or maybe you already do?) you can spread ideas around like this. Until then, this all sounds kind of pseudo guru-ish.

I actually have a friend who is younger than you who makes $1 million+ a year (he is 20) who I know would disagree with many of your points strongly. And no, they would not have time to go on the Extreme tour. They're busy making money.

I know this probably isn't the most pleasant response in the world. I really admire your overall vision of this "Success Manifesto". But get real: most successful entrepreneurs all have very differing opinions on what it takes because, ultimately, they have all achieved success in such a variety of different ways.

Young entertainers are arguably the most successful entrepreneurs in your age bracket out there. For instance, is Hilary Duff not an inflated case of branding and, as you said, "letterhead"? While other truly talented musicians, falling under your headline of "exceptional product, great customer service etc." are failing miserably? Even if you can’t stand her, methinks she is an entire industry unto herself.

I think true business success is a hell of a lot more complicated than a cutesy list of “top 6 mistakes”. Sometimes there is just 1 mistake; sometimes there are 1,000. It’s insanely subjective.

To the person who posted the above response:

1) Anyone who has personal experiences they have found effective, has a right to spread their learnings. (Especially in a blog on their own website.)

2) The only true measure of success = accomplishing what you set out to do. Though making $1 million+ a year at the age of 20 is certainly an impressive feat, anyone who has been following Michael's journey knows that what Michael is building is more than a business that just makes money.

3) Getting real doesn't equal getting nasty.

You have a lot of good points. Next time put your name on your comments.

Thanks for publishing and responding my comment.

Why should I put my name on this? I could just make one up. How about Dan Smith? Cynthia Brown? Bob Hill? Sarah Jones? Which sounds the most believable to you? It doesn't actually mean anything, and it doesn’t represent true confidence. I could be anyone. And, anyway, there's nothing wrong with keeping people wondering... ;)

What Michael is building is great. It's admirable. And I actually agree with most of his points (can't say the same for the friend I mentioned though). The only one that stood out as being completely off is the buzz thing, and it reeks of inexperience.

I'm bringing this up not to try to ruffle your feathers, but to point it out to Michael. He has to keep a tricky balance between sounding reputable and not getting carried away. For instance, one of the lectures listed on this site is called the "Millionaire Mindset". Well, I've never played football, but I think I have a strong sense of the drive and determination it takes to win the Super Bowl. Maybe I'll give lectures on how to win the Super Bowl. I think you can see where this is going...

I am just trying to point something out to Michael. His story so far is great and very unique. And he may have all the gung-ho confidence in the world to talk about buzz in his blog because – hey, as you said – it’s his site. But, because of the type of business he is building, people are browsing this site who do have more hands-on business experience than him. I really think he needs to keep that in mind. Stretching his experience to the point where it becomes solely theoretical starts to poke holes in his reputability. And his reputation is probably going to wind up being his most valuable asset in building this “Student Success” business.

This isn’t criticism. If anything, I hope it helps. Thank you again for providing this forum.

I think that this is a great discussion.

I do certainly agree about the fine line of promoting how to build wealth when I'm still in the process myself. However, I think that's the exact value I bring. I'm on the journey myself while at the same time studying the lives of enormously successful people in business, government, and social movements in addition to relevant statistics on wealth, entrepreneurship, etc.

I don't think my advice should replace the direct advice of people who've accomplished what Extreme Entrepreneurship has set out to do, but I think it helps a lot. Also, I've noticed that people who become phenomenally successfully sometimes forget about the details of their journey. In many cases, others that are on the journey feel the need to use puffery until they get "successful". I hope my blog and Sheena's blog can be an honest as possible telling of our experiences of building a movement and growing personally.

We could have just as easily deleted your comments because we didn't think it would make us look good. However, I think readers will get value in reading them and following the discussion.

I must disagree with you regarding word-of-mouth, and I suspect we probably agree with each other at some level. As a teacher, peer, speaker, business plan judge, and mentor to hundreds of young entrepreneurs over the past few years, I've seen many marketing plans say they're going to build a business solely on word-of-mouth without a real understanding of how to create it. I'm also speaking from experience here in that I expected word-of-mouth to make Extreme Entrepreneurship successful overnight. That did not happen. Now, we're spending less time hoping and doing more things that might lead to it such as making the site more usable, making sales calls, providing timely customer service, answering reader emails, etc. And it's working. Our site jumped from 40,00 page views at the beginning of the year to 100,000 last month.

From following the journey of other successful entrepreneurs, I've heard a very fitting analogy that describes the process of how I understand word-of-mouth. When you're making popcorn, nothing happens for the first two minutes. Then a little sputter starts. All of a sudden, the kernels start popping madly. Then even after the microwave is turned off, the kernels keep popping.

Lastly, I appreciate the intention behind your comments. I learn when people disagree with me. Furthermore, I think it is beneficial for readers when people with a lot experience give comments. At the same time, I do think that there would be more benefit if commenters were open about their identities and experiences, but getting anonymous, honest thoughts with good intentions is better than no thoughts.

That was easily one of the best responses I've ever read in a blog, Michael. Absolutely fantastic points.

I appreciate that you did not delete my comments and instead chose to deal with them the way you did.

It's a shame my friend (the whiz kid who's earning $1 million at 20) refuses to engage in any of this. I guess success like that runs with all types....and some are a little overly protective I guess. He's the kind of person who, if I said his name, would have the gall to slap me (a longtime friend) with a lawsuit. Gotta love these hard-edged business types ;)

If he ever comes around I'll be sure to let him know about you.

Some of you may know I am a co-founder of Invenio Group (www.inveniogroup.com), an organization of the most successful young entrepreneurs at the world's top entrepreneurship college. I also write a relatively popular blog on entrepreneurship and run a profitable online marketing firm. This post is true on all counts and really hits home. I have already forwarded it to all the members of Invenio.

Not to be negative, but 'anonymous' should focus more on his/her personal success as opposed to his friend's $1M company. My roommate's dad owns a $50 million a year business, do I run around bragging about it? Michael is the man and I have an immense amount of respect for him...want to debate it? Come to Babson, we can talk.

-Dan

Nice to see this blog finally shaken up, if only just a little.

"Michael is the man and I have an immense amount of respect for him."

Maybe when Student Success starts making money hand over fist you won't feel that way. If there's one thing I've learned from the $1 million+ friend, it's that when you start bringing in serious money relative to your age, it tends to alienate people around you pretty quickly, however hard you try to still remain affable.

"'anonymous' should focus more on his/her personal success as opposed to his friend's $1M company"

Maybe Michael should stop focusing on other people's success and start exploding his own business (?) This argument can swing both ways.

I don't really inherently disagree with anything that's being said by any of you. It's more or less how you say it -- everything is such an overwhelming positive in this blog. You would think running a business is like running through a toy store or something. How about a post about how greed? And not just the comfortable, detached stuff like "big, bad" corporate greed, "moral bankruptcy", conglomerate bashing, etc. Small business desperation? Bootstrapping a startup and, instead of it being a smash success, it completely hitting the wall? Witnessing a business crumble around you?

Maybe I'm kind of answering my own point. This blog is about the business journey, and I'm acting like it should know everything already. Maybe this is the wide-eyed, I can do anything if I set my mind to it, perception is reality, etc. stage. Maybe the nitty gritty comes later.

In any case, it's a great resource. Thanks for providing it Michael, and to everyone else for helping ignite such a great dialogue.

Committed Young Entrepreneurs?

How can you be committed if you don't even start, much less keep with it. I think that is the opposite of committed.

Perhaps the post might be titled: "Top 6 Mistakes Uncommitted Young People Make"

If you do not get started I have a hard time calling you an entrepreneur, much less modifying that with committed.

I've managed to save up roughly $16804 in my bank account, but I'm not sure if I should buy a house or not. Do you think the market is stable or do you think that home prices will decrease by a lot?

young entrepreneurs may find this website useful, it is dedicated to help develop business ideas through expert feedback and community support:

http://www.gen-y.org

Hi Courtney,

Unfortunately, I can't advise you on the housing market as I have no experience in that area.