When I was growing up I was told what you’re always told, grow up, go to school, go to college, get a job. My first job was picking berries, and I got fired. I found out I couldn’t even do that the way they wanted. I found out, after getting fired from several more jobs, that I can’t work for anyone but myself.

I started a business recycling computers, rebuilding them and selling them. No one would take me seriously, so I had to hire my uncle to represent me at meetings, and tell him what to say for me. Everyone thought that just because I was a kid I couldn’t do business.

I started my business for the money, obviously, but it turned out I was able to do a lot of good with my business as well. I was able to donate extra computers to schools that couldn’t afford them. The business took off really fast, probably too fast.

I moved out when I was sixteen and bought a house when I was seventeen. I made a mistake. I was old enough to start a business, and old enough to think adults were dumb for not taking me seriously, but I wasn’t old enough to know what to do with my money. I did a lot of stupid stuff. I invited all my friends to move into my house with me, and was content to keep doing what I was doing.

When I woke up and realized how much damage I had done to my home, and how much money I had wasted, I understood that I wasn’t happy starting a business and sitting on it. Nothing new was happening, and I was bored. There were only two things I could do. I could go to school like my mom wanted me to, or I could start another business.

I had finished high school and always felt like that was enough. Bill Gates had one year of college. Michael Dell didn’t have any. I had challenged some college courses, took the tests and got the credits just so my mom could say I had some college.

Then I went to LA to start a new business. This time I didn’t have my uncle to represent me, so I had to make people take me seriously, even though I was still just 18. I found that it wasn’t just my age that people didn’t respect. Many people I made presentations to weren’t willing to listen to me because I hadn’t been to college either. They thought I either needed a degree or gray hair.

I don’t care if I hear no 1000 times, I know eventually someone will say yes. Someone always does, you just have to find the right person. I’ve only been in LA for four months, and I’ve already made enough money to start donating computers to a school in Africa.

I realized very early that I was bad at having a job. That doesn’t mean I don’t work for a living, but if you’re like me, if you’re working for yourself, it’s never really a job.

—Eric, 19, California