Man, how I love Internet business! Well, business is going to be one of my degrees from UConn once I finish, not that matters. Almost everyone I know that is a good businessman and also has a business degree says that a business degree is useless. I don't doubt them. I'm getting a business degree because business classes are entertaining.
Well, I'll give a history of my entrance into the weird world of business. A decent amount of time ago, I think when I was 11, I got a computer from the pastor of my church. It was nothing fancy or state-of-the-art, in fact, it was an early 1980's IBM PC with a yellow and black screen. When I would start it up, it could only load Microsoft BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code - a programming language). I later learned that if I whack it on the side during start-up, it could load MS DOS. Well, my father knew a little bit of BASIC and he taught me how to make a program that could add a couple numbers. I found that quite fascinating. I managed to get my hands on some reference books that simply had hundreds of commands and information about BASIC syntax. They weren't exciting, but soon I was programming in BASIC (I probably did this because everything else I did at that point in my life was pretty boring). Well, eventually I got a modern computer and I started programming in languages that could be used to distribute programs to other people.
In the mean time, I realized that some day I would have to go off to college. Going to college would mean that I would have to take the SAT. Since I was homeschooled, I had never taken a "real" test and therefore the SAT intimidated me. The easy solution would have been to practice for the SAT, but easy solutions were never my style. Therefore, I had to avoid the SAT, and the way to avoid the SAT is to avoid college, and the way to avoid college is to get rich before college (because college is about learning various ways to make money, right?). So, I knew I wasn't going to get rich mowing lawns or selling lemonade. Therefore, I started looking at how to open a business. I ordered hundreds of pages of information from various sources to figure out how to start and run a business. I think I read more page of business documents in one month than I had read pages of novels in my lifetime. Some time in August when I was 14 years old, I walked into the Berlin town hall and after a little trouble (I was 14, after all, and wasn't allowed to own a business), my father and I registered my company RoadSide Software. I should note, that a current survey at that time of 14 year old males found that around 60% of them wanted to own their own business. I was probably one of the very few who actually did.
The rest is pretty boring, except I now run an Internet business and my goal is never to be employeed by anyone else. So far, I am meeting that goal quite well.
I have more dreams for businesses other than just software. Software is fun, but there is a lot more that I could do. One thing I'd like to do is own a nutrition store. There would be a physical store and also an online division. I would be able to offer super low prices because I think any profit margin is a good profit margin and I'm good at finding good deals and discounts. Some day, I would also like to make and sell a car, but that might require a little more effort. There are many other businesses I'd like to start. I think I'll start a master company and call it "RoadSide Enterprises". That company would own all my other companies.
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