Investor and entrepreneur Nate O’Brien provides finical and lifestyle advice on his YouTube channel which has grown to over a million followers. Despite being an introvert and having a primarily private life, Nate O’Brien enjoys sharing the wisdom he has acquired. O’Brien creates YouTube videos for fun and isn’t ever trying to convince you to buy something. Instead, he freely gives very profound advice to his audience to help people live better lives and reach financial freedom. His insightful thinking as well as his honest, sincere, and authentic nature seems unmatched on YouTube.

In a world full of scammers and people trying so hard to convince you to buy something, O’Brien’s approach demeanor is refreshing. O’Brien’s ability to be real and authentic feels practically addicting and unsurprisingly hooks his audience. This approach allows O’Brien to connect with his audience on a deeper level and cultivate a strong degree of trust with his audience that keeps people watching his videos. Today, O’Brien has amassed over one million followers and has many streams of income. He plans to retire in a few years despite only being in his early 20’s.

To visit his channel, visit the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NateOBrien

Jeremy Either, a young Canadian fitness influencer, creates a video to thank his subscribers upon reaching 1 million subscribers. Jeremy talks about how he was involved in sports at a young age and how this led to him developing a passion for fitness. He explains that when his dad first brought him to the gym around the age of 14 or 15, he was very insecure about his extremely skinny physique. Over the course of a few years of working out, Either learned to build muscle mass. He made countless mistakes following “bro-science” and admits that he could have saved so much time and prevented injuries if he had followed a better approach. After learning from all of his mistakes and receiving certifications including the National Academy of Sports Medicine Certification at 18, he became very interested in helping others make progress and avoid the same mistakes that he made.

He started out working as a trainer for various gyms and he received his Bachelor’s of Science in Kinesiology at Simon Fraser University. In college, Jeremy explains that his passion for training and coaching really took off . He developed a love for learning about nutrition, rehabilitation, and biomechanics.  In 2014, he began putting out some content on Instagram for the first time and grew to a decent size following despite his average to below average quality content. During this time he also started blog writing for big fitness brands including EliteFTSand Boxrox. He admits that when he first started putting out YouTube videos he was experimenting and admits that his videos were awkward and laughable, at least to him now. But his channel took off and his videos kept improving as his audience grew. His videos were unique in that he focused on science based fitness and explaining the “why” reasons  for the best approaches to training. Near the end of the video, Jeremy states that while his channel has seen great success he has also experienced many ups and downs. He goes on to to say that the stress he has experienced he doesn’t share or talk about, but that seeing the transformations of others continues to motivate and encourage him to keep going. Today, Jeremy Either’s channel channel is still growing and over 4 million subscribers.

As a subscriber to Jeremy Either, I can bear witness to the fact that his content is different than that of other youtubers. He is very precise with his information and backs everything with science. He does not merely tell you how to train like so many other fitness influencers. Instead, he tells you how to train and why. Instead of rambling on and on, he talks to straight facts and gets to the point. As someone who is serious about fitness and health, Jeremy Either has one of the best fitness channels on YouTube and I look forward to seeing more of his content.

To watch his video in honor of reaching 1 million followers in 2019, click the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKQHOy7IcmE

As a student at the age of 19, Ben Francis founded Gymshark, a business now valued at over a billion dollars and continuing to grow. Francis claims that his grandfather’s business played a significant role in inspiring him to start his own business. As a student, he explains that one of the IT classes he took sparked his passion for technology. He merged his passion for fitness and technology by making fitness websites for fun. In 2012, Gymshark acted as a middle man between buyers and sellers of fitness supplements. They used the money gained from this to buy a sewing machine to make his first gym wear. When asked what inspired him to go from drop shipping to making clothes, Francis admits that he did not have a well thought out plan. Instead, he explains that the thought process behind it was to make workout clothes he actually wanted to wear. After getting his clothing business off the ground, he used fitness youtubers to help market his products. Soon after Francis dropped out of college to focus on the business. Francis explains that this was a very big deal because he was the first in his family to go to university. But after he made his decision to quit college his parents were supportive and he was able to put all his attention into the new and growing business. This led to rapid growth.

In 2016, Francis stepped back as CEO of the business and worked on different roles in the business including chief technology officer, chief marketing, and chief product officer. He explains that at the time in his early 20s, being the CEO wasn’t the right position for him. Francis explains that while this decision was “heartbreaking,” it actually allowed him to develop the qualities he needed as a business leader. In August 2021, he returned to the role as CEO. His vision is to make Gymshark not only the UK’s brand, but a global brand.

While the brand started with Francis alone in his garage, he emphasizes the importance of having a team. He advices entrepreneurs to, “Build a great team. I’m extremely fortunate to be surrounded by an incredibly talented team. Each person is much more skilled at their specific area than I am. As soon as you can begin to build that team, you should start, as no great feat was achieved by an individual alone”.

Francis was blessed to be able to build such a great team. It is practically impossible to be an expert in every area of your business. When you have a team, you have different people who specialize in different areas. When working in conjunction, a team will produce much higher quality work than the individual.

To learn more about Ben Francis and his business, visit https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/24/how-ben-francis-built-1-billion-fitnesswear-brand-gymshark-in-his-20s.html

At the age of 19, aspiring entrepreneur, Palmer Luckey, decided to take a break from college to pursue his startup. His company, Oculus VR was a tremendous success and he sold it to Facebook for 2 billion dollars. Luckey transitioned into the defense industry, founding Anduril in 2017, a company that build technology for military agencies and defense. Luckey envisions a change in conventional military power. No longer will military power be dictated by man force, but by the development of technology used for military purposes. Artificial Intelligence will play a major role in the future of warfare. In a world of autonomous drones, the military will not need to risk their soldier’s lives to perform most offensive operations.

Luckey explains that while U.S. is on top of the world right now in terms of military power, China is a real future competitor. China’s government can take whatever technology it wants from its companies and apply it for military purpose. While in the U.S., companies can refuse to work with military, those in China cannot. China’s acquisition of cutting edge military technology is much faster than that of the U.S., giving them an advantage over the U.S. in this area. Possession of the most current and high level IT developments will make its possessors tremendously powerful.

Luckey created his company Anduril with the purpose of integrating cutting edge technology with military operations. In order for America to compete with its adversaries in t

he future, the U.S. should be heavily investing in the development of lethal autonomous systems and other AI applications.

Luckey is able to see the coming transition. Technology will define a company’s power. This is a potential problem because of China’s ability to easily acquire their companies tech could leave the U.S. in the dust. Luckey created his company Anduril and helps the technological advancement of military related systems. This is a defining feature of great entrepreneurs: to find an issue even before occurs and make steps towards helping that issue.

For more information about Anduril, watch this video to hear Luckey himself explain his mission:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eERNufFTbZ8

As a high schooler, Aaron Coles remembers eyeing the exit by the door out of paranoia. What would he do if there was a school shooting? Later, at the age of 19, Coles hears about yet another high school shooting and it deeply weighs on him. He observes how the security services relied upon by schools hadn’t progressed since the 90’s. Coles, as a self-taught computer programmer since the age of 12, tasks himself with building the security system that every school should have. He created using thermal cameras, artificial intelligence, and mapping technology, a way to show exactly where people were people are in the building. His idea would be the basis of his company: Drift Net Securities.

Aaron Coles was offered double digit figures in the millions but chose to turn the offer down. He explains that the goal is not about the money but about saving lives. He reasons that he wants the companies system to be so affordable that schools don’t have to choose between safety and their budget. Coles turned what was once a fear of his own, sitting in class, into a very successful business. Coles thinks of himself as a problem-solver and states that this is what is really at the heart of entrepreneurship.

Coles saw a problem: the shootings. He used his passion for solving this problem as well as his technical skills to reach a solution. As with many successful entrepreneurs, Coles explains that the focus was more about people and less about money. (Note: Sometimes I wonder if many entrepreneurs say this for good publicity or because it is truly their mindset. The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and many others have said that same sort of thing: “I don’t care about money, I care about the people…”. As a successful entrepreneur, one needs to hold their positive public image. I would speculate that successful entrepreneurs, regardless of their true intentions, will always pronounce that their ideas are on behalf of the public interest, regardless of whether or not they entirely believe that.) But in the case of Coles, I have to admit that the company has the noblest of causes: to protect innocent lives and I cannot help but respect Coles for achieving what he has done.

At the age of 19, Mark Zuckerberg started the company called “The Facebook,” allowing college students to connect with other students at their university. The website allows users to see the interests, hobbies, major, and friend group of other users and allows them to easily connect with one another. Zuckerberg initially only expected a few hundred people to use the platform, but his expectations were far exceeded. While Zuckerberg says he was only expecting a few hundred people to use platform, his expectations were far exceeded. Today, there are nearly 3 billion active users on Facebook nationwide. Zuckerberg explains that his focus has been on building something good for people.

Despite Zuckerberg’s wild success, he was not the creator of social media. In 1997, Andrew Weinreich created Six Degrees, the first social media site. But while his site experienced some success, its popularity diminished by 2003. In 2003 Chris DeWolfe, Tom Anderson, and Jon Hart founded Myspace, which became the most popular social media site before Facebook. But Facebook appealed more to people because it was the most entertaining. Zuckerberg innovated past social media networks and created something which became far more successful than all its predecessors: a place of fun, entertainment, and connecting with friends. And Facebook kept adapting as time progressed. For example, it adopted the hashtag from Twitter and later stories like Snapchat.

Facebook is a great example of not only innovation, but of adapting on the fly. The site is much different than it was originally designed although it accomplishes the same fundamental idea: connecting with friends. Adaptation contributed to Facebook’s exorbitant success. Coming up with an innovative idea is one thing but often success requires continually pivoting in a slightly new direction. Contrarily, being too rigid and unwilling to pivot may make creating a successful business more difficult because you are unwilling to adapt to an ever-changing world. For example, the rapid advancement of technology and the use of the internet worldwide has made having a business website extremely important. Before the internet, this wasn’t the case.

I found Zuckerberg inspiring because he was able to create a successful business by innovating an idea that already existed. Creating a business to necessarily require you to invent something entirely new. Oftentimes, synthesizing ideas into a new context is enough to create something extraordinary.