Author Archive for rosiealexander

Andrew Carnegie

Starting off, Andrew Carnegie grew up in a lower-class family in Scotland. He was very malnourished and was close to starvation when his family immigrated to the US., specifically Pennsylvania. Still suffering in poverty in America, Carnegie’s family was struggling to survive, but their life was way better compared to what it was in Scotland.

His first job was being a bobbin boy, where he changed spools of cotton and wool for 12 hours. He was paid $1.20 a week, but was left unsatisfied with the income. He kept climbing his way up in the career field, trying to make any sort of income that he could to scrape by and survive.  By age 18, he was working full time, and had mastered the art of hard work.

Eventually, he reached a point in his life where he could start investing all of the money that he had worked so hard for. Carnegie’s first investment was in the Adam’s Express Company, a messenger service.  He kept investing, then one day met an income of $1 million. He used his money to help others, such as paying for the construction of a library, or donating it to hospitals to help nurses. He took the minimal resources he had to work hard and perfect the skills that he would later use to achieve ultimate success.

Walt Disney

Walt Disney was born a normal child, who lived on a farm and enjoyed the normal activities that came with that. When it came time for Walt to get a job when he was of age, he attempted to become a newspaper cartoonist, but ultimately was unsuccessful. So, instead he worked in an art studio where he created ads for local newspapers and magazines. This was his first job that really sparked his passion in being creative and artistic. His love for creating only grew, and so did his careers. Climbing the ranks in his industry, he eventually worked on commercials, and then evolved into animation. This later did become his successful animation company. Walt used all of his creative knowledge to concoct hundreds of characters that would touch the lives of people across the globe. His first character that he created, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but sadly since he was under a contract with Universal Pictures, he couldn’t claim ownership of his first character. He suffered greatly there, then decided that he needed to leave when his pay got cut. Under immense pressure with no great source of income, Disney worked tirelessly to create his new character: Mickey Mouse. The rest was history, and now he is the proud entrepreneur and owner of several amusement parks, his own network, and plethora of characters.

Candice Lu

Candice Lu is a respected entrepreneur, and is listed as one of the top 100 entrepreneurs in all of 2022. She earned her MBA at the University of Southern California, Marshall School of business, and she earned her undergraduate degree at the University of California in economics. As the Founder and Managing Director of her company OnPrem Solution, she made her passion for media and entertainment into her career. OnPrem Solution Partners is an institution that Candice Lu is the Founder and Managing Director of.  She has spent 20 years working for the media and in the entertainment industry, and 15 of those years she spent doing IT and working in management. She has a B.A. in Economics from UCLA, and an MBA from USC in Strategy and Entertainment. She founded OnPrem Solution Partners in 2013 along with 3 other industry leaders. Her company is in touch with some of the most influential and innovative technological companies in the world, along with non-profit organizations, financial service firms, influential broadcasters, leading consumer product companies, and major studios.

Vinusha MK

Vinusha, who started her own baking business at nine years old, decided that she would make her mother a birthday cake. After using countless resources, videos, and friends to help her bake the cake, she was able to surprise her mother, all while realizing that baking was something she was good at and wanted to pursue. Four Seasons Pastry, sells exclusively cupcakes, and despite it being a new business, Vinusha has achieved significant success.

She landed an internship at a five-star hotel café, while also selling over 600 cupcakes since 2019, which she makes in her free time at home. Covid-19 did cause Vinusha’s business to struggle, but she felt lucky to have many supportive influences around her, like her parents and her three mentors. Suresh Chinnaswamy, Lakshmi Reddy, and Geethakrishnan Sir, her three mentors, have excelled in fields of baking, and made names for themselves in the world, much like Vinusha is doing.

Being a young entrepreneur is a difficult job on its own, but Vinusha takes it a step further by juggling her own business, her schooling, and baking lessons. She practices new Indian recipes with her mother in the free time that she does get, where she’ll practice making dishes such as Butter Chicken, Gobi Masala, and Paneer Butter Masala. Baking truly takes over Vinusha’s life, and she mentions that her entrepreneurial goals do sometimes clash into her academics. She will often finish her studies, then go straight to her kitchen to practice more baking.

Her dreams for Four Seasons Pastry are limitless, although she does also dream to pursue an education at a prestigious culinary school in either France or Switzerland. She hopes to develop a way to make her desserts healthier, and then develop a website to advertise and sell her cupcakes.

Ryan Hickman

Ryan Hickman is a young entrepreneur who hated it when people would litter, so him and his family started searching around for trash. Determined to make the earth cleaner, he even went around his neighborhood to collect trash and recyclables. He turned his love for cleaning up trash into a business which he titled Ryan’s Recycling Company, and he also designed t-shirts to rally up enough money to donate. Using all of his profits, he donated to a rescue organization called The Pacific Marine Mammal Center, which helped make the earth a cleaner, healthier place for everyone. Whenever anyone buys a shirt from his website, the proceeds go to save a seal. Ryan started all of this at age 3 and made his own business by age 7. He gathered a lot of attention for being so innovative at such a young age, and appeared in famous networks such as Ellen, and Today. His overall goal is to make it so that recyclable containers don’t make their way to the gutters and out-to-sea where they can harm animals and the environment. Despite his young age, he still manages to run his business effectively with the help of his parents. Ryan’s unique and innovative execution of his business not only inspires others to take better care for the environment, but it saves the lives of animals and other living things.

Jaffry Mallari

Jaffry Mallari is the creator of the clothing brand Resurgence, where he creates fashion based upon his graphic designs. He started from the bottom, and rose his way up to success by scraping by with every cent he could use to make even basic designs to sell. His efforts paid off generously, and he has many consumers that love his designs.

In high school, Jaffry realized that he wanted to take his love for designing graphics to the next level, and make it his career. He started out with only $400, but was still determined to create a thriving business that he would pour everything he had into. He views clothes as a “canvas” where he can use his artistic abilities to create a design that others would enjoy. He took two unrelated ideas: fashion and art, and combined them to create Resurgence.

He struggled greatly with finding funding to create his designs, and since they were so limited in the beginning, his designs were basic and lacked originality. Another challenge he faced was discovering an audience that would be interested in his designs, but he used his love for the platform Discord to reach out to others. Now, he has a vast audience just from his Discord use.

Jaffry Mallari is an excellent example of a successful young entrepreneur, because he created a successful, and innovative brand out of close to nothing. His efforts inspire others to realize that ideas are achievable no matter the limitations, and to follow their passions.

Ekaterina Demenkova

Ekaterina Demenkova recently made it on the Twenty Under Twenty list, where she pitched her health tracking app, PODIL. She graduated from Carnegie Mellon University, and is the Founder and CEO of PODIL. This type of position comes with great responsibility, but Ekaterina was passionate about her innovative cause and became an established young entrepreneur that helps many people with her creation.

PODIL promotes wellness, and allows its users to meet their health and wellness goals through an AI. The AI assistant gives the user a list of steps specifically curated for them that helps make someone’s health goals attainable. It utilizes a communal platform where people can share their accomplishments with their friends and family, and compete in challenges together.

Ekaterina’s overall goal was to make health information and personal health tips more accessible, and her app does just that. Her mission is to help people develop healthy habits, and grow easily, and PODIL uses technology to her advantage in doing so.

She is a perfect example of an innovative, young entrepreneur, especially considered what she has accomplished at such a young age. She revolutionized a new way to receive accurate, efficient, and reliable health information and advice so that people can make positive and healthy changes in their lives.

SoundMind: An App by Travis Chen and Brian Femminella

https://www.businessinsider.com/soundmind-gen-z-founders-pandemic-stress-trauma-solution-2021-11

Travis Chen and Brian Femminella acknowledged how there was a lack of trustworthy mental health resources, and so they decided to come up with an app called SoundMind, which uses music to help reduce anxiety for individuals. Both of these individuals battled immense challenges in their personal lives, and they used them as inspiration to try to provide resources for other people. They created an online environment for people to have crucial mental health resources, and have a sense of community for others who understand the struggles that they are going through. They plan to expand their app even further to allow creators to upload their own sounds, along with commission opportunities.