Rachel Zietz was born and grew up in Boca Raton, Florida. Her hobby was lacrosse. She played all the time and purchased lots of equipment necessary to improve her skill. One piece of equipment she bought was a net but was of terrible quality. It didn’t hold up in the weather outside and was made of weak pieces and the worst part was it was not cheap at all.

At the age of 13, she decided she was done dealing with this and started her own company selling high-quality lacrosse equipment at affordable prices called Gladiator Lacrosse. She also appeared on Sharktank and although she left without a deal this increased the brand awareness of Gladiator Lacrosse. After just a few years of the business being out there, they reached $1 million in revenue. In 2020 they exceeded $7 million in revenue. They continue to grow while releasing new products and finding ways to improve the lacrosse industry.

This is another textbook example of starting a business. She found a problem in her daily life, something she was passionate about, and developed a solution for it. She is currently pursuing another of her interests, academics, along with spending hours working on Gladiator Lacrosse.

Jon Wheatley is a young entrepreneur from the UK. At the age of 21, he claimed he had been working on the internet for almost 10 years trying to “make cool things that people enjoy.” At the age of 17 entrepreneurship journey took a leap forward. A website he owned and was running, onlinegames.net, sold for somewhere around $70,000. This was a significant amount of money during this time. After bringing in this chunk of money, the gears in his head started turning.

At the age of 21 he had an idea and at 22, in 2009, he developed DailyBooth. DailyBooth is a blog-like platform with the concept of taking a picture of yourself every day for years and posting them. Jon thought this idea would grab tongs of people’s attention and it did. His site blew up. After just four days, 3,000 people signed up for an account on DailyBooth. He was soon worth total assets of $1 million.

This was a revolutionary idea, especially for 2009. Facebook had been released a few years prior so the idea of social media and photo sharing was taking off. DailyBooth definitely had a part in influencing where social media went and is now.

Born in 2005, Evan Moana grew up here in Pennsylvania as a regular kid. He loved playing drums, sketching, and playing video games. He soon discovered video game development and made video games!

His parents Jared and Alisa encourage and come alongside everything he does as parents should. Jared is a filmmaker himself known for The Fixits (2016), Jillian’s Mystery Craft Box by Pocketwatch (2020), and Neon Arcade (2015). This gave Evan the urge to create something and a passion for film.

At a young age, around 11, Evan started a Youtube channel. He would unbox kids’ toys and review them for others to see. He demonstrated products and told people straight up if it was good product or not. Evans’s sister also developed a name for herself on Youtube and often collaborates with him on videos.

Monetizing something online, specifically on youtube is genius. Specifically for Evan, he found something he loves doing and that he is good at and yes, it may have taken a little bit of time, but he is now making money doing it! Through this, you can also receive sponsorships and make a significant simply by mentioning their brand in your video.

Asia Newson is one of the world’s youngest Entrepreneurs. She is from Detroit and at just the age of 5, she witnessed her dad selling candles door to door and immediately wanted to try it. She soon caught on to the sales and pitching side of entrepreneurship. Even if you have a genius product but aren’t able to market it and sell it you will not be successful. That’s why mastering the sales side of a business similar to what Asia did is so important.

At 8 years old she started making and selling candles with her mom as a partner. Asia also wanted other young children to be able to start a business and make money so she started a training program teaching children to do just that. She called her businesses together “Super Business Girl.” 

Asia was recognized on theGrio’s Top 100 list and also made an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2015. She was soon known all around the world and became in some ways a celebrity. People wanted to support her business. She also donated proceeds to needy children encouraging more people to want to be involved in her success.

Sofia Overton is an extremely successful young entrepreneur from Arkansas. As a now 15-year-old she is pursuing secondary education at a local school in Bentonville. Ever since she was 6 she was fascinated with the show Shark Tank and dreamed of being on it.

Starting her entrepreneurship journey at the age of 11. Sofia developed the company “Wise Pocket’. She first saw a problem in the way people were living their lives. Kids who were wearing leggings or pants with no pockets had nowhere to put their phones or other belongings when playing a game or participating in some activity. So she began to think and came up with the Wise Pocket: a sock with an additional pocket on the outside.

Sofia fulfilled her goal and appeared on Shark Tank in season 11. She walked away happy with Lori and Daymond accepting her offer of $35,000 for 25% equity. Wise Pocket sold out of their inventory soon after this. The company is projected to be worth around $300,000.

Wise Pocket has died down a bit in the past couple years mainly to their social media being quiet. However, Sofia continues to work hard in academics as she should which may be the reason for this as well as issues in manufacturing and bringing in inventory.

Miracle Olatunji – OpportuniMeMiracle Olatunji is a 22-year-old extremely successful entrepreneur of the Gen Z era. From when she was young up to this day she has struggled with health issues. In fact, she was not even expected to live to the age that she is now. Instead of letting this hold her back, Miracle used this to motivate her to make a difference in the world. 

She has put in time and effort and therefore has many talents. She is known mainly for her book “Purpose: How To Live and Lead With Impact” and for multiple businesses she has started. Because of her idea skills and knowledge, she is also a content creator, author, and financial coach. She has assisted an endless amount of men and women from the next generation in creating success, and wealth, and developing skills to help them through life. Miracle has been given many names and put on many lists one of them being, ‘40 Women To Watch Who Are Changing The World’ by Tempest Magazine.

At 17 years old, Olantunji started OpportuniMe. Her goal for this company was to give high school students opportunities to find what they are interested in and therefore a career path. This would develop their skills as people as well as help build their networking. Through OpportuniMe, Miracle not only helped many students thrive but became extremely successful because of it. She is a genius when it comes to entrepreneurship which is why she is now helping individuals and small businesses develop financial skills and grow.

The success and impact Miracle has made even after the challenges she has faced should be more than enough to motivate us to reach for our goals and know that we do have a purpose here and are strong enough to fulfill it. She says it best herself, “Everyone is on this earth for a purpose and we all have great potential inside of us”. Miracle wants everyone to believe this.

Portrait of Miracle Olaturiji in the Northeastern University