At the age of 3 Ryan Hickman did not like seeing bottles and containers litter the ground. Because of that, he started collecting the family trash and going with his dad to recycle it in the nearby Recycling plant. His endeavors would grow from there and he would even start recycling the neighbor’s trash as well. Eventually, this would grow into a business in Orange County called Ryan’s Recycling Company. Due to the youngster’s entrepreneurial spirit, he was gaining wide critical acclaim. He has been interviewed by CNN, Ellen, and Today. He even sells merchandise that goes straight to Charity. However, Hickman has not stopped and is continuing to grow and develop new businesses, for example, his newest one, Project 3R. Project 3R is a nonprofit organization that is based on educating people of all ages about recycling and how it can protect the environment. Having a solution to a problem is a cornerstone of entrepreneurship and Hickman hit it out of the ballpark. He not only is helping solve the problem but is innovating other solutions as well, as shown with Project 3R. I see this as a huge inspiration for me the fact that he was still a kid when starting this out and now has made a very successful business. It’s also inspirating by how he started with no idea really at all and at first, he just wanted to help clean up. The key takeaway from this is that innovating on a problem can lead to huge success as an entrepreneur.
One thing that has shown through with a lot of these entrepreneurs is that it doesn’t matter your age or abilities, nobody’s too young or old to make something a business. Especially in the early college years a lot of students still think of themselves as kids, but examples like Ryan show us that if he can do it, we can too.
It’s interesting to see how some people can make an impact on this world at such a young age. When I was 3, I didn’t even know what recycling was. His story teaches us that we can truly accomplish anything that we put our minds to.