Entrepreneurs are about fresh ideas and no age demographic has a monopoly on fresh.

Here’s the rub: At some point most people quit learning. These people turn old. People who keep learning stay fresh. Read the research on this by Carol Dwek.

Finally, as much as I hate galvanizing the new-blood vs. the old guard by using the terms “us” and “them” as if this is some great battle we’re all embroiled in, it’s not too far from the truth…

Thanks for sharing my video, much appreciated!

I love young entrepreneurship. I love focusing on the 18 – 30 year old demographics. That is my niche. That will always be my niche. Indeed, it’s going to rub “some” people the wrong way, but it’s going to rub “others” the right way. And those “others” are going to be people who can really appreciate and relate to what I’m trying to do with Mind Petals. Quite honestly, I’m not trying to create a company that caters to the world, I’m trying to create something that caters to a small amount of people. And in a world with 6.5 Billion people, “small” can mean millions. Simply put, people “fear” young entrepreneurs. These baby boomers feel threatened, so they lash out and react negatively towards the Mind Petals movement. But all in all, the presentation went very well. About 30 “adults” gave me their business cards after the presentation and all invited to take me out to lunch to “talk business.” Go figure. To me, it was a successful day and I’m proud of the outcome and happy that the crowed reacted in the manner that they did — because it helped me to realize what I needed to do with the focus on Mind Petals :)

However, I wouldn’t differentiate business minds by age but by actual experience and talent. I’ll tell you what there are lots of young entrepreneurs now that have more talent than these old guys will ever have. They may not have the experience but that comes with time and that’s something the old ones don’t have. They’ll never have talent.

But, I’ve never really seen the point of a bunch of business newbie kids gathering together to support each other without outside experienced leadership. I’ve always spent time and energy reaching out for advice from people who have taken the knocks on the head walking the line I’m walking, so I don’t have to take so many of them.

With that being said, I’ve run into this sort of “older guy, brush off thing” several times and in fact got it last night. I went by the Oregon Entrepreneur Network pubtalk to get the word out about my webby and got some blank stares and tight lips when I asked the old guys that run it how the group could help me.

I always tend to want to take advice from younger guys but no matter what it is always beneficial to spend some time talking to someone who has been in the game for 20+ years.