Thats Me! Â Mark Grafton II. Â Despite the goofy look on my face I am an en
trepreneur at heart and a young go getter till I die, or rather till I’m just a Go Getter.
I wanted to take the time to introduce myself as a new editor/blog manager for YGG and I hope you accept me with open arms. I figured out that the best way to do this was by answering a few of the famous YGG interview questions. Here we go!
We know you’re a “Young Go Getterâ€, but so our readers know, how old are you?
24 and Strong! Heya [Hee-Yah]
Can you tell us the quick history about yourself, and what drives you to succeed?
No!  Just kidding. Born and raised in lovely Detroit, MI I was gifted with a sharp eye for talent and creative spirit. Sadly enough, like many, I did not begin develop/believe in my innate
talent until my early twenties. After graduating MSU with a social science degree in health studies and spending my first year working with children ranked in low Social Economic Status I began to get infactuated with presuing my dreams. As I hypocritically told these youth to “believe in themselves” and “go for the gold” I decided that I needed to do the same and here I am. Co-Owner & Project manager of Chosen LLC, Inspiring screenwriter, and Multi-tasker Extraordinaire (ask later). I know that believing in yourself, and connecting with like-minded individuals will drive you to success.
Everyone starts to feel burnt out on a project every now and then. What do you do to keep yourself motivated and focused?
My favorite question by the way. This honestly doesn’t happen to me. The closer I get to a project the more excited I get. With regards to having several projects to complete I just have to make sure I seize the appropriate time to organize the task involved. With organization comes efficiency, and with efficiency comes positive completion. What is positive completion? Have you ever felt nervous or anxious after a project was completed? Maybe the project had a few bugs or certain tasks were not completed on time.  I loathe that feeling and that’s why I strive for that positive completion.
I think that’s enough. Coming up next week we have a interview with Shama Kabani and even a review of her newly released book The Zen of Social Media Marketing that you won’t want to miss. Be young, Be YGG.
Tagged: Entrepreneur News, Entrepreneurial Spirit
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I have had the chance to interview Jason Sadler in the past, check it here. But when I heard he had started a new charity to gather shirts for disadvantaged people in Africa I had a few questions for him. So see below for a quick interview!
What prompted you to start 1millionshirts.org?
I’ve worn shirts for charitable organizations on iwearyourshirt.com and knew that it was hard to make an impact for them. You can’t ask people to donate to different causes each week without truly having a connection to them. My life has become all about t-shirts and I thought with the community that I’ve built, I could try to make a difference.
Where did you get the idea?
One of the charities I worked with last year (WaterIsLife.com) asked for the 600 shirts I accrued and said the t-shirts would be going to Africa. Not only would the t-shirts be providing protection from the elements, they’d also spark some small economy; having people selling and bartering with the shirts. 600 shirts is a good amount, but I knew I could go bigger. 1MillionShirts was born and I’ve finally had the time and the people to help get it off the ground.
What happens when you get to 1millionshirts? Will you try for 2million?!?
This is one of the things I haven’t thought too much about yet. I’ve been focusing on the launch, on finding partners and finding the right people to help organize t-shirt donation efforts. Then there’s the non-profit 501c3 paperwork, thinking about sponsorship opportunities and getting all the content together for the website and social media sites. We certainly won’t tell people to stop sending shirts in when we hit 1,000,000.
How can people help you get the word out?
The biggest thing people can do is go in their closets/dressers, grab a couple good condition t-shirts, throw a couple $1 bills in an envelope and ship the package to our warehouse in Colorado. All of the information for sending in t-shirts can be found on our Send Shirts page. People can also get involved by setting up t-shirt drives in their area, by getting involved with social media and sharing the idea with their friends. We’re looking for corporate sponsors and just want to help change lives in Africa via t-shirts.
If you get a chance to send in your
shirt or can help out in any way please do get involved. Just visit www.1millionshirts.org
Tagged: branding, cool idea, Entrepreneurial Spirit, interview, success
Do we have a treat for you! Â We got the chance to interview the young team behind designvetica. Â How young is young? Â Let’s just let these Go Getters tell you their story.
trong>YGG Interview with Design Vetica
1) We know you’re a “Young Go Getterâ€, but
so our readers know, how old are you?
Our team is comprised of high school students aged from 16 - 17 years old.
2) Can you tell us the quick history about Design Vetica, and what drives you guys to succeed?
We have all either worked as freelance web designers/developers, or have built websites on our own, and we’ve all been tinkering with the web since we were around 12- and 13-years-old. We’ve been involved in web design about 2 years before we started the company, and most of the projects we received were referrals from friends. William and I started talking about building a company for web design and media production in a shared IT class, and we pulled in Alex as he had worked on previous projects with William. In February of 2009, Design Vetica was born.
3) We know you are a younggogetter, but I am sure there is more to you than that. What are some other things you have done prior to you current job or things you are currently working on?
Our goal has always been to establish a premium design agency, and we will be looking to expand and grow, with a new motion graphics team, and the development of web applications. Â Currently we are focusing on the launch of our upcoming web app, so you can expect to hear the announcement from us soon ;)
4) Adversely, what has been your biggest vice?
Our most challenging aspect of being a young entrepreneur is that we are STILL in high school! People who are not constraint with schoolwork can focus solely on their work. However, we, as students have to juggle school work and getting good marks while keeping up with deadlines from multiple projects with clients. This has caused some problems already. For example, we had to drop potential clients during finals. Nevertheless, at times, we encourage each other to keep up our grades in school.
5) What can we expect next from the talented Design Vetica in the near future?
this question is basically answered in #3
6) Everyone starts to feel burn out on a project every now and then. What do you do to keep yourself motivated and focused?
Meeting new people, going to conferences, and working with new clients every week really makes the whole experience enjoyable and pushes us to go forward.
7) Can you give us three tools that you use every single day to make your life as a younggogetter more efficient, productive, or fun?
We use the usual suspects, like Basecamp, and Google apps, but we still prefer to do the initial draft of any design work in our Moleskineand dotGrid notebooks. Nothing beats pen and paper!
8) What is your favourite quote?
We don’t have one at the moment.
9) And last but not least, if you could give one piece of advice to fellow Young Go Getters, what would it be?
It may sound cheesy, but just DO IT; because you never know unless you try. The truth is when we think back to how we started, we were even shocked to find ourselves following such a crazy idea; but we are glad that we did it. Even if your idea fails, use it as an experience because we all learn from our mistakes.
Tagged: Entrepreneurial Spirit, interview, success, tips for entrepreneurs
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