High school students learn some profitable lessons....

Hi Dennis!

I had a look at the Jitter ring link, but couldn't quite figure out what this device is....

However, it seems there's no doubt that you have a great "budding entrepreneur" there in your son!

I find these entrepreneurial kids to be fascinating, I guess my reasoning goes something like, hey, if a teenager can do it, then anybody ought to be able to do something like it.... However, that's not to take anything away from these clever teens.

Dennis, as inspiration for you and your son, did you know that Michael Dell was a teenage entrepreneurial "prodigy"? You should have a look at the first few pages of his book, "Direct From Dell." In high school, he ended up making more in his spare time than his teachers made in wages, simply by selling newspaper subscriptions! Nowadays, he's ranked in the top 10 richest people in America, at the relatively young age of 35! He's also ranked as #1 on Fortune Magazine's "40 Richest Under 40."

With Dell, I think it was partly his own innate intelligence and skill, and also partly due to nurturing and support from his parents, so parents play a very important role....

I was going to tell here the story of my brother Thomas (he gave me his permission). He had several "schemes" by which he would make money when he was in school.... He's around 10 years younger than me, and is currently an undergrad student at university....

Several years ago, a card game called "Magic" was very popular among kids of his age group. (Don't ask me about the game, though, since I've never played it!) Apparently, as part of playing "Magic" you had some very unique cards.... These rarer cards were highly sought after and collected by Magic card players.

A deck of Magic cards which you bought from the store would have a certain selection of cards, mostly consisting of common cards, with a few "rarer" (and more sought after) cards tucked away within the pack.

Thomas found out that he could make money by buying a pack of Magic cards, and taking out the rarer cards and selling them to his friends at school individually. The games stores did this too, by the way (and sold the rarer cards individually), but Thomas sold them at lower prices, so kids were happy to buy from him.

When I learned about this from him, I thought it was a pretty cool thing to do! Anyone who knew about it could have done it (including those who bought from him), but it takes initiative to get out and do it!

Thanks for sharing the story of your son and the Jitter ring, Dennis, it was inspiring! :)

- Dien