Technological innovation has made massive leaps throughout the years, but the past two decades have seen them progress further than anyone would have imagined. The result is a series of technological breakthroughs leading to a digital era that many entrepreneurs have capitalized on to build their empires. In turn, millennials who grew up watching technology evolve and witnessed the development of the digital world took advantage of their resources to pursue entrepreneurial careers at a much younger age than those before them. Among the most opportunistic individuals in the space today is Wayne Liang.
Despite being only twenty-five years old, Wayne Liang has taken the world by storm with the development of Liang Holdings, a mother company to various business ventures. The young entrepreneur is a testimony to what the youth is capable of.
Wayne’s successful feat has earned him invitations to speak at TEDx University events, where he has shared words of encouragement to the next wave of entrepreneurs. While there is much to do for Wayne, he was able to take the time and shed light on his journey to provide a guiding light to other aspiring entrepreneurs.
“I was lucky to have started my first business just before starting my first year in university,” revealed the young entrepreneur. “I had the freedom and flexibility to sacrifice time, academic grades, sleep or my social life to experiment with my ventures.”
While one would expect most people’s beginnings to be riddled with the challenge of coming up with a profitable brand, Wayne states that the problem lies more in the actions. He also noted that most people struggle because of their beliefs that the first result should be the final one and suggested that the best remedy to this problem is to shift their mindsets.
“Ideas are easy to come up with. Anyone can sit there, think of a common issue, a possible solution, and they’ll have a business idea. What’s hard is implementing the work to build on that idea,” he elaborated. “Your first idea or product doesn’t need to be perfect. Likewise, there’s no perfect time to launch a business. Your main goal should be to execute the idea, launch fast, and learn on the way.”
Well aware of people’s fear of failure, Wayne assuages their anxieties with words of comfort, saying, “The beautiful thing about failing is, every time you fail, you’re one step close to succeeding.”
With a massively successful career at a young age, Wayne accumulated more experience than other entrepreneurs in the space, providing him with more than enough knowledge to share with others. “There’s a statistical approach we can take for those of you trying to make your first million dollars. The average millionaire has seven profitable streams of income, and only one in nine businesses succeed,” he shared. “Meaning, on average, you’ll need to start 63 different businesses before you’ll hit that milestone. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll succeed.”
To conclude the interviews, Liang left words of wisdom to his peers, saying, “Some of you may be scared to venture into all of this alone, but to me, entrepreneurship isn’t just about starting a business. It’s about developing your own mindset and a unique path for yourself. It could be as simple as saying ‘No,’ the next time someone asks you to go to a party. Making simple sacrifices like that could be your first step into the world of entrepreneurship.”
