As we grow older, many of our live’s become more and more defined. We realize what we want to major in, if it all, who our friends are, what we want in life, etc. As we enter high school, we begin on the inevitable journey to our future career: good grades in high school lead to a good college, a good college leads to a good job, and a good job leads to a better job. Unfortunately, school does a poor job in preparing us for the real work world. However, many people who are working jobs today fail to realize they could have started their careers years ago. If you would like an edge on your life and to get ahead of the herd, it may be in your favor to start working at a younger age.

Now work, at this age, should not necessarily constitute some dead-end job as a cashier or frycook… unless of course you aspire to become Mr. Krabs’ next employee of the month. On the other hand, you should work these jobs merely to raise funds for personal venture you may like to get involved in. By raising enough funds to buy that digital SLR and begin your photography career, or open a day trading account, or buy studio recording equipment, you are setting up the pathways to achieving your long term goals.

Think about it: if you know you want to go into photography when you are older, why not spend your high school years learning as much about that field as you can. I mean, these literally are the years in which you will gain most of your education, why not study more in your area of interests. Albeit teachers may constantly repeat that “what you’re learning is helping you,” this is only true to an extent. That “extent” being it will only help you if you unsure what you want to pursue in the future. By exposing you to a variety of different topics, high school classes help you find your niche, which will ultimately help you narrow down career choices. Furthermore, our school does offer entry level classes in a variety of subjects: art, photography, film, theater, computer science, and many others. These classes are merely for you to try out the subject and help you decide if you have an interest. To become successful in life, regardless of what it is you are interesting in doing, you must first invest in yourself. So what are some ideas for starting your career ground up, and in high school?

As already stated, many high school students have an interest in photography. Although start up costs may be in the near the thousand dollar range, you can start and upgrade your cameras, lenses, flashes, as your revenues begin to come in. Many photographers choose to put Google Ads on their photography blog, thus introducing a source of revenue. Blogs with high volume can receive anywhere from 5-12 cents per visits, and even more per click. This amount quickly adds up to potentially a few hundred to even a few thousand a month, depending on the amount of visitors to your blog.  Furthermore, if you gain a large enough audience you would be able to actually sell your best works. Just get them professionally printed out, buy a frame that matches the color scheme of your photo, and get it shipped via UPS. The profit margins on selling your work will be the highest, but it will also take the most amount of time before they acquire a demand. Remember, it is important for your photography to stay niche. If you take pictures solely of concerts, posting pictures of Lamborghinis, no matter how good the photo, will only hurt you. Alex Lao, who has begun to expand his photography career frequently goes to concerts and utilizes his photography skills to take exciting photos. He is growing his clientele by shooting at festivals, as well as more local artists, including the famous DJ M3rc. When asked if he enjoys what he does, Lao responded, “Of course! I’m basically getting paid to go to concerts!” He is also taking a bold leap into getting a jump start on his future career.

For those more musically inclined, there are several ways to make a few bucks, and expand your presence on the map simultaneously. Hopefully after enough hours working at Culvers, you can pick up a few Shure SM57’s microphones, a mixboard, and decent recording software. Whether you are a solo jazz artist or rap with a group of friends, making a mixtape is by far the most efficient way to raise awareness of who you are. If you have ever gone downtown you have probably been handed someone’s mixtape. Some artist ask for a “minimum donation” before they give out a CD containing their hard work, others like to give them out for free in hopes of increasing their social media following and thus, their brand. Web services like SoundCloud have completely changed the music industry. Anyone with an internet connection can upload their tracks and Tweet links to them. No more need for large record production companies. The artists also have an in depth look on what worked and what didn’t, based on data gathered by SoundCloud. This can be very useful for artists to narrow down and find their style. Live performances are by far the best way to gain recognition, however. Many venues actually appreciate aspiring musicians, and will pay them to open for a more well known artist. There is no better way to expose your brand than performing in front of 2,000 people. Just be sure to introduce yourself, and having a banner with your Twitter handle probably won’t hurt.

For those less artistically gifted, there are definitely other options. If you are in it just for the money, yet still willing to put in hours upon hours of education, and like to take risks, you could day-trade stocks with your money. Keep it mind, this takes extremely high startup costs as compared to photography or a musical career, and if you show any sign of recklessness you could easily wipe out any and all money you have saved up. That being said, the upsides are literally endless. You can essentially choose your own risk profiles, meaning you can choose a more slow moving, expensive stock, like Apple or Google, which will likely move only a very small percentage throughout a few day period. For this willing to risk more, cheaper stocks under the $20 range can make huge, quick swings. 60% changes within a single day are not uncommon for stocks like these, but this can work for you just as well as it can against you. Day-trading and swing trading (where a position is held for several days, weeks, or even months) can provide both long term and short term profits. If short term profits are reinvested, the path for long term wealth has been created. Unfortunately with school, the stock market is only open Monday-Friday, 8:30am-3pm. Also if you are under 18 you would have to create an account under a parent’s name, but if have worked hard and saved up your own money, they will likely allow you to trade with some of it. Keep in mind with day trading you will be watching the market almost non-stop, which may not be suitable for everyone. If this description fits you, you may be more interested in swing trading, where your positions usually last for several days, even weeks, or months, or just simple investing. Investing is a completely different animal where you believe the company as a whole is set up to grow earnings and product lines, while trading is based purely off chart/price action. Those who don’t necessarily like risk but still like the idea of the market, investing in slow growers is still a great option.

Another option for high school students to build their career is web design/app design. Although this has the least amount of realized startup costs, you will likely spend a few thousand buying books, webinars and software over the course of several years. This is mainly due to the fact that software coding is ever-evolving, thus making it impossible to know everything about the subject. With apps like Snapchat getting buyout offers of over one billion dollars the tech industry has proven to be more than lucrative. With all the recent cyber attacks on Sony, Microsoft and even Google, the niche market of security software has more than doubled. Large security companies like Fortinent and Palo Alto Networks pay large amounts of money for products that can better their systems.  Unlike most business, a website or app can be published before it is even complete, and then constantly updated until your work has reached perfection. Many of you have heard about the creator of Flappy Bird, who made the entire app in less than a week and was pulling over $50,000/day in revenue just from advertisements. Luckily, even if you have no knowledge and no desire to learn, there is a solution for you. Its called outsourcing. Literally all you need to do is create an idea, and then you can hire freelancers from India, Malaysia, etc. who work for very cheap. After weeks of constant communication between you and the freelancer and after undergoing the revision process, your idea has been turned into a tangible, monetizable object.

With the abundance of information available in the 21st century and people willing to work for you, it is almost ignorant not to pursue your dreams from this age. All the ideas listed above do not discriminate against age, gender, or how much capital you have (although more really is merrier). In the words of The Wolf of Wall Street, “The only thing standing between you and your goals is the [bullcrap] excuse you keep telling yourself.”