Young Entrepreneur Blog

I turned 25 today, quarter of a century. I suppose most people who have a birthday will at some point look at what they have accomplished.

But how do you compare what you have accomplished with other people of the same age as you?

Today I am going to show you the achievements of other people at your age.

Seeing as this is a “Young Entrepreneurs” blog, I will do ages 18 to 28.

AT AGE 18

19th century composer Franz Schubert wrote nearly 200 songs (including two of his best songs), 3 masses, 3 symphonies, and a great deal of piano and chamber music before turning 19.

Aretha Franklin began singing professionally.

Archaeologist David Stuart, skilled at deciphering Mayan glyphs, became the youngest recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant.

Prolific science and science fiction writer Isaac Asimov sold his first short story to Amazing Stories.

John E. Payton, too young to drink and barely old enough to vote, drive or get married, became justice of the peace in Collin County, Texas.

Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel proved that it was impossible to solve the general equation of fifth degree by algebraic means.

Leon Trotsky became a professional revolutionary.

By 18, Billy the Kid was charged with twelve murders.

Troy Caldwell survived driving head-on through a granite church sign, a nurse-caused drug overdose that caused him to be legally dead for five seconds, and a Forty bottle to the face, all by age 18. The next year, he devoted himself to writing.

Randy Gardner stayed awake for 264 hours for a high school science project.

AT AGE 19

Writer, painter and filmmaker Jean Cocteau published his first volume of poetry.

Gore Vidal, who never bothered with college, completed his first novel.

Abner Doubleday devised the rules for baseball.

Horticulturist Luther Burbank read Charles Darwin’s book, The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication. Inspired by this, he went on to create hundreds of new varieties of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.

American school girl Amy Chapman enrolled in German Gymnasium (much higher level than U.S. high school), majoring in Economics, after only 11 months of learning the language.

AT AGE 20

Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard and cofounded Microsoft.

Canadian hockey player Scott Olsen founded Rollerblade, Inc.

English novelist Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, which was immediately successful.

Egyptian hermit Saint Anthony gave away his inheritance and joined a group of ascetics, eventually becoming the father of Christian Monasticism.

D. H. Lawrence began writing his first novel, The White Peacock.

Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice, her second and most famous novel.

Charles Lindbergh learned to fly.

The Greek philosopher Plato became a disciple of Socrates.

Alexander Graham Bell taught a stray Skye Terrier to talk. By training the dog to growl on cue and then manipulating his mouth and throat, Bell could make him produce the phonemes “ow, ah, ooh, ga, ma, ma,” to say “How are you, Grandmama?”

AT AGE 21

Jack London went to the Klondike with the first rush of gold-seekers, returning home a year later as poor as when he had left.

English chemist Humphry Davy discovered nitrous oxide (”laughing gas”), and suggested that it may have use as an anaesthetic.

Thomas Alva Edison created his first invention, an electric vote recorder. After it failed to sell, he decided to devote his energy to inventions for which there was a market.

John Dillinger robbed a grocery store, was caught and spent 9 years in prison. He later became “public enemy number one,” before being gunned down by the FBI.

Luther Burbank purchased 17 acres of land near Lunenburg, Massachusetts and began a plant-breeding career that would span 55 years.

College dropout Steven Jobs co-founded Apple Computer.

French mathematician Evariste Galois developed group theory (and many other theorems) before his death at the age of 21.

AT AGE 22

Charles Darwin set off as ship’s naturalist on a voyage to South America and the Galapagos Islands.

James Joyce left his family, his church and his country for the European continent, in order to become a writer.

By 22, Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget received his Ph.D., published 20 articles, and wrote a philosophical novel that outlined many of the issues he would explore during his career.

Caresse Crosby became the first person to patent a brassiere, which was made of two handkerchiefs and ribbon sewn together.

Olympic runner Herbert James Elliott, ranked by many as the greatest mile runner ever, retired undefeated at 22.

U.S. swimmer Mark Spitz won a record 7 Olympic gold medals.

Inventor Samuel Colt patented the Colt six-shooter revolver.

Dia DiCristino survived 11 brain surgeries when she was 22.

Rachel Castens broke both of her femurs in a snowboarding meeting with a tree, had titanium rods placed in each bone, and walked the next morning. (With the help of a walker, but walked all the same.)

AT AGE 23

John Singleton directed his first film, “Boyz ‘N the Hood.”

T. S. Eliot wrote “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”

English poet Jane Taylor wrote “Twinkle, twinkle, little star.”

Orson Welles produced and performed his “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast, terrifying millions of people. He also got his face on the cover of Time Magazine.

Jack Nicklaus became the youngest golfer to win the Masters.

Francois-Louis Cailler manufactured the world’s first eating chocolate to be commercially produced.

AT AGE 24

Nelly Bly made a solo trip around the world in less than 80 days for the New York World, beating Phileas Fogg’s fictional record.

Radioastronomy grad student Jocelyn Bell Burnell observed an unknown signal from outer space; this resulted in the discovery of pulsars.

John Couch Adams became the first person to predict the position of a planetary mass beyond Uranus.

Johannes Kepler defended the Copernican theory and described the structure of the solar system.

Entrepreneur Ted Turner took over his father’s billboard advertising business. He later launched CNN.

Tracy Chapman released her first album, winning three Grammies.

Noah Webster published a spelling book.

Isaac Pitman devised the first scientific shorthand system.

AT AGE 25

The future mythologist Joseph Campbell decided to move to Woodstock to read the classics for five years, nine hours a day. Living on very little, he would make himself readily available as a dinner guest.

Orson Welles coscripted, directed, and starred in Citizen Kane.

By this age, Charles Chaplin had appeared in 35 films.

P. T. Barnum bought a “160-year-old” slave woman and began a career in show business.

Janis Joplin made her first recording, “Cheap Thrills,” which grossed over a million dollars within a few months.

Chris Burden created “Painting Shoot,” which involved the artist being shot in the left arm by a friend.

Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic, thus winning a $25,000 prize.

Bavarian painter Aloys Senefelder invented the lithograph.

French engineer Benoit Fourneyron invented the first waterwheel turbine.

Sarah Bernhardt scored her first triumph, being asked to repeat her theatrical performance before Napoleon III.

Physician Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile. As he collapsed unconscious into the arms of his trainer, the loudspeaker announced, “The time was three…” The uproar of the fans drowned out the rest of the announcement.

AT AGE 26

Albert Einstein published five major research papers in a German physics jornal, fundamentally changing man’s view of the universe and leading to such inventions as television and the atomic bomb.

Benjamin Franklin published the first edition of Poor Richard’s Almanac, which was to play a large role in molding the diverse American character.

Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Chereshkova became the first woman to travel in space.

College dropout Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple Computer.

Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, revolutionizing the economies of the United States and Britain.

Antoine Joseph Sax invented the brass saxophone.

“Johnny Appleseed” brought apple seeds to the Ohio Valley.

Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Italy.

Gon Yangling memorized more than 15,000 telephone numbers in Harbin, China.

British ethologist Jane Goodall set up camp in the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve on Lake Tanganyika and began studying the lives of chimpanzees.

Ken Kesey published his first novel, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Thomas Pynchon published V., for which he won the William Faulkner First Novel Award.

Darren Blackburn became the first and only athlete of the Principality of Sealand, despite being somewhat lacking in athletic ability.

AT AGE 27

Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person in space.

Memphis millionaire Frederic W. Smith, whose father built the Greyhound bus system, founded Federal Express.

Ernest Hemingway published his first novel, The Sun Also Rises.

Boston dentist William Morton pioneered modern anaesthesiology after learning that inhalation of ether will cause a loss of consciousness.

Jimi Hendrix choked to death on his own vomit after ingesting wine and sleeping pills.

AT AGE 28

The Danish physicist Niels Bohr published his revolutionary theory of the atom.

French novelist George Sand published her first novel, Indiana.

Jamaican reggae composer/performer Bob Marley recorded “I Shot the Sheriff.”

French naturalist Jean B. Lamarck coined the word biology to encompass the studies of botany and zoology.

Suddently I feel a little depressed.

Dean