[projectileboy]

My dad did. I was the third of three and one year old when my dad started a business to manufacture a high-quality version of a (then) novel electric motor which he designed and patented. He and his partner built the company to about 50 employees and then sold the business to a large industrial conglomerate a few years later.

I'm now 36, happily married with three kids of my own. I'm bgeinning something along the 37 Signals route - 10 hours a week until I have critical mass.

Overall, I must grudgingly admit that youth has the advantage, so I think us oldsters have to leverage the advantages we do have - experience, money and connections.

[whiten]

Thank-you and good luck.

My father also started a business (furniture manufacturer!), way back in 1977, when I was only 9.

What I have noticed is that the phrase over here (in England - maybe applies in the US), 'You only get out what you put in'.

[fugue88]

The US version might be "you reap what you sow," which I like because crops produce more than what they were planted with.

Pick a venture that lets you get out more than you put in, eh?

[daniel-cussen]

Of course you reap more biomass than you sow. It's what sets farmers apart from squirrels (sort of).

"Reap what you sow" means you get output proportional to input. You'll get more biomass, but you won't get more plants than the amount of seeds you planted.

[imperator]

Perhaps a new saying should be posed, "You get what you and your environment put in."