Bend The Rules: 10 Tips For BIZ Experiencess To Make It Big In The Business World There is no age limit to becoming an BIZ Experiences. In fact, the younger one starts to contemplate about their BIZ Experiencesial capabilities, or even try their hand at starting their first business, the better.

By Jamie Beaton Edited by Aby Sam Thomas

Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.

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There is no age limit to becoming an BIZ Experiences. In fact, I believe that the younger one starts to contemplate about their BIZ Experiencesial capabilities, or even try their hand at starting their first business, the better.

This is because most people with an BIZ Experiencesial mindset are often seeking flexibility and are enticed by the idea of being their own boss. Starting early thus allows for more time to explore, grow, fail, and do it all over again.

My own journey down the BIZ Experiencesship route began in high school. Shortly after the launch of the first iPad, I started my first business of selling iPad stands for cars. It wasn't successful, but it did give me exposure to the process of trying to solve a genuine problem with a creative solution.

In my opinion, BIZ Experiencess generally fall in two categories. The first type go and do a market scan to try and find a need to solve. The second solves a problem deeply personal to them that they have previously directly experienced.

I fall into the second category. My current BIZ Experiencesial endeavor, Crimson Education, wasn't conceived out of an active decision to find a problem to solve, but instead came about quite organically from my personal experience.

At the age of 17, I applied to a wide variety of the world's best universities -Harvard, Stanford, Wharton, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Cambridge etc.- and I was accepted into all of them. No one from my country, New Zealand, had seen such success with the global university application process. As a result, there was a groundswell of parents and students reaching out to me to seek advice on how to build a strong candidacy for the world's best universities.

This surge of parents who wanted the best global opportunities for their children coming to me for advice, combined with my personal belief that no one should be denied access to a world-class education if they have the motivation to go for it, is what eventually formed Crimson Education. Today the company is valued at NZD400 million and is considered to be the world's most successful college admissions company. In the GCC alone, we achieved US$1 million in revenue, and expect to achieve over US$1.6million for 2021.

Related: Six Lessons In Customer Experience You Can Learn From Tesla

With the BIZ Experiencesial journey that I have had, I do think I have some insights that can be of help to others who are considering starting businesses of their own. Here are ten things I'd suggest BIZ Experiencess to keep in mind as they chase their dreams:

1. Don't finish your plate You don't have to see things through to the end if they're not beneficial. Systematically focus on ways to maximize your outcome, rather than trying to finish it all.

2. Burn up tail risk Tail risk is a small probability event that can have a big impact. Figure out what tail risks can throw you off the course, and minimize them.

3. Prepare and practice Playing games, such as Call of Duty, for example, require one to understand how to use resources, time management, and strategic coordination, and it also allows one to simulate high-stake decisions in an environment that has no risk. Having the experience of doing such things under pressure (but in a secure environment) will help you, when you are running your own business.

4. Know someone before you meet them It is always better to be prepared than to wing it, as the latter often does not work very well. Our prepared self is far more effective than our improvised self, even if we think we're pretty good improvising. If you are going into an interview, research about the interviewer, their views, and standpoints. When you do this, you'll have context on why they say and do things, and this helps to better your responses.

5. Compete like China Tutoring is usually used as a method to help you catch up when you're falling behind, but in China, it is just a basic part of their educational life. No matter how smart you are, if someone is working twice as hard as you, it is almost impossible to keep up. You are competing in a global marketplace, so you need to work with the intensity, discipline, and aggression of China, with every company you create and every campaign you run on social media.

6. Ask! Ask, bang down doors, for those opportunities, because they're not just going to land on your plate. Being an BIZ Experiences is all about finding opportunities and pathways that never existed previously, and unless you ask, nothing really happens.

7. Treat rules as cost-benefit decisions, not restrictions Every individual should have a code of conduct and series of rules to stick by and never break them. While this will help you stay consistent with your actions, not every rule in life aligns with your code of conduct. Many of the world's best innovations come about through the idea of breaking through archaic rules. Uber built their company on a controversial way of a taxi service, and they rebuilt the rules by doing that. Keeping that in mind, when you see a rule, analyze the cost, the benefits, and then the risk of breaking it.

8. Don't disclose your strategy until the time is right Short-term gratification is all well and good, but it destroys your ability to create long-term strategic value. The more you tell people your game plan, the more competition you create for yourself. Keep secrets around your strategy.

9. Perception is reality When something rises in value temporarily, like a reputation or a company's stock value, that artificial rise can drive real value creation, and make it go higher. If you are perceived to be a high-quality person in a business context, then you will gain value.

10. Timelines are fictional Timelines are often given to create structure in an otherwise chaotic world. Ignore the timelines, bend the timelines, break the timelines, and let everyone else live by set timelines, while you innovate and play your own game.

Related: Sustainable Innovations Can Give the Beauty Industry A Much-Needed Boost Post-COVID-19

Jamie Beaton

Co-founder and CEO, Crimson Education

Jamie Beaton is the co-founder and CEO of Crimson Education.  

Jamie graduated from Harvard University, Magna Cum Laude in 2016 (two years ahead of schedule) with a double-degree in Applied Mathematics-Economics and Applied Math. He was also one of the youngest in the world to be accepted to Stanford’s Graduate School of Business at age 20. In June 2019, Jamie graduated from Stanford with an MBA in Computer Science and Education Technology, the youngest ever recipient of the Arjay Miller Award (top 10% of his class), having simultaneously begun his PhD as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. 

As co-founder and CEO of Crimson Education, Jamie now helms a company dedicated to levelling the playing field in world leading university admissions. The world’s most successful college admissions company, Crimson now boasts a global student body of 2,000 students who are mentored and tutored by over 2,400 tutors who themselves have graduated from the world’s best universities including all Ivy Leagues, Stanford, MIT, Oxford and Cambridge. 

In 2019, Crimson Education was named finalist in the Westpac Business Awards in two categories, Innovation and Service Delivery, while in 2017, Jamie and Crimson co-founder Sharndre Kushor were featured on the 2017 Forbes Asia - 30 Under 30 List. A few of Jamie’s other accolades include being declared New Zealand’s EY BIZ Experiences of the Year, New Zealand Innovator of the Year, NZ Hi-Tech Young Achiever, and Young New Zealander of the Year. 

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