A Reality Check for Gen Y

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Hello my fellow Gen Yers, and listen up! There was a reason I was asked to join this blog (and again, thank you Donna for sharing the space with me). I assure you it wasn't to coddle you or to blow smoke up your behind by telling you your business idea is brilliant at every turn (leave that to your mother). Nor was it to offer you impractical sound bite advice that pundits and bloggers love like "be passionate" or run-of-the-mill insights such as "turn your hobby into a business."

Quite the opposite.

No. I'm here to tell it like it really is. Not what you thought it was going to be or what your parents, professors and MTV told you it was going to be—but the real deal, hard knocks, gut checking truth about entrepreneurship as told by a twentysomething in the trenches.

Why should you bother listening to my raves, rants, and advice? I'm the founder of Sizzle It!, a production company that produces promotional videos for public relations and marketing firms. When I was just getting started I was hammered by competitors, agencies wouldn't return my phone calls and everyone told me that my product was too "niche." However, regardless of naysayers and blockades, the company I started just two and a half years ago for a mere $575 investment now produces tens of thousands of dollars in revenue per month and boasts clients such as Proctor & Gamble, The Gap, and Dolby. Was it luck? Intuition? Hard work? ...all of the above and more. 

In other words, I'm just like you—a guy who has had it with the system, refuses to listen to the Man's "work hard, get good grades, and go to college to get a job" mantra (as if it is still remotely applicable to our generation) and wants something more. I've failed and succeeded, yet through all of the trials and tribulations, and the good, the bad and the ugly, I've always been my own boss.

Something I hope to teach you a lot about.

Our generation has been fed enough garbage for me to add to the heap, so don't mind me if I skip on some of the niceties and hyperbolic crap you're used to hearing. My advice is as practical and down and dirty as it comes and I have only one goal in mind: to ensure that Gen Y becomes the most successful entrepreneurial generation in history.

This blog and my book Never Get a "Real" Job, will help us work out the kinks to do just that (like teaching you why it's stupid to think you need financing to start-up or why it's unacceptable to start a business without a revenue model). I look forward to helping you dump your boss, build a business, and not go broke. And I always encourage you to let me know what you think in the comments.

Scott Gerber, reporting for duty...

Scott Gerber is the founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council and co-founder of Gen Y Capital Partners. He is a serial entrepreneur, TV commentator, and author of the book Never Get a "Real" Job. @askgerber