“What do you want to be when you grow up?” This is a question often asked in schools. Society wires young minds into thinking that you become something when you grow up. There’s an unspoken notion that one day, you will reach your dreams. Without saying it, it indirectly calls for a waiting period. Someday you will be. Without saying it, it gives you the impression that dreams come true as you get older.

Who said you cannot be what you want to be right now? Who told you that you are not enough? That your ideas are too young

These SA teens prove that you are enough. They dispell profound ideologies and question that which we espouse to be true. Why wait for someday, when you already are all that you need to be for this moment in time? Here are some teens who dared to defy the status quo.

Tony McPherson

This teen realised that his peers spend hours each day on social media. Instead of just watching others do their thing on social media, he decided to cash in on the teen’s inclination to chill online.

Tony McPherson chose to not just watch from the sidelines but to get involved with social media marketing campaigns. His entrepreneurial spirit is so great; he was the first runner-up in the Youth Entrepreneur of the Year award of the Small and Medium Enterprise Association of South Africa (SMESA) in 2018.

Reabetswe Nkonyane, Phumla Mvila, and Thandokazi Mtshakazana

You know how society can sometimes make it look like it is a bad thing for women to only enjoy catering and cooking? These young ladies used their love for food and passion for cooking, to not only add soul to catering but to empower themselves.

Reabetswe Nkonyane, Phumla Mvila, and Thandokazi Mtshakazana from Langa High School dreamed up Soulmate, a catering equipment hire company.

Their business was birthed for a High School Entrepreneurial Society challenge. It has, however, outlived that, and now assists the community with catering equipment, particularly at funerals. Entrepreneurs think long-term goals and are often inspired by the gap that they identify around them.

These young teens show us that entrepreneurship is for both girls and boys. They also reassure us that you are never too young to start thinking like a #TeenBoss. The future is in your hands. You don’t have to wait until you are “older” to start planting seeds of greatness. What is it that you can start doing today to make your entrepreneurial dreams come true?