Jordan Mangan (buckethatboyy) is a 16-year-old high school student that became an entrepreneur overnight. He runs multiple social media platforms and eCommerce stores, all while studying at school. He has been able to accomplish all of this while living a normal teenage life. He informed me that his passion was to build a business that he can end up making a living off of, all the while making people happy. That may be through funny posts or physical products that he makes. I have asked him multiple questions about his journey that you can use in your own life.
1. The Beginning of His Journey
Q: How did you get started, and what inspired you to start?
I have always been an independent person that wanted to work for myself. After learning about them in school, I have always been inspired by John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, and Thomas Edison. Something about being able to pursue entrepreneurship lit a spark in me. Preferably, social media and marketing intrigued my interests.
Q: What techniques did you use in the beginning?
Growth techniques such as working with other creators allowed me to grow my following, but posting quality content was crucial. As an influencer, posting quality over quantity is a top priority. Personally, I posted funny content to go along with my comical personality. Making my followers laugh and happy was a reward in itself. Whenever it is possible to make people happy, you will see a return.
2. Attitude
Q: What kind of attitude allowed you to gain success?
The most crucial trait that someone can have is determination. There are multiple occasions where my accounts have gotten hacked or deleted. Getting back up and persevering through these challenges separate me from most people. No problem should stop you from accomplishing your goal. Work hard at anything that you do, and success will be waiting for you!
3. Stress
Q: How do you deal with the stresses that come with failure or even success?
STRESS! Stress is prominent in almost every field that you decide to work in. To deal with stress, I maintain a healthy gym routine. I go to the gym four days out of the week and run five days out of the week. Going to sleep at a reasonable time, and waking up in the early hours is crucial. I try to get at least eight hours of sleep a night, which can be hard sometimes with school and extracurricular activities. Establish healthy habits and keep to them. Similarly, start your day off right. Eat a nutritional breakfast, and listen to some music.
4. Burnout
Q: Do you ever feel burnt-out? How do you deal with it?
Yes, anyone that works hard reaches a point where they feel burnout. Sometimes it can be hard to take yourself away from the work that you have to do because there is so much. Personal time is vital. You do not need to be working non-stop to the point where you get sick and unhealthy. Doing simple things like running, walking your dog, spending time with your family, or watching a TV show can aid in your mental health. Remember, take breaks when you need to, success comes from hard work, but not when you are jeopardizing your health.
5. Success
Q: What does failure mean to you, and how do you respond to it?
Failure is an opportunity to learn from the mistakes that you made. There had been many posts that haven’t reached their full potential, but quitting is not an option for me, so I recollect and see what I did wrong. I often ask myself, “What did I do wrong?” and “how can I improve it?” Be excited to fail and treat it as an opportunity to work harder towards success.
Q: What is success?
Successfulness is different from person to person. To me, success means being able to support myself and the people I care about. I want to be able to create products and content that will improve the lives of others. Success is not all about money. It can be given in the form of making the people surrounding you happy.