Everyone wants to be a millionaire.  What people don’t realize, however, is that the journey towards a million dollars often requires marching to the sound of a different drummer.  Creativity is key, and Pat Hankinson is aiming for that with his latest website, The Social Millionaire.  

The site attempts to leverage the appeal of various social networks into $1 million.  Pat, the young entrepreneur who started The Social Millionaire, is just 19 years old, and he thinks he can achieve seven figures by allowing advertisers to buy keywords on his website.  Bids start at $5.  Multiple people can own the same keyword, but whoever pays more will show up higher in the list of sites for that keyword.  Pat is aggressively promoting the site through all the popular social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.

 

I found the website and Pat’s efforts intriguing.  As an entrepreneur, networking with other like-minded individuals helps expand one’s mind and inspires other self-starters to stay focused on their goals.  I caught up with Pat for an interview, and here is what he had to say:

1) You refer to yourself as a “young entrepreneur.”  At the age of 19, that’s quite a label and one that many workaholic vets don’t understand.  What, in your childhood and teenage years, prompted you to take this entrepreneurial route?  What, if anything, made you different as you came of age?

Ancestry taught me that I am a descendant of many entrepreneurs.  I wanted to keep that going, but growing up in a small town really does limit one’s ability to become an entrepreneur.  On the Internet, this limitation does not occur.

As a young entrepreneur, I found myself doing things without really thinking them through.  Sometimes they work, and most times they would not.  I guess this is where the experience part comes into play.  Now, I really put some serious planning into my ideas whether it is small or big because it does save me a lot of hassle in the future.

2) You write that “The Social Millionaire . . . is about building one big asset.”  I subscribe to the view that an “asset” is an item that puts money in your pocket.  How would you fit The Social Millionaire into that framework?

I cannot say more about what I mean by this other than think of the amount of friends I will have networked with by the end.

3) You write that you have “run several websites some of which have been failures and some successful.”  What have you learned from those that are successful and those that have failed?

I currently run a network of 75+ websites in all different fields.  I have learned you are only going to start making money if your product or service has a price tag on it.  Forget about creating blogs and hoping for advertisement revenue!  If you partner with someone, make sure they stay focused on the project at hand.

4) You mention that the normal business route “usually means opportunity missed.”  Can you elaborate more on that?

By the normal business route, I mean going out and looking for funding by angel investors and venture capitalists.  By being a little wild and looking for unique ways to fund your ideas is asking for more opportunities than going the normal route.  Slide is valued at $500 million by breaking MySpace’s terms of service.  If they took the normal route, who knows what they would be valued at.

5) What do you recommend that students (who are currently in high school or college) study (or what skill sets do you think they should acquire) to help them become Internet entrepreneurs?

Everyone has the basic skills to start making money online.  Everyone does not have the discipline, focus, or energy to launch a company.  Discipline, focus, and energy can usually only happen if you truly believe in your company.  Let your idea come naturally, and focus, focus!

6) How important is networking in an entrepreneurial venture?

As a young entrepreneur, I had this attitude where I could do everything myself.  I still kind of do, but I am trying to break it.  Networking is important because no matter how well you can do anything, someone can always do it better and faster.  It is important to have these people join your team.  Working by myself probably means disaster because no one else believes in your venture.

7) Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Hard question!  I really hope that all my companies are very successful, but anything can happen!  There is always risk in business, so any one of my ideas could fail.  Who knows, maybe in 10 years I’ll be answering your next interview.

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