Last March, at my Underground Online Seminar 6, I met Nick Tart. He had just published a book of interviews with 25 of the world’s top young entrepreneurs: ‘50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs (Vol. 1) – What it Takes to Make More Money than Your Parents‘.

The awesome thing is that five of the 25 young entrepreneurs spotlighted in this book are former Undergound Online Seminar scholarship winners. It also features Michael Dunlop and a UG6 speaker Andrew Fashion. I got to sit down with Nick and his partner in writing and business, Nick Scheidies, for a quick interview.

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Yanik: How did you come up with this idea?

Nick T: I saw all of these kids doing mind-blowing things with entrepreneurship and really taking it to the next level with their fresh perspectives. I wanted to get inside their heads, find out what makes them tick, and uncover the secrets to their success. If there had already been a book out there like that, then I would’ve just bought it. There wasn’t, so we wrote it ourselves.

Yanik: Is there any common element in most successful young entrepreneurs you’ve interviewed?

Nick T: Perseverance. Sabirul Islam was rejected by 40 publishers before he decided to self-publish ‘The World at Your Feet‘ (he promptly sold 42,000 copies in nine months). Just imagine that: being told, “This can’t be successful,” 40 TIMES and never losing heart. That’s the type of tenacity you need to succeed. It WILL pay off.

Nick S: Absolutely. But I think it’s a lot easier to take those punches when you love the fight. Every kid we talked to had an unwavering passion for their project. There’s no way it’s a coincidence: it’s a lot easier to put in the hard work when it hardly feels like work.

Yanik: Do you think entrepreneurs are “born” or “learned”?

Nick T: We wouldn’t have started this project if we didn’t believe that it would help transform the lives of people around the world, “learn”-ing them to be better entrepreneurs. But one of the most striking commonalities shared by our interviewees is their instinctive drive to start early, selling things like pokemon cards before they had even heard the word ’entrepreneurship’. To me, that hints at something of an entrepreneurial DNA.

Nick S: A year ago, I couldn’t have cared less about entrepreneurship. I didn’t think that I had an entrepreneurial bone in my body. But when I started listening to these kids tell their stories, my ears perked right up. I’ve still got a long way to go, but I truly believe that the entrepreneurial spirit can be awakened in anyone. We’re counting on it.

Yanik: What was most surprising from your interviews with these success young entrepreneurs?

Nick T: I expected to learn a lot from the interviewees, but I didn’t expect them to turn my entrepreneurial world completely on its head. That impact is probably my biggest surprise. I’ve never had a more clear vision of what it takes to excel in entrepreneurship — not just in theory, but in nitty-gritty reality.

Nick S: It’s surprising to me that these kids aren’t getting more attention. Adam Horwitz had a million-dollar product launch last week, breaking all sorts of ClickBank records. He’s 18. The fact that he sat down with us for an hour — along with Catherine Cook (myYearbook.com), Michael Dunlop (incomediary.com), etc. — is pretty amazing.

Yanik: What have you learned about internet marketing through this process?

Nick T: Every internet entrepreneur should have a blog. But before you ever launch, make sure that you’ve got something to give away for free — like an eCourse, a report, or a pre-recorded webinar. Once that’s in place, you can begin leveraging it to collect the information of the people who are interested in your message. Build that community, provide them with truly valuable content, and you can’t go wrong. Eventually, they’ll want to give you some of their money.

Take Joe Penna, YouTube’s Mystery Guitar Man, for example. He makes 2-minute videos twice a week, for free. Through his videos he’s built a community of over a million subscribers who will buy just about anything he sells.

Yanik: What advice would you give to someone who wants to live the internet lifestyle?

Nick T: Go out and learn from the people who are already doing it. There’s no better resource. The more you learn now, the fewer mistakes you have to make down the road. Of course, at some point, you’ve got to stop learning and start forging your own path.

Nick S: If you want it, then go get it. You can come up with a 100 reasons why you’re not living the life that you want, but nothing and nobody has greater control over your ultimate reality than you. Recognize that and you can’t be stopped. Every one of the 25 kids we interviewed were once in your shoes, struggling to break through, and they simply bent the universe to their will. You can do the same: stop making excuses and start making it happen.

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Nick T. and Nick S. have also made a few videos with some entrepreneurial quotes from the guys in their book like the one below:

And this book isn’t just for young entrepreneurs – Barry Dunlop, a Maverick Global Intrepid Member, had this comment: “Nick and Nick – just wanted to say this is one of the best Young Entrepreneurs videos I have ever seen on YouTube. Very inspirational – even for an old entrepreneur like me. Well done guys.”

As you may know, part of my life’s mission is to inspire one million young entrepreneurs by 2020 and this book is going in the right direction. Nick and Nick are giving away a free interview from the book at YoungEntrepreneurs.50interviews.com.