By age 12, Rockville neighbors Fenley Scurlock and Jason Liaw had each created and run their own businesses, learning valuable lessons about entrepreneurship in the process. That’s when they realized that other students could benefit from the skills that Scurlock learned selling handmade crafts at farmers markets and Liaw from developing websites.
So the friends decided to write a book for their peers with advice compiled from well-known entrepreneurs.
“We wanted a comprehensive guide, almost like a master class, in a sense, for entrepreneurship that was accessible and also easy to refer to,” Liaw, now 17, told MoCo360 recently.
In March, that master class was published by Penguin Random House as a 416-page book titled Down to Business: 51 Industry Leaders Share Practical Advice on How to Become a Young Entrepreneur.
Book development
The neighbors-turned-co-authors got their first taste of entrepreneurship as younger kids. At age 7, Scurlock began selling handmade soaps and artisan pens at local farmers markets and business fairs. In middle school, Liaw learned to code and started a website development business. After enhancing his skills through watching YouTube videos, Liaw began developing websites for local nonprofits and organizations.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pair realized they weren’t the only ones who wanted more entrepreneurial education.
“That was when we came up with the idea of ‘Well, what if we asked some people who’d already made it?’” said Scurlock, a 17-year-old junior at Stanford Online High School, which is based at Stanford University. “The initial inspiration was sort of filling the gap in entrepreneurial education.”
From there, writing a book was a “natural way” to document and log all of the conversations with such business leaders as Ken Stern, founder and CEO of Palisades Media Ventures and former CEO of NPR, and Wonya Lucas, president and CEO of Hallmark Media, according to Liaw, a senior at Poolesville High School.
The friends began working on the book around age 12, but both teens say the project “wouldn’t have been possible” without the occurrence of the pandemic thanks to the popularization of Zoom. That’s because the two utilized the platform to connect with business leaders instead of having to travel to interview them.
“[It] was definitely a huge advantage for the little guy,” Liaw said. “We were both little guys in age and in our experience.”
Regardless of their age and nervousness about conducting the interviews, the pair began reaching out to business leaders through email to discuss their journeys.
The interview process took a year and a half. Obtaining an agent took about another year, Liaw and Scurlock said.
Finding a publisher wasn’t easy – and the teens often received “very polite” rejections, Scurlock said. Liaw and Scurlock said they believe their age served as a disadvantage – because they had to convince others about the seriousness of the project — and an advantage because the book was written by Gen Z writers for their peers.
After obtaining a contract with Penguin Random House, one of the world’s largest publishing companies, it took another year and a half of editing before the book was published in March, according to the teens.
“The moment when we … were opening up that box with our author copies — that was just such an amazing feeling because it was the culmination of our efforts,” Scurlock said.
Big lessons for Liaw, Scurlock and readers
Since the book’s publication, the teens have been on tour to promote the book to their peers. The pair spoke about the book at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. in March, and have also been holding sessions at local libraries to discuss the book with kids.
“I just see a little bit of my younger self in each and every one of [the kids]. Fen and I were both only children, so we don’t really have siblings to share it with,” Liaw said. “So I definitely consider every single kid out there one of my extended family.”
The teens said the process of conducting the interviews and writing the book taught them to embrace entrepreneurship “as a lifestyle.”
“I used to see it as more this localized part or effort of my life,” Liaw said. “It’s really helped me embody entrepreneurship in my day-to-day.”
The pair also focused parts of their book on ensuring businesses can do good in the world. Scurlock said it doesn’t feel like there are many examples of large companies making positive social impacts, so they were conscious of who they chose to interview.
With the large issues facing the world, everything from climate change to social justice causes, Scurlock said there’s a need for companies with power to try and make change.
“There’s something almost reassuring about the idea that Gen-Z could really build companies to address some of those topics,” Scurlock said.
Scurlock said entrepreneurship revolves around having a growth mindset, patience and being willing to learn from your mistakes — something that can apply to all aspects of life.
“Entrepreneurship is something that you don’t have to wait to start learning — it is something that you can start at any age,” Scurlock said, noting that becoming an entrepreneur can be as simple as running a lemonade stand. “It really can be those very simple first steps that can lead you to something much bigger, and that is what developing an entrepreneurial mindset is all about.”
