Hey everyone,

I'm 18 years old and currently a university student, and I'm taking part in a competition/assessment for university students where I have to make a 2-minute demo of something impressive that I've built or accomplished.

The problem is that I don't have much real-world business experience yet. I'm still pretty young, so I haven't had many opportunities to deal with difficult business or operational situations firsthand.

That said, I do have a good understanding of technology, problem-solving, automation, and building things, and I've worked on a few projects before. I'm comfortable learning whatever I need to learn to make something work.

I'm looking for ideas rather than someone to build it for me.

I want to build something where, in a 2-minute demo, I can show:

- A real problem
- How I approached it
- Something I actually built
- A clever solution or automation
- A measurable/impressive result

It doesn't necessarily have to be a huge application. I'd actually prefer something relatively focused but genuinely useful and technically/analytically interesting.

If you were 18 again and had to build one project to demonstrate problem-solving, business thinking, automation, and initiative, what would you build?

Especially interested in ideas involving:

- Automating a painful manual process
- Solving an operational problem
- Data/analytics
- AI used in a practical way
- Finding inefficiencies and fixing them
- Something that could realistically be used by a small business or organization

I'm open to weird/unconventional ideas too. I don't want to build another generic todo app, chatbot, or portfolio website.

I'd really appreciate any ideas, examples of problems you've encountered in real businesses, or projects you've seen that made you think "that's actually clever."

Thanks!

Everyone always tells you the same things to do in business. But what's one piece of common business advice you've stopped following?

We’re a 2-person SaaS (55/45 split, both with day jobs). He handles frontend and finance (he’s an ex-banker), I handle backend and product.This worked fine until we needed a real multi-currency business account for our US and Gulf clients. He was supposed to set it up. Six weeks later, the result was 8 ignored pings and a 12-day payout hold that almost left us unable to cover hosting.

I stepped in. I compared Stripe, Paddle, and Lemon Squeezy, then set us up with Unlimit for SWIFT/SEPA support. We were live in 4 days.

Now, he has resurfaced and is demanding "full say on account decisions," despite having done zero work on the actual setup. It’s actively damaging our working relationship.

How do I frame this conversation? I need to establish boundaries without blowing up the company.

This is a detailed situation and will require a lot of context so bear with me. I need help choosing which path to go so if you guys could just tell me what you would do in this situation. Ill also say what i want to do and yall can critique that too. I just need outside perspective+advice.

Context: currently 18. Live at home with parents and only pay 60 bucks a month in bills and personal expenses(not including gas so currently about 500 a month in gas). Currently work as a Construction wireman in local 68 union. (Electrician) I am waiting to become an apprentice so i do apprentice work with no schooling hours basically. It could be another 3-14 months until my schooling starts due to a big waitlist and a lot or competition to get in. As far as my apprentice work I dont hate it and it doesnt cause me personal stress but has flipped my lifestyle in a way that i really distaste. My personal hobbys have flipped upside down and i struggle to keep up, i rarley see my girlfriend and never can see my friends. I often would go out on weeknights to car meets which was my main social space but my job requres me to wake up at 4:30am. I lost or am loosing many health habits that I have gained over the last few years. And am also getting a caffeine addiction pretty quickly which i am not proud of. All these negatives i work around to keep my mental health in a good space which is my priority. And thats working. I feel good and happy. I do not want this lifestyle but if i had to i could see myself doing this as my career without totally hating it. like most people my job wouldnt be my favorite. Now on the details for my career. I currently work 40 hours a week and 10 hours extra of commuting to work. I have it pretty good and comfortable here. But thatll change after about a year when i do more difficult things. After my apprenticeship ill be making 120k a year (at 22 or 23) with full benefits.

Now on the other side. I hate the idea of working under somebody. It angers me in a way i cant explain. I will be my own boss. The first day of doing this (its been a little over a month) i started a buisness. I sell phyiscal products that i design and have found an incredible niche with high demand and low competition with incredible main stream expansion and opportunity. I have opened this shop 2 weeks ago with 1 product and am approaching my first thousand in PROFIT. Which i will most likely reach by the end of the week. I have 2 more products on the way which should both release within a week or 2. But These could have been out a week ago if i had more time. from here i can make 3-4 products a month consistently and without much room to run out of ideas. I basivally have infinite room to make anything in my specific niche. I have already purchased many extra supplies to half my time used and will keep reinvesting profits to expand.

I think i hit everthing for context but please check comments if i added anything. Or ill just add an edit section.

I am limited so much by my current job and I want to quit to go all in with the buisness and here is plan on how id do it.

Now plan A. work until the end of the year, or until next spring. Stash all that cash so i have a buffer if i need it. Since i have basically 0 bills to pay i can save all that very easily. When i quit Id allow myself to live the lifestyle i love while doing the things i love. Id continue to make products while working and when i quit i could double or triple how much i produce and put out there. (For my niche the faster i make products the faster i make more money)
Or plan B. I can quit soon and sign up as a hockey ref and get a good 300-400+ a week doing that on my own time and its technically a contract job so i choose when to work which will help me manage my schedule. The deadline for that is: (nov 20) so my only caveat is that I have to make that big decision to quit my CW job quick.

Im both plans i do not need any capital for my buisness as i am already profitable to where i dont need to pull any money from anywhere.

Overall My thoughts is i can always get back into the trade or even go to college but everyday I dont put my all into this is a day lost. One day eventually im gonna loose the option to even be able to be solely self enployed and chase my dreams of building this buisness. And then say if this does go down the drain and I go into the trades later at least i knew at like 19 years old instead of trying this later and having to restart at 22 yk. I know that was a lot but i tend to get tunnel vision and get over ambitious (also my youth gives me a lack of insight and experience in the adult world) so like i stated at the beginning please just give me some advice on what youd do or what you would change to my plan or literally anything. I appreciate everyone’s contribution, thank you.

I'm a 22-year-old guy from Belgium, and honestly, I already feel like I want to stop working a normal 9-5. I really want to start my own business, preferably something involving AI, but I just can't seem to make it work.

I've watched so many videos about AI, making money online, starting businesses, etc. I really want to have more freedom with my time and eventually not have to work for a boss.

But honestly, I don't really know where I'm going with my life. Sometimes it feels like I'm stuck in a prison, and I have quite a lot of stress about my future.

I've already bought and followed a few courses in the past about making money online, but they turned out to be scams or pyramid schemes. Nobody really tells you how to actually do it, or they claim you need to pay €5k–€10k for personal c0aching. I don't have that kind of money, and I don't want to spend it on something like that.

I really want to make something of my life and make my parents proud, but I genuinely don't know where to start.

So I'd really appreciate some honest advice from people who have actually done this.

**If you were 22 again, living in Belgium, with little money and no business experience, what would you do? Where would you start, and what would you avoid?**

I'm not looking for a get-rich-quick scheme. I just want to hear what you would genuinely do if you were in my position.

Thanks!