TL;dr at the bottom
Being an entrepreneur turned self-employed business owner for 15 years and having met / worked with many entrepreneurs / founders, I'd say there are some very important steps you can take to maximize your time and money. You're young, which is an advantage, but it also sounds like you're impatient which can be a disadvantage depending on how you utilize the energy behind your impatient and desire to do SOMETHING.
Making things go boom is doing SOMETHING, but usually not something constructive.
I think the most valuable step you can take is to do some personal development and self-assessment to understand your personality. Identify your strengths and weaknesses. Play to your strengths, but don't ignore your weaknesses as those areas can and will bite you in the ass sooner than later. The best SOMETHING you can do is to look into the mirror and understand yourself. Are you REALLY cut out to build your own business? Very few people are. The ones that don't drive themselves crazy and end up in the poor house have tremendous resiliency. That doesn't come from school, or YT vids, or books, or talking with friends.
You learn customer service and connecting with people through doing customer service jobs.
You learn product development and the product life cycle by being involved in new product introduction, design, manufacturing, the engineering change process, beta testing, customer feedback, and going back through that cycle.
The number of people who want to develop an app or some product that's the Next Big Thing™ is endless. But many don't have the emotional and mental fortitude to build a solid foundation and good habits before trying to bring new life into the world - and by new life in this context, I mean to give birth to your idea and seeing it grow in the world. You become a parent to whatever idea you create and it's a big responsibility. It can be really joyful and fulfilling, but don't kid yourself that this isn't serious. In some ways, it's harder than being parent to a physical child because when your kid's asleep you can rest but often as an entrepreneur, when the world is asleep your ideas are still going and the demands of a business are endless.
Suits is correct, patent protection for a novel idea is very important. You can file provisional patents that aren't uber expensive but you'd really want to consult a lawyer before trying to DIY. Most tech companies live or die on their IP (and even more importantly, their ability to DEFEND their IP). Otherwise, as was pointed out, what's to prevent another company from taking your idea and running with it?
What helped me tremendously was finding a mentor. In fact, you might have mentors for different aspects of your life and business - I certainly have. Look into the historical relationship between master and apprentice; it still works today. Ways to find a mentor are infinite: networking via Meetup.com, LinkedIn, looking at local businesses, making contacts through your professors / parents / friends, random conversations with people at restaurants/bars/etc. Even members of your family and social network that have been in business and can add pieces to the puzzle of your understanding of the road you're embarking on.
You'll want to demonstrate an abilty to STFU and listen, a willingness to assist them if they need help (sometimes without pay), to earn access to their knowledge and experience. Appreciate your role as an apprentice and understand what that means. No one OWES you success, or their knowledge. What are YOU doing to give back for what you're receiving? How are YOU showing gratitude to people willing to help you become successful? What does GRATITUDE actually mean to you? One day you may be in a position to answer the very questions you're now asking. Think about that.
How are your sales skills? Are you comfortable engaging with people, making them laugh, listening to them and getting them to listen to you (without forcing a topic on them)? Can you tell when people are tuning out, or when they're hooked and want to know more? Can you 'game' people about your ideas like you would to deepen a girl's interest in you?
What hats do you plan to wear in your business, assuming you want to be the CEO / Founder and not a partner? 'The E-Myth' (Entrepreneur Myth) points out that a founder has 3 aspects in various levels of strength:
The Manager
The Technician
The Entrepreneur
Each are crucial to a business's success and it's vitally important to understand how much of each vital aspect you're naturally able to manifest. I orient more toward the latter two, and had to learn (the hard way) how to manage people and by extension manage my time, my energy, my money.
I was much more the starry-eyed dreamer in the early days of my business and I didn't know how to focus on what would really grow my sales, my reach, my audience. I made great products but didn't know how to get them into more people's hands. So until I was honest and able to self-assess (and have others point out my failings) I wasn't able to truly move my vision and business forward. My personal life also suffered - I don't see someone being a success in business if they haven't learned to manage their own life outside the business. They can often run into each other and the way an outsider sees your business can easily reflect the quality of your life.
Look at any business we see in the news to see the truth of that. Business is an extension of the founder's personality, that of the leadership team as the company grows. Honest inner self-assessment, even talking with a school counselor, or finding your local entrepreneur group in your city (most big cities have support groups) are all good starts.
This probably sounds un-fun, maybe partly woo-woo, and like work you either think you've already done, or don't have to do. I don't know, but let's see how you respond. If I knew at 22 what I know now 20 years later, I'd easily have a multi-million dollar company, maybe a few - one I'd have sold and another I'd be managing part-time while traveling the world expanding my business opportunities. I love what I know and am creating in the world, but it's been a hard road because a) I resisted discipline for a long time and still somewhat do and b) I didn't pay close enough attention to good advice. I didn't understand my strengths and weaknesses well enough to create a solid foundation early enough. It's okay, good things are happening, but I've missed out on years of potential financial growth. But I'm a lot better-rounded as a person than I was in my 20s or 30s.
If you're not meditating 20 min a day, and not walking 30 min a day, you're short changing your mind, body, and soul. Meditation helps you understand how you think, examine thoughts, emotions, motivations, and also get in touch with you eternal Self - your soul. When you walk, your synchronizing mind and body - it's not about working out, it's about letting your creative energy move through you in a rhythmic way that only walking can do. The exercise aspect is important, but walking is symbolic too. You're moving forward into the world while bringing your ideas with you - literally.
When you are making a product or service you're asking someone to trust that your motivations include taking care of their needs, even if they don't know WHAT they need - but you have a vision and you see an opportunity. When you look at someone and beyond seeing your next sale, you see a living miracle of a human being, you are honoring their essence which is the same as your essence. You create a bond that will carry you through hard times. You will create an initial group of early-adopters who will have your back. WHEN (not if) you screw up, they will stick with you. They will champion you through speed bumps. They will offer you money, and advice, and jokes, and maybe a couch to crash on or a room to rent. The human connections you make through following through on your passionate vision are the most important aspect of business. Business isn't about ideas, or dollars, it's about heart. An idea that benefits people, makes their lives better / happier / easier will bring money.
TL;dr
Understand your inner world, develop good lifestyle habits, be honest about your strengths and weaknesses as entrepreneur / manager / technician, connect with mentors, continue saving money as you can, and be honestly interested in people. Do all this and keep sketching, drawing, imagining, white boarding, sharing your vision.
Aaron Clarey / Captain Capitalism has a YT channel that's worth checking out re: entrepreneurs. He also offers Asshole Consulting and will tell you the straight shit. If you haven't already emailed / worked with him, you need to. Ignore everything I said if you wish, but he's been on the fat end of the big desk when people ask for money to start or fund their business. He's heard and seen all kinds of ideas, schemes and cuts through the bullshit. Like I said, I tend to be more on the idealist side, but I also love people more than Clarey seems to.
Being an entrepreneur turned self-employed business owner for 15 years and having met / worked with many entrepreneurs / founders, I'd say there are some very important steps you can take to maximize your time and money. You're young, which is an advantage, but it also sounds like you're impatient which can be a disadvantage depending on how you utilize the energy behind your impatient and desire to do SOMETHING.
Making things go boom is doing SOMETHING, but usually not something constructive.
I think the most valuable step you can take is to do some personal development and self-assessment to understand your personality. Identify your strengths and weaknesses. Play to your strengths, but don't ignore your weaknesses as those areas can and will bite you in the ass sooner than later. The best SOMETHING you can do is to look into the mirror and understand yourself. Are you REALLY cut out to build your own business? Very few people are. The ones that don't drive themselves crazy and end up in the poor house have tremendous resiliency. That doesn't come from school, or YT vids, or books, or talking with friends.
You learn customer service and connecting with people through doing customer service jobs.
You learn product development and the product life cycle by being involved in new product introduction, design, manufacturing, the engineering change process, beta testing, customer feedback, and going back through that cycle.
The number of people who want to develop an app or some product that's the Next Big Thing™ is endless. But many don't have the emotional and mental fortitude to build a solid foundation and good habits before trying to bring new life into the world - and by new life in this context, I mean to give birth to your idea and seeing it grow in the world. You become a parent to whatever idea you create and it's a big responsibility. It can be really joyful and fulfilling, but don't kid yourself that this isn't serious. In some ways, it's harder than being parent to a physical child because when your kid's asleep you can rest but often as an entrepreneur, when the world is asleep your ideas are still going and the demands of a business are endless.
Suits is correct, patent protection for a novel idea is very important. You can file provisional patents that aren't uber expensive but you'd really want to consult a lawyer before trying to DIY. Most tech companies live or die on their IP (and even more importantly, their ability to DEFEND their IP). Otherwise, as was pointed out, what's to prevent another company from taking your idea and running with it?
What helped me tremendously was finding a mentor. In fact, you might have mentors for different aspects of your life and business - I certainly have. Look into the historical relationship between master and apprentice; it still works today. Ways to find a mentor are infinite: networking via Meetup.com, LinkedIn, looking at local businesses, making contacts through your professors / parents / friends, random conversations with people at restaurants/bars/etc. Even members of your family and social network that have been in business and can add pieces to the puzzle of your understanding of the road you're embarking on.
You'll want to demonstrate an abilty to STFU and listen, a willingness to assist them if they need help (sometimes without pay), to earn access to their knowledge and experience. Appreciate your role as an apprentice and understand what that means. No one OWES you success, or their knowledge. What are YOU doing to give back for what you're receiving? How are YOU showing gratitude to people willing to help you become successful? What does GRATITUDE actually mean to you? One day you may be in a position to answer the very questions you're now asking. Think about that.
How are your sales skills? Are you comfortable engaging with people, making them laugh, listening to them and getting them to listen to you (without forcing a topic on them)? Can you tell when people are tuning out, or when they're hooked and want to know more? Can you 'game' people about your ideas like you would to deepen a girl's interest in you?
What hats do you plan to wear in your business, assuming you want to be the CEO / Founder and not a partner? 'The E-Myth' (Entrepreneur Myth) points out that a founder has 3 aspects in various levels of strength:
The Manager
The Technician
The Entrepreneur
Each are crucial to a business's success and it's vitally important to understand how much of each vital aspect you're naturally able to manifest. I orient more toward the latter two, and had to learn (the hard way) how to manage people and by extension manage my time, my energy, my money.
I was much more the starry-eyed dreamer in the early days of my business and I didn't know how to focus on what would really grow my sales, my reach, my audience. I made great products but didn't know how to get them into more people's hands. So until I was honest and able to self-assess (and have others point out my failings) I wasn't able to truly move my vision and business forward. My personal life also suffered - I don't see someone being a success in business if they haven't learned to manage their own life outside the business. They can often run into each other and the way an outsider sees your business can easily reflect the quality of your life.
Look at any business we see in the news to see the truth of that. Business is an extension of the founder's personality, that of the leadership team as the company grows. Honest inner self-assessment, even talking with a school counselor, or finding your local entrepreneur group in your city (most big cities have support groups) are all good starts.
This probably sounds un-fun, maybe partly woo-woo, and like work you either think you've already done, or don't have to do. I don't know, but let's see how you respond. If I knew at 22 what I know now 20 years later, I'd easily have a multi-million dollar company, maybe a few - one I'd have sold and another I'd be managing part-time while traveling the world expanding my business opportunities. I love what I know and am creating in the world, but it's been a hard road because a) I resisted discipline for a long time and still somewhat do and b) I didn't pay close enough attention to good advice. I didn't understand my strengths and weaknesses well enough to create a solid foundation early enough. It's okay, good things are happening, but I've missed out on years of potential financial growth. But I'm a lot better-rounded as a person than I was in my 20s or 30s.
If you're not meditating 20 min a day, and not walking 30 min a day, you're short changing your mind, body, and soul. Meditation helps you understand how you think, examine thoughts, emotions, motivations, and also get in touch with you eternal Self - your soul. When you walk, your synchronizing mind and body - it's not about working out, it's about letting your creative energy move through you in a rhythmic way that only walking can do. The exercise aspect is important, but walking is symbolic too. You're moving forward into the world while bringing your ideas with you - literally.
When you are making a product or service you're asking someone to trust that your motivations include taking care of their needs, even if they don't know WHAT they need - but you have a vision and you see an opportunity. When you look at someone and beyond seeing your next sale, you see a living miracle of a human being, you are honoring their essence which is the same as your essence. You create a bond that will carry you through hard times. You will create an initial group of early-adopters who will have your back. WHEN (not if) you screw up, they will stick with you. They will champion you through speed bumps. They will offer you money, and advice, and jokes, and maybe a couch to crash on or a room to rent. The human connections you make through following through on your passionate vision are the most important aspect of business. Business isn't about ideas, or dollars, it's about heart. An idea that benefits people, makes their lives better / happier / easier will bring money.
TL;dr
Understand your inner world, develop good lifestyle habits, be honest about your strengths and weaknesses as entrepreneur / manager / technician, connect with mentors, continue saving money as you can, and be honestly interested in people. Do all this and keep sketching, drawing, imagining, white boarding, sharing your vision.
Aaron Clarey / Captain Capitalism has a YT channel that's worth checking out re: entrepreneurs. He also offers Asshole Consulting and will tell you the straight shit. If you haven't already emailed / worked with him, you need to. Ignore everything I said if you wish, but he's been on the fat end of the big desk when people ask for money to start or fund their business. He's heard and seen all kinds of ideas, schemes and cuts through the bullshit. Like I said, I tend to be more on the idealist side, but I also love people more than Clarey seems to.