Blazing New Trails

I'm an avid fan of business. I like to talk about, read about, be about it. I'm always interested in how people make their money, because it helps to broaden my view and it expands my scope of knowledge. What also amazes me is all the different things you can get into while getting paid in the process. I first became interested in this line of thinking because as I took a look at our community it appeared as if the depth of businesses owned by African Americans was limited to a few community staples. We also seem to stick to the beaten path when it comes to professions. There is nothing wrong with that, but I think it's time we broadened our horizons a bit and started tapping into burgeoning industries that have put a new meaning to doing what you love.

For instance, take teenaged Tom Taylor out of Jupiter Florida who has made more than $450,000 playing video game "Halo 2". Taylor is one of a handful of teens who have made their own fortunes in the $7 billion a year industry in the U.S. You can read about how he's making a killing in the gaming industry by taking the link at the bottom of this post. He also has his own site where he teaches gaming techniques.

Tom played in Major League Gaming's National Championship this past weekend in Vegas and his team placed third to win $30,000 (split 4 ways). Here they are chillin.

The team that did win this weekends championship walked away with $100K. I was glad to find that their team had an African American kid who goes by the name Karma. Here he is with a couple of his teammates.

Reading these kids stories made me realize how much the world of business is evolving. It's changing so that you can literally get paid doing what you love, even if its playing video games. It also helped me to realize that I needed to evolve in my thinking as to what is a viable means of employment as it relates to my kids. Exploring their interests early enough may help them get on the path to wealth creation at a lot earlier age. It also would open them up to more options later in life if they make money doing something they like as a kid. In this manner, they don't have to end up like many people, working a job they hate just to make ends meet.

Yahoo: Young Pro Video Gamers gross six figures
Professional Video Gaming, Not all fun and games