Skyler Kanegi, second-year MIS student at McCombs, started his first company at age 16 because he wasn't satisfied with the editorial stance of his high school's magazine. He launched an alternative magazine for people in the arts community and soon had submissions from around the world. "For the first issue we printed 60 copies of the magazine by hand and sold those in the community," he says. "We gave the artists more exposure and respected their artistic creativity." That magazine grew into a nonprofit organization designed to foster artistic expression for people of all levels of skill. "I don't want art to become this thing that you have to go to museums to see," Kanegi explains. "Visual art is very alive...so bring that out into the public and it enriches people's lives."

The young entrepreneur predicts that his nonprofit will endure because of the passion of the volunteers who support art. "That's very different in a for-profit, because sometimes you'll get people who pretend to be passionate about the company but they really just want money," he says. "That's how you corrupt your company culture."

Kanegi encourages business students to get involved in interests and hobbies that balance their other interests. "It makes you a more competitive individual for companies," he claims, "Because they can see you have a diverse skill set, and you're good at thinking from different angles."

"Robert Heinlein, one of my favorite writers, has a quote that starts with 'Specialization is for insects.' You should be as much of a renaissance man as possible."

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