A few weeks ago I published a post about the rising culture of entrepreneurship in Washington, DC. One of the major inspirations of that post was the emergence of Compass Partners — a social entrepreneurship education/mentorship/incubator-type program started by students at Georgetown University and on the way to a campus near you! I attended the Graduation Gala of the first round of Fellows at Georgetown on Monday night, and was blown away by the presentations given by this year’s Fellows — all freshmen in college!

I’m always amazed by the feats of students and young entrepreneurs, and this lineup of Compass Fellows has trumped all the expectations that one could have of somebody 18 or 19 years old.

Their presentations were some of the very best I’ve seen. The delivery was strong, the energy was there, and the passion bled through. It’s interesting listening to entrepreneurs pitch their businesses after having been through many of the trials and tribulations they inevitably have before them. I think if I could give one piece of advice to the Compass Fellows and to any entrepreneur in the early startup stages, it would be the following:

Start Small, Build Momentum, Grow Into Your Vision

Part of being a young entrepreneur is the pure ambition to take on the world with your business. For me, I want to revolutionize the way emerging markets are perceived around the world so we can facilitate more investment as opposed to aid. Oh, and I want to eradicate corruption! As students and young entrepreneurs, we tend to spend more time planning than doing — a process that leads to big visions of what we want our companies to look like. Then when it comes time to execute, bridging the divide between concept and end-product seems impossible!

Some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten was to stop planning and just do it! Think about what you can do right this moment to create value, and start doing it for somebody today. You learn the most from doing, and with many small victories you will gain the momentum you need to grow into your dream business!