Young people in this country have a huge amount of choice these days when it comes to earning a crust. Universities and Polytechs can teach most people most things, changing careers is no biggie, nor is holding down more than one job at a time. Despite all these leniencies, there is still a kind of ‘norm’. Getting some study under your belt, then working your way up some kind of job ladder is common, and often the most ‘supported’ route. So what happens to those who take a completely different path? I met one such individual, who has been enjoying plowing his own way for some time now, to hear about some of his projects.

Dave Chisholm was dux of his school, attended a couple of universities and has recently finished with an honours degree in Architecture. He’s designed a few houses in his spare time (a rare commodity for Chisholm) with his latest projects coming to fruition in Khandallah, Kaiwharawhara, and another in a slightly more exotic location, the waterfront of Sydney. However, he’s not employed in an architecture firm like many of his peers, he is going it alone, armed with a list of ideas a mile long, many not related to architecture in the slightest.

On the day I speak with Dave he is a little bleary-eyed, and admits it’s not often he gets home from work before 10pm. Working long long hours, is part of his routine, which is self-designed, but one he’s hoping wont last forever. “I don’t think I could ever not work at all, but I do hope things will be easier for me one day because of the hours I’m putting in now.” He drifts a little as he mentions his dreams of yachts and overseas travel, but snaps back sharply when I ask the obvious question: “Wouldn’t it be safer to just go and find a job, make your way up the ladder, and become an expert in a specific field?” “No way,” he says, “I’d much rather learn a lot about a variety of things, and have the flexibility to follow opportunities as they arise, than work 9-5 doing the same thing every day for the rest of my life.”

So how did it all start? He recalls his first ever ‘business’ at age 8. It wasn’t completely, erm legal. “My best friend and I decided it would be a great idea to charge all our friends a membership fee to belong to our cricket club. Except there wasn’t really such a thing, we just took the money and ‘invested’ it… in snacks! Eventually, our parents found our Pringles tin full of cash and made us give it all back!” He goes on to describe another ‘learning experience’ where he took all the steps to set up a bouncy castle hire business, only to find it wasn’t exactly what he had in mind; “it looked great on paper, but the one thing I neglected to consider was the impact a yard full of screaming kids would have on my sanity!”

At the age of 14, he then decided to teach himself web design after being repeatedly told what a waste of time it was. Two years later he was making thousands a month by teaming up with an American salesman, who sold the sites and sent the cheques back over to New Zealand. “Can’t say I saved much of the money I made,” he admits, “but I learnt a heck of a lot about the web in the process!”

He’s been designing and working for himself ever since, using the experience he’s gained so far to help him start web business Crescendo Multimedia, with his partner Nadine Isler (observant readers will know Isler also ‘moonlights’ as editor for IN-Business magazine). “It’s been hard keeping up with the work, but in many ways we’ve been lucky, in that we haven’t needed to spend anything on marketing.” They started with a single response from a flyer drop, and since then have grown almost exclusively through word of mouth. “I guess that’s the key in this industry, web designers are a dime a dozen these days, from the teenagers in their basements to the expensive agencies in the CBD, so a personal recommendation goes a long way.”

Chisholm’s latest web venture is Adscape, and he lights up visibly when he starts telling me about it. “It’s a website for advertising opportunities. So if you have any kind of advertising space to sell, you add a listing, and then sell special offers. He’s excited about the website, and while it’s still in its early stages, it has already caught the attention of many prominent media companies and has a lot of growth potential.

He’s also excited about the digital publishing service Crescendo specialises in, which is about converting documents so they can be read online. “It’s already popular in Europe and America, but it’s yet to go mainstream here, perhaps due to the mindset that you can’t beat the tactile experience of physically turning paper pages. The thing is, it shouldn’t be a case of either/or. I think businesses need to see digital publishing not as replacing print, but as an extremely cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to expand distribution and engage with their audience in an innovative way. It’s also a great way to bring documents to life, through rich-media content such as videos, forms and links.”

It’s easy to feel tired after a conversation with Dave, who could happily talk for hours about the ventures he’s involved with. I leave him at his desk surrounded in big screens and paper chaos, and have no doubt that we will be hearing plenty more about this young entrepreneur.