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Teenager Scott Millar is an "outlier".
Not only is the 17-year-old an entrepreneur attempting to make holograms a reality for everyone, he is chief executive of a company he founded in year nine.
The student from Sheldon College in Brisbane has managed to progress his career while balancing the everyday stresses of exam dates, assignments and the general life of a teenager.
His company started off selling custom hashtag keyrings but changed once Mr Millar found a "simplistic" form of hologram technology online.
"As a kid, I always watched Star Wars and Iron Man and I thought that was such phenomenal technology but I will never see it in my lifetime," he said.
"When I found it online I thought: 'We have got to develop a nice product out of this and get that technology out there into people's hands and see what they want to do with it and show them that the future is here and now'."
The self-confessed procrastinator took seven days to develop the technology and launch his first product, a holographic entertainment display that ranges from centrepieces to life-sized holograms and is used by event managers, theatre companies and educational facilities.
The teenager picked a number of school mates to work for his company, BOP Industries, and said lunchtime conversations could switch quickly from typical chat to business talk.
"We can be sitting there at lunch and be joking about something that happened in English and then say, 'Hey, did you update that thing for the website?', 'Are you ready to come to Toowoomba this weekend, are you?'.
"I put a big priority on getting time to spend with my friends ... it is so important to have that important network."
Mr Millar also makes time to sit down with his father – who started up an import company at a young age – every Sunday for "business 101" after he dropped his school's business classes.
"I did end up dropping business as a subject at school, funnily enough," he said.
"Through getting real-world experience, I was learning so much already and it was really tricky getting all the assignments done so, yeah, I dropped it and now I have time to work on my business during school hours."
While clients were initially taken aback when they learnt Mr Millar was only 17, he said they appreciated the "fresh" ideas he had to offer.
"When I do first tell clients, 'I can't call you at that time, I have a maths class', they are a little shocked at first …(but) hey, love new, fresh ideas and are so used to talking to, especially in the corporate world, people that are very corporate, very straight ideas," he said.
Mr Millar said it was an "odd feeling" being at school and running a business but he put it down to a great relationship with his teachers, who helped manage school deadlines.
"I am in the middle of missing about 10 days of school in the middle of term three, which is a bit of a nightmare," he said.
Mr Millar will speak at Queensland University of Technology's Creative Enterprise Australia's Creative3 conference later this year, an event where creative industry leaders present their latest technology to the public.
QUT Creative Enterprise Australia acting chief executive Mark Gustowski said Mr Millar was an "unusual case", given his age and his ability to get a "reasonable" amount of traction with his technology.
"We are seeing more and more young founders come out ... universities are pushing towards entrepreneurship being a career destination as opposed to just working with large industries," he said.
"Being able to hold your own destiny in your hand is something that is interesting to young people."
Mr Millar said a range of entrepreneurs such as Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk were leading the charge.
"The pathway of being a start-up founder is much more alluring than it was years ago and the demand from the students is that they want to learn about how to become start-up founders and how to drive start-ups," he said.
"There are no jobs that are jobs for life anymore, most people will probably change employment every three to four years."