Johnny Earle, AKA Johnny Cupcakes, came to Creighton on Thursday as a part of the Johnny Cupcakes College Lecture Series.

Earle travels around the globe giving lectures about how to start and maintain entrepreneurial ventures. His experience in the field is particularly fascinating since he took an unorthodox route to achieve his success.

At 19 and without a business plan, investors, a college education or start-up loans, Earle was able to turn a joke into a multi-million dollar business. His immense success resulted in his being named No. 1 Young Entrepreneur by “Business Week,” and one of “Inc. Magazine’s” top 500 fastest growing independent businesses in 2009.

And while still under 30, Earle has been featured on NPR, CNN, MTV, MSNBC, The Big Idea With Donny Deutsch and Fox News, as well as in the “Wall Street Journal,” “Entrepreneur Magazine,” “Web Marketing for Dummies” and the “New York Times.”

In his lecture, Earle talked about how he started his business, challenges he faced while building up his company and ways he attempts to maintain his clients.

Even though he has been exceedingly successful, Earle was quick to point out that, thought it has been successful, his route is not necessarily the right way to go. He even strongly encouraged having a business plan, something he didn’t have when he got started.

He did recommend that, like him, people take risks when starting a business. While the risks may not always pay off, people don’t want to miss out on an opportunity and end up kicking themselves in the future.

The success of the Johnny Cupcakes line shows that with hard work, people can achieve anything they set their minds to.

“Luck has nothing to do with it, it’s about giving 110 percent,” Earle said.