Nick Jones, a 24-year-old skateboarding entrepreneur, might be living the American Dream.

He has not been to work today. Instead, Jones is sitting at home on a couch drinking a Fat Tire.

When Jones moved to Fayetteville from Fresno, Calif., he brought his love for longboards—long, surfboard-shaped skateboards—with him. And instead of waiting for some corporate desk job after graduating from the UA with a finance degree, Jones turned his passion into a business, Lavish Longboards.

While he is his own boss and has the freedom to relax when he wants to, he is anything but a slacker.

“I only got two hours of sleep last night because I was up making boards,” he says. “I guess I’ve taken my love and passion for the longboarding business, mixed it with my business education and experience, and just maximized it.”

Since he started selling his boards at the beginning of the year, they have been in high demand across Northwest Arkansas and in the surrounding states. Jones says he has already sold several hundred of his custom boards, which go for as much as $170 each.

Lavish Longboards is doing well financially, he says, but being an entrepreneur is about more than making money. For him, being an entrepreneur is also about freedom, inspiring others to pursue their dreams and giving back to the community by creating jobs, Jones says.

“It just makes more sense to me to create something than take,” he says. “It’s my part as an American—I know it’s super Americana and patriotic to say. But how am I helping the economy by taking a job? How much more could I help it by creating a job?”

Within a year Jones plans on hiring a full-time employee, but he has already hired a carpenter part time to help him keep up with demand.

Jones’s garage, where he makes his boards, smells like chemicals. He apologizes for the messy workspace—even though the floor is clean and everything seems organized.

A stack of freshly cut, unfinished boards sits on a table saw. An almost-finished board with a custom barber pole decal for Jones’s barber sits drying on the concrete floor by the open garage door.

His boards’ popularity comes from their unique look, custom options and durability, Jones explains.

Every board is made with strips of light and dark wood, making them look kind of like striped, wooden cutting boards.

“All the wood is from the Ozarks. These are all natively grown, and one board can have wood from 10 to 15 different trees,” he says, indicating an unfinished board. “That’s how it gets all the different colors.”

As a student at the UA, Jones took classes with Mark Zweig, the Entrepreneur in Residence at the Walton College of Business.

Zweig help give him the confidence to start Lavish Longboards and has become a huge personal mentor, Jones says.

Zweig describes Jones as a disciplined, “nice fellow” who has been bitten by the entrepreneurship bug.

“The best thing about it [being an entrepreneur] is just the freedom you have. It’s not like you don’t work as hard somebody who’s a corporate slave—because you do. You probably work more, but you still have control over your time,” he said.

“You can dress the way you want,” Zweig explained. “You can do what you want to do. And I think that freedom is very empowering to people.”

“I really like the fact that I can take something that I really enjoy and put it into other people’s lives,” says Jones, dressed in jeans, skate shoes and a Lavish Longboards t-shirt. “That’s kind of what drives me and keeps me honest.”

With Zweig’s help, Jones and a few other students started the Northwest Arkansas Entrepreneurship Alliance, which connects young entrepreneurs with experienced business mentors in the region.

Through Lavish Longboards and his involvement with the NWAEA Jones wants to share his love for entrepreneurship and inspire others to turn their dreams into successful businesses, he says.

“Honestly, if you get an idea for a venture,” Jones says. “Don’t be afraid to take it, because it will make you feel awesome once it succeeds. If you share your passions… the money is going to come.”