VC’s can be a cynical bunch. It takes a lot to get our attention. Well, this morning I was absolutely blown away by what I saw at the NFTE/Chase Teen Business Plan Competition. David Weinstein, CEC’s high energy entrepreneurial czar, helped to launch NFTE’s competition here in Chicago with funding from Motorola (thanks Jim O’Connor!). NFTE (National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship) is a national organization that runs entrepreneurship programs at schools in low-income communities. Christine Poorman and Lauren McLaughlin oversee the Chicago chapter and ran the competition. Over the course of a school year, students take a course in entrepreneurship while also preparing a business plan for a potential business.
I sat through 3 hours of presentations and watched in amazement as kids from some of the poorest communities in Chicago spoke about P/L statements, sales & marketing strategies (4 P’s for the MBA set), ROI, ROS, sources of start up capital and more. Over half the kids had actually launched small businesses and some were pulling in several thousand dollars a year. Over 60% of the presenters were girls, which I think is huge as this kind of involvement has a dramatic impact on life choices regarding teenage pregnancy, future studies and such. All of the kids were hoping to go onto 4-year colleges. All the plans also had a philanthropy component in them such as food to shelters, donations to causes and such.
As I have written in the past, we are in big trouble if we don’t get kids interested in engineering and, more importantly, entrepreneurship. Small businesses drive the majority of job creation in our economy and are the key driver of innovation for our society. This is where the next Cisco or Google comes from. We are also seeing a massive digital divide form between economic classes. Just as I hope we start rolling out engaging science programs in our schools, I believe we need to bake as many entrepreneurial experiences as possible into our youth’s schooling.
Other great programs involved in teaching this include Biz World and Junior Achievement.
We have bigger problems then kids not going to engineering… a competition like this only shows abut 5% of the picture. People that go to schools in well-off districts will obviously have a motivation and environment to succeed. Also, these kids get an elitist attitude that pushes them away from seeing the “normal bunch”. But what about the other 95%, which go to not as great schools, have a hard family life, are not economically stable, or do not have an environment of nurturing and learning?
These are the people that need to be reached to. This article only shows 5% of the commmunity as being successful…maybe even less… that’s pretty dismal.
Excellent point. I’m on the CA Advisory Board for BizWorld. Always trying to spread the entrepreneurship worldview (applicable to not just business) among young people!
That’s a great post!
Junior Achievement was one of the key things that has changed my life, and the lives of many of my friends.
So as to avoid any reference to religion, I’ve personally experienced that entrepreneurship education does more in helping people find life’s meaning than any other kind of mainstream schooling.
Having thought about your post for a while, I’m trying to do some critical analysis so as not to overly glorify entrepreneurship, and I can’t help to overlook a certain simile.
It seems, entrepreneurship is like fire in that depending on the person – one can both utilise this discipline to warm their communities, and commit arson on their own lives and those around them.
So, I have faith that in teaching entrepreneurship, its principles are made available to people who won’t abuse them; because all of the world’s WMDs pale in comparison to the power this kind of education has to offer.
Entrepreneurship is very powerful. It is applicable whether you are in a start-up or large corporation, a wealthy community or a poor one. We do have an issue with a digital divide forming here. This is why I am so impressed with programs like NFTE’s that are targetted primarily at underprivaleged kids. Give them a view into something positive and enabling. All kids won’t suddenly become Bill Gates’s but the program (as with BizWorld, JA and such) will leave its fingerprints on them.
I was doing a little research for the 2nd book of my kids fantasy book series and ran across your blog. It’s exciting what the NFTE is doing. I hope we can all help spread the word about how important entrepreneurship is for our kids’ education and for the future of our country. I do not share the views of “SS” and Manish (…that “it’s already too late” and that the other “95%” will be left behind). It’s not too late and business concepts are teachable to kids that span the socio-economic spectrum — thanks to programs like NFTE, BizWorld and Jr. Acheivement AND the power of the internet – where educators, business leaders & parents can meet online.