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Nurturing an Entrepreneurial Generation
January 18th, 2010 by Mike Knutson
We know that Gen Y is an entrepreneurial generation. But what can we do to take advantage of this opportunity in our rural communities?
While thinking about the above, I felt inspired to compile a list of 5 Thoughts about Entrepreneurship, as it applies to young people. While not particularly profound, I think the value of the list is that it speaks to the importance of events like Launch ’10 that connect entrepreneurship, education, and community involvement:
- Entrepreneurs are made, not born. While some people may be genetically inclined to be risk takers, entrepreneurship is the culmination of life experiences.
- Educators have a responsibility to teach young people to be entrepreneurial. By this, I don’t mean that educators should try relating their entire curriculum to starting a business. Rather, I think it suggests educators need to inspire young people to ask questions and be inventive. Ideally that starts in the elementary grades, but it’s never too late.
- Communities and educators need to inspire young people to become entrepreneurs, and take risks by starting their own businesses. Inspiration can come from a lot of sources, but I’m always reminded of how I was inspired by the stories of high school students when I was in grade school. Whether it was athletics or music, I wanted to be like them. Are you sharing those stories?
- Communities play important roles in developing and supporting entrepreneurs. Often, rural economic development professionals think supporting entrepreneurs revolves around helping them find the financial resources to start their business. That’s late stage thinking. If communities want to increase the deal flow of new business development, they need start working in the entrepreneurship chain much earlier.
- It’s never too late to become an entrepreneur. Enough said.
Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, SD created the Launch Conference five years ago with the goals of accomplishing much of what I’ve described in the list above. This year, their one-day conference features keynote addresses from Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour (EET) co-founder Sheena Lindahl and EET facilitator Arel Moodie (two highly accomplished young entrepreneurs); and Dr. Kay Palan, the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs at Iowa State University.
One of the things I like about the conference is that it brings together entrepreneurs, faculty, and community development professionals. It fits well with the Rural Learning Center’s guiding principle that “It’s all connected.”
I have the date of this year’s conference (Feb 25th) marked on my calendar. If you’d like to learn more or register for the conference, I’d encourage you to check out the conference website by clicking here or by clicking on the advertisement in the right sidebar.
Tags: Dakota Wesleyan University, entrepreneurship, Gen Y, Launch'10, Mitchell SD
Posted in Economic Development, Rural | Comments (
3 )
January 18th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
I have a favorite quote from a man named Sir Ken Robinson, PhD. He is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources. He said, “Creativity is as important in education as literacy,” and I think that is completely true.
I believe that if you want to be an entrepreneur, you have to be a very creative person. So, if we want to be teaching entrepreneurship to our children, they must be able to realize that 2+2 indeed equals 4, but so does -5 + 12 – 3. We must teach our children that everyone can be, and is, creative, and it is not some special gift given to the very few. They must also know that there is more than one way to go about finding an answer, and memorization is not the key to learning.
But it is most important that they are taught how to write and speak both coherently and grammatically correct. If you cannot present yourself and your ideas in a professional manner, you will never be taken seriously as, and by, a business person you are trying to get funding from. Creativity is just another necessary facet in a well rounded education.
January 19th, 2010 at 6:42 am
Morgan,
Great point! Creativity AND literacy must be valued in education. My complaint is that creativity and entrepreneurship are often overlooked in the educational agenda of our politicians. In a rural state like South Dakota, we need to develop entrepreneurs that recognize opportunities that exist in our communities. And the process needs to start in elementary school. Am I off-base with that statement?
January 19th, 2010 at 1:57 pm
I don’t think so. Many studies show that children learn many things, like language, better at a younger age. I think if more schools included more hometown appreciation, like a field trip around town to things a 8 year old would find to be need, an appreciation for creating something new, and self-confidence around succeeding and a drive to improve oneself, I think it might help build an entrepreneurial spirit. But, I think teachers need to be shown the benefits before they will listen to outsider opinions. Here is a story that ran in our newspaper about teachers embracing technology, and how “tech-savy” teachers got non-tech-savy teachers to embrace bringing electronics into the classroom: http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2010/01/17/news/100revolution.txt