Young people with the potential to become business leaders are too often unable to get past the disadvantages of poverty and a lack of access to knowledge and support.
Look in any low-income area, whether it’s a favela or a rural village or a run-down section of an American city, and you’ll find young people with the characteristics needed for entrepreneurship: curiosity, confidence, and a propensity to break rules. The latter trait is an important part of the mix. In a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, young people who engaged in “more aggressive, illicit, risk-taking activities” tended to score higher on learning-aptitude tests, had greater self-esteem than their peers, and were more likely to undertake entrepreneurship ventures as adults.
It makes sense that rule-breakers are well-positioned to start businesses. Entrepreneurs are more comfortable setting their own rules than staying within limits set by others, and they often have little respect for authority — educational, cultural, or even legal.
Often they do not have the skills or awareness of what is around them even if they grow up in a big place like New York City. Everything is available but if you do not know how to organize it, the cards are stacked against the new entrepreneur. BMCC’s Small Business & Entrepreneurship Degree Program gives you insights into how to think, act and organize like a company founder.
Great piece; and so true. I was one of those kids, having grown up in a housing project in the hardscrabble East New York section of Brooklyn. I am passionate about entrepreneurship, and think that it should be taught in all public schools, beginning in middle school.
Hi Joesph, Yes, and the good news is the movement to teach e’ship is expanding. What do you think is the best way to connect to those students early in schools?