Pitched battles against the consequences of entrepreneurial activity are currently raging on three fronts.


Due to the upsurge of underage vaping, the federal government, several states and cities are moving aggressively against Juul and other companies in the e-cigarette industry, and the company has removed its CEO. (A recent spate of deaths associated with vaping has greatly raised the stakes.) Due to the opioid addiction crisis, Purdue Pharma and its founding family the Sacklers face massive lawsuits and possible criminal prosecution, and the company has declared bankruptcy. Meanwhile, on both sides of the Atlantic, government agencies as well as scholars, politicians and even some former tech executives are going after Facebook and Google for allegedly misusing private data, undermining democracy, spreading extremism and engaging in monopolistic practices. Some politicians are calling for their breakup.

And those are just the front-page stories. Many others are local, like the scourge of motorized scooters being strewn across sidewalks, causing a surge in serious injuries among riders and leading cities like Indianapolis, Denver, San Francisco and Nashville to ban them. 

 
Today In: Leadership
Entrepreneurs creating dire consequences—often unintended—with their innovations is a phenomenon as old as civilization itself. Today those consequences multiply at warp speed, which is all the more reason to regulate (and in some cases punish) entrepreneurs and companies whose innovations result in intolerable situations. But we should balance that negative approach with a more positive approach designed not just to discourage bad behavior but to encourage good behavior that takes into account the well-being of everyone. 

It won’t be easy. Entrepreneurs are notoriously hard to manage, for reasons that amount almost to forces of nature. First, successful entrepreneurs are driven by their deepest personal needs, desires and motivations. Such self-direction is an essential element of all successful entrepreneurial activity and innovation.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereklidow/2019/10/07/four-ways-to-focus-entrepreneurs-on-the-common-good/?fbclid=IwAR2jlD8354Sw2-IV6ema_y3Y7mOmsJfo5NkCK1e6fOZAyyP3-LSf4WpGyLs#7a3d1ea2631d

For a few hundred years in the United States, the quality of life has improved from one generation to the next.  Not until recently did we begin to see data showing subsequent generations forecast as being "worse off" than their progenitors.

Perhaps, an indicator (or at least a symptom) of this prognostication is that many of my fellow baby boomers have adult children or grandchildren living at home with them.  Among these younger ones are digital natives with much more sophisticated lifestyles than I led in my youth, yet even with this technological sophistication, they seem to be staying children longer.

No matter how much "worse off" the next generation ultimately proves to be, no one can argue that they have it as bad as 10 year old children just after the Civil War.  At that time, children that age and younger worked in shops, factories and other business concerns.  But if they lived through that first work experience, as adults they were likely to be better off than their parents, having developed a work ethic and employability skills.

So, maybe the solution is putting kids back to work at age 10.  I am trying to imagine my 10-year-old, 5th-grade daughter looking through the "Want Ads," for a job that suits her.  Will she even comprehend some of the words that make up many Job Titles?  Maybe not, but that's what a dictionary (or Google) is for, right?  As she reads on she will learn the types of skills and experience needed for each job.  Most jobs will also list a minimum educational requirement or specific certifications.

Then there's the resume', the application, the interview.  Hmm.  Maybe it's too much to expect from a 5th grader.  Or is it?  At JA BizTown, each academic year, over 5,000 local 5th-grade students take on jobs for the day that they previously found in the JA BizTown "Want Ads."  They completed applications and if they had sufficient class time and a really industrious teacher, they may have even gone through job interviews to land their JA BizTown Dream Job.

And this year, my daughter's class will be among the first to experience the new Delaware Pathways Career Exploration Center and the DNREC Career Cafe' in JA BizTown.  Both of these new experiences are designed to connect students to Delaware Pathways careers and to the Pathways offered in their school districts.

So, rather than imagine 5th grade CEOs, CFOs, Insurance Agents, Communication Specialists, Loan Managers, and Production Supervisors, you can come see for yourself as a JA BizTown volunteer why 10 is the perfect age to take on a life-changing career. 

https://www.juniorachievement.org/web/ja-delaware/ja-in-the-news

Junior Achievement offers programming from K-12 exploring concepts of financial literacy, work readiness, and entrepreneurship. The younger a child experiences concepts of entrepreneurship, the more likely he or she will be inclined to try to start a business later in life. In particular, JA Be Entrepreneurial® introduces high school students to the elements of a practical business plan and then challenges them to start an entrepreneurial venture while they are still in school.

Think of the entrepreneurial mindset like “Thunder and Lightning.” The internal drive is the thunder, but personal experiences equate to the lightning of the implementation of a business idea. Together they assist to create the perfect business storm. Without the personal characteristics to launch a person into experiences that they will learn from, they will cease to develop into an entrepreneur. Timothy Faley of the entrepreneurial institute at Michigan’s Ross School of Business explains it perfectly when he says, “A good idea is not enough. You need to know how to transform a good idea into a good business.” Education and experiences harness the drive one possesses to turn their business idea into reality. One is not born with business knowledge, including making a business plan, seeking investors, or strategizing the placement of a product or service. All of these elements are learned through experience. The way one generates an idea and is pushed to make it into a real-life concept comes from something that one internally holds true. Characteristics After thorough research, five general characteristics are shared among successful entrepreneurs. 1.Risk-taking 2.Innovation / Forward Thinking / Persistence 3.Open-minded / Optimistic / Confidence 4.Leadership / Hands-on 5.Passionate / Positive It’s the combination of personality traits and personal experiences that influences whether or not someone feels prepared to undertake an endeavor like starting a business. Entrepreneurs hold personality traits that assist in the success of their business. Through experiences, an entrepreneur grows and develops to (comfortably) take risks, utilize innovative thinking, and employ sound leadership skills. The intrinsic variables assist in the development of experience becoming a perfect storm, such as launching a successful business.