FC NOW: The Fast Company Weblog
August 28, 2006
Business Minded Teens
According to a recent poll released from JA Worldwide (Junior Achievement), more than 70 percent of teens are interested in starting their own businesses.
The most popular type of business, selected by 32.4 percent of respondents, was “professional services,” such as a lawyer, insurance agent, or accountant. More than nine-of-ten (95.1 percent) teens who took the fifth annual JA Worldwide “Interprise™ Poll on Entrepreneurship” believe that a college education will help them successfully start and grow a business. The poll was administered online in early 2006, and more than 1,400 teens aged 13-19 voluntarily participated.
With all of the successful college dropout executives out there, such as Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Microsoft Chairman and Co-Founder Bill Gates, it's interesting that today's youth find college an important step to entrepreneurship. It's even more interesting that in the age of Web 2.0, where teens are being counted as the majority in using these services, that Web and technology entrepreneurship are not being highlighted in this poll.
Posted by Lynne d Johnson at August 28, 2006 1:11 PM | Category: culture |
4 Comments
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from my exper, JA is an EXCELLENT way to jump start capitalism. Not surprised at results. So glad so many do NOT want to be rock stars, thank God.
I teach public school and from my in class experience am extremely concerned about class of 2020 and beyond, altho I expect that to be your problem, not mine.
This is the 'gimmie'generation driven mostly by drugs, highs and whatever mommie hasn't given them.
There is NO motivation by the time they reach Junior High. By Senior High, most teachers can see the numbers under their chins.
For you JA entrepreneurs, the new e-commerce world has many upsides like having a distribution center without a brick and mortar store front and responding to customers quickly via email, forums or blogs. But with convenience and technology come hinderances to young entrepreneurs also rampant on the web are phishing schemes, IP theft and the business practice of forwarding on competitor tear-sheets; all hindrances to new businesses.
Interesting... For you Australians out there, this program is called Young Achievement Australia (YAA) http://www.yaa.org.au/
I've completed that program and I found that it helps you learn the basics of setting up a small business by actually having you create a product/service which you would then sell in a flea market towards the end of the course.
I'm concerned about the sample size. With less than 1500 people sampled, I'm likely to consider this report to be very localized.
Not very well versed in JA myself, I could be off on their polling practices. Either way, it's an interesting tidbit.