The Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education (EntreED) promoted Congress to designate the last week of February to answer that very question. Dr. Gene Coulson, the organization’s Executive Director, has some educational programs he is encouraging. He wants to make young people aware of entrepreneurship as a career alternative in grades K-12.

Sure, in kindergarten and the 1^st grade it might be just a definition of what entrepreneurship is, how to spell it, and how it’s distinguished from employment. Exposure progresses and by the time the students are in middle school and high school, they will be aware of entrepreneurship as an option for their future. The key is every student learning more about entrepreneurship every year.

Some of the groups he works with encourage high school students to get involved in a business plan and other types of entrepreneurship competitions. Others bring in real entrepreneurs for the young folks to see, hear, and question. They thus expose the students to successful entrepreneurs who overcame their risk adversity, solved a problem, and improved the community.

Gene feels strongly that it’s the entrepreneurial mindset that really distinguishes the true entrepreneur from the business school students learning form and function. And that mindset can be encouraged at an early age. He says young folks need to take inventory of challenges and problems within their own communities, see them as opportunities, and imagine ways to solve them. Encouraging young people to begin to notice these problems and ask, “Who else do these problems effect?” is the beginning of ideation.

One member of EntreEd is the Generation E Institute which is promoting the “Entrepreneurs Interview” during National Entrepreneurship Week. During the event, middle school and high school students have the opportunity to meet local entrepreneurs and business owners. Smaller groups of students ask them questions in an informal conversational setting, then explain what they have learned to others.

This approach incorporates social skills, writing, communication, and public speaking – all essential entrepreneurial skills in themselves. But the contacts these students make will also become opportunities for future job prospects, mentor relationships, and community goodwill. Check out more ideas for the Generation E Curricula for K through 12 in Teaching Success: New Directions in Entrepreneurial Education.

We love this whole concept! These young people grow up thinking of entrepreneurship as a valid alternative rather than something reserved for the elite or well born. We feel that the entrepreneurial mindset can be taught and with that education comes the courage to take risks and see ideas through to success. It can help young people look at problems as opportunities and can give them the communication, social, and other skills necessary to engage and empower others to make their ideas a reality.

Gene is promoting these K-12 programs in the rural parts of Appalachia. Instead of resistance to these ideas, he was met with enthusiastic support. With the demise of the coal mining culture, the community has welcomed these programs. “Entrepreneurship is the only hope for this region,” they say.

Big companies and industries come and go. And when they do go, like coal in Appalachia, those who have been dependent on them for employment will be looking for solutions. Perhaps those solutions are in our schools right now! Let’s take out an insurance policy on our future. Let’s celebrate National Entrepreneurship Week by supporting ideas like those encouraged by EntreEd to build some great entrepreneurs!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post National Entrepreneurship Week – Early Exposure Builds Confidence appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

The media capitalizes on our natural self- preservation instincts and the bad news can become down right addicting. But in the process something else is happening. We are getting conditioned to expecting bad news. And that conditioning can easily make us less likely to look for and celebrate what’s going on that is right.

We actually play a game with the news every day. It’s called “Find the good news!” We each take a section of the paper or news site over breakfast and hunt for the good news. First one to find it wins! We have to really dig because it’s usually hidden in the back somewhere. Yes, it’s quite challenging and some days we have to settle for a department store ad as the only “good” news.

But we often find 2 or 3 great uplifting pieces of information. It’s not only better for digestion but it gives us some hope and a positive attitude to start our day. If the bad news will really affect our personal security, you can bet we will hear about it from our friends, family, neighbors or colleagues. So we don’t worry about missing something important to our survival.

Today was especially challenging, but Bonnie won the ”Good News” game with an article she found on the back pages where a team at the University of California in Irvine may have discovered a way to eliminate malaria. Malaria! The mosquito born disease responsible for half the deaths in the history of man! Last month Michael won with “Flowing Water Discovered on Mars!” Also in the back pages.

We also face daily personal and professional frustrations that can affect our outlook. To keep ourselves pumped up, we keep a log of all the milestones we have achieved toward each goal. When we get a little depressed, we go back and read the litany of our progress. Never mind if there was no progress one week. Taking the larger view of history, we regain our positive perspective that we are in fact making progress.

We use these and other techniques to prevent us from getting into the victim mindset where we view ourselves as helpless and powerless to make a difference or a change.

We are convinced from our own personal experience, that when you acknowledge what you want when you see or hear it, you get more of it! Why? Because you are conditioning yourself to expect solutions and you are looking for them. That expectation can keep you going through the difficulties and challenges. You keep a sharp eye out for solutions.

You are less likely to overlook a solution just because it wasn’t a shining diamond presented in a velvet box. In fact it’s often a mud-covered rock that conceals an uncut diamond that requires you to work with it. Maybe you catch a glimpse of a tiny spark of light out of the muddy rock. But you are tuned in. You see it because you are looking for it.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody! More of what you are grateful for is coming your way!

Probably the greatest way to condition yourself to expect solutions and to tune in to opportunities is to acknowledge what you already have and give thanks. You can’t give thanks without recognition, appreciation, and a wish for whatever good news you find to endure.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Here’s to getting more of what we are thankful for!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Gratitude Gets You More of What You are Thankful For appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.