Page 158 - 1-Entrepreneurship and Local Economic Development by Norman Walzer (z-lib.org)

The Difference Makers: Entrepreneurial Young People 147

CHARACTERISTICS OF YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS

As a starting point, it is important to understand that there is not a single
definition of young entrepreneurs. Each young person has strengths, weak-
nesses, talents, relationships, environment, and experiences that shape who
they are and will become. Certain traits or characteristics can help identify
an entrepreneurial young person, however. These traits are important be-
cause entrepreneurial youth often do not automatically come to mind
when thinking about young people in a community. Often, the student
body president, the star football or volleyball player, or the honor roll stu-
dents immediately come to mind. Some of these young people may also be
entrepreneurial, so they should not be excluded, but another, not so visible,
group of youth should also be identified. Characteristics of these young
people and potential ways to engage them should be recognized.
Entrepreneurial young people may not be obvious because they may not
be high academic achievers or may spend their free time in dad’s shop in-
venting or in mom’s craft room creating, so they are invisible. They may
work in a local business after school because they enjoy it, or they may be
busy operating their own small business.
One story that illustrates this comes from a participant in a recent youth
entrepreneurship workshop. One gentleman had a neighbor whose son op-
erated a Web design consulting business from his bedroom while in high
school. What makes this story interesting is that he was making a higher an-
nual income than his parents by working part-time after school and on
weekends. Such budding entrepreneurs may exist in many communities
and go undetected.
Sometimes entrepreneurial youth appear to be introverted. This may be
because they know they are wired differently than their peers, and at this
age, “fitting in” is important to them. In the adult population, only one in
ten Americans is truly entrepreneurial (Minniti and Bygrave 2004). The per-
centage may be somewhat higher among young people due to a growing in-
terest in entrepreneurship, but they are still likely a minority among their
classmates.
While other students may focus on sports or other extracurricular activi-
ties, entrepreneurial youth think about inventing and marketing their ideas.
Young entrepreneurs enjoy the creative process so much that it may explain
why they are sometimes not high academic achievers. A commonly heard
phrase is that “A and B students work for C and D students.” Perhaps a more
positive statement would be, “Smart people work for creative visionaries.”
Sometimes youth entrepreneurs do poorly in subjects such as math, En-
glish, or history but excels in art, vocational, music, or computer science
courses where they can apply their creative skills more directly. Again, not
all entrepreneurial youth have the same traits, but this information can be