I was asked to be a judge in the HSBC Young Enterprise Innovation Awards (West London finals) in March and can truely say it was the best thing I had said yes to in a long time. Young Enterprise is an initiative that has been running for 40 years inspiring children to get interested in business. The main things that struck me about Young Enterprise is that children who take part are more likely to earn more money, more likely to start up their own businesses and more likely to volunteer, just by taking part.
Children from all backgrounds, all types of schools join in and I was amazed at their effort and energy that they put into their projects; it bought a tear to my eye that they were so motivated and excited and got so much out of it. More schools should take part. I witnessed better business plans and better execution than many trading businesses that I know - amazing!
Juggling the business with other responsibilities, navigating holding meetings, chasing up suppliers and realising that they need to make things happen - these are all things that we take for granted, that we know how to handle as adults and that we have learnt along the way. Just think if you had had that experience and insight to the working world whilst you were still at school. One very excitable young Managing Director said to me 'so is this what you do EVERY day' when you run a business.... yes, I said to him, and I thought to myself that maybe I should get a bit more excited about the day to day business of being in business again.
For more info:
No comments:
Post a Comment