More on Youth and Entrepreneurship!

Thanks, Brandon!

Just got back from the Babson Entrepreneurship Research Conference
( http://tinyurl.com/4hnvyw ) & lots of talk about these issues.
The article is a bit dated (and like everyone else, they kinda miss the real point of the "Heffalump" metaphor - doesn't anyone read Winnie the Pooh any more? LOL) but that's no big deal.

Paul Reynolds (in the article) is amazing - he's now semi-retired but without him, neither GEM nor PSED would have worked. Anyway, Shane, this has some relevance to your question about metrics.

We do know more about entrepreneurship than most people (and most policy makers) realize. In fact, there's tons of data now - hard to use & sometime hard to access, but there's progress. (Where there's data, policy wonks will follow... LOL) The graph I attached to the email is a powerful one for me. [or: http://pronetos.com/disciplines/75/articles/160 ]

You want to answer "Why entrepreneurship?"... that's it. Zoltan Acs did some serious data-crunching to show that pattern is robust across time & industry sectors.

There is some research underway to look at barriers to entrepreneurship that I can tell you more about, if you like. (And if not... I'll shut up. Even though it's interesting! LOL)

Cheap plug for Pronetos here!! - I had stashed a number of documents on youth entrepreneurship and on other rural/local entrepreneurship ideas. You can go to http://pronetos.com & look for "Rural/Local Entrepreneurship" or http://pronetos.com/disciplines/75

The items specifically covering youth entrepreneurship include:
http://pronetos.com/disciplines/75/articles/164
http://pronetos.com/disciplines/75/articles/139 (others include articles 103, 104, 105, 106, 133 & 137 , but...

If you click one link, click on www.unleashingideas.org ....

In November, the inaugural Global Entrepreneurship Week debuts - it's a youth-oriented extravaganza (www.unleashingideas.org) that could be pretty special. I have an "in" with the State Director for Global Entrep Week, so we could have some fun!

We *already* have a VERY interesting offer for an eventwith national implications during that week... more, if you're interested.

[Also, this overlaps with National Farm-City Week, which is reportedly getting resurrected in Idaho -- an opportunity for urban & rural folks to celebrate their interdependencies. Entrepreneurship is clearly a great commonality for rural & urban alike, eh?]

Cheers!
Norris
p.s. and did I mention www.unleashingideas.org ??