Monkey Business

The Babson College definition of entrepreneurship is: "A way of thinking and acting that is opportunity obsessed, holistic in approach, and leadership balanced."

In honor of the Urban Entrepreneurship Summit being held at Rutgers Business School in Newark today, I wanted to present my thoughts on what the younger generation needs to know about entrepreneurship.

The quotation above from Babson, the top entrepreneurship college in the country, gives a springboard to my essential thought: Every individual should learn how to start, finance, and manage a small business. This will give millions of people the skills necessary to make a livelihood, in case they have to leave a job or are unable to find one. It will also enable them to take advantage of a market insight and turn it into a business opportunity. Also, they will become better employees through understanding how business functions.

After 30 years of teaching entrepreneurship as a way to encourage at-risk students to learn how to be economically independent and to stay in school, I am confident that this experiential approach works will help struggling youth to stay in school and learn basic skills.

One of the major causes of poverty is business failure, often due to a lack of expertise. Learning the basics of entrepreneurship and business ownership will, I believe, significantly lower the rates of global poverty. I have met thousands of young people who have the drive to make their families proud, build good communities, go to college and exit poverty via entrepreneurship. Learning how to start a business should be part of every school's curriculum. Below I have listed the 24 concepts every young person should learn before graduating high school.