I don’t often watch TV and in the course of under a month I was exposed to Entrepreneurial plot lines targeted to the 20 year and under age group over three times! I LOVE IT!
- I was watching programming for toddlers, Nick Jr.’s “Backyardigans.” In it, an “easygoing anthropomorphic moose” (told you it was terrific) named Tyrone pretends to be a Sultan who needs his stuff transported to his new palace. So what’s a moose-Sultan to do? Hire the “Movers of Arabia” of course! The Moving company is the brain-child of Tyrone’s fellow characters—and entrepreneurs. They were so excited to have their first customer and to find ways to serve them well! I remember it like it was yesterday!
- There are of course the Suzie’s Lemonade Stand videos which inspire a young girls simple idea, enabled by technology to thrive into a scalable business, employing an ever-increasing number of enthusiastic, creative thinkers.
- And then we go on up to high school, where we see teens on “Malcolm in the Middle” launching a summer business.
The fact that we’re seeing this storyline everywhere in our media, from cartoons to prime time television to commercials, is refreshing.
Common themes entrepreneurs struggle with:
- What do we charge?
- Where will be find customers?
- Passion at finding customers
- Challenges serving them
- Underestimating effort called for; flexibility with execution plans
- Leverage technology and find ways to think smarter
- Know who can count on in the business to pull their weight
Seeing these shows gave me renewed hope. Particularly when I considered something Daymond John said when he spoke at Kennesaw State this spring. Basically he said our educational systems by nature strips the entrepreneurial spirit out of children at an early age, and that we need to build these lessons back in to encourage more independence, personal discipline, respect, creativity, problem-solving and risk-taking. I couldn’t agree more.
So while our educational systems catch up, it’s really encouraging to see programs like these that are bringing the message of entrepreneurship to ever younger audiences. Keep it coming!
