Throughout this course I have unconsciously developed a pattern in my thinking about the need to give back to our individual communities. In difficult times giving back isn’t at the top of the priority list for very many people. However, it is more important to give back to our community in hard times than at any other time possible. During one assignment we were to choose 3 icons and explain why we chose them. I chose Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey and Steve Jobs. I chose those individuals due to the extraordinary amount of philanthropy work they do throughout the world. In another assignment we were to discuss rituals. One that thing that I chose to highlight as a ritual I would like see was developing a sense of giving back to the community. The myth of the American dream was another topic I chose to discuss in yet another module and to combine all of those into this assignment only seems natural.
Our society is currently very involved in a certain advertising method that some savvy retailers came up with as a way to track consumer spending habits. That innovative method is the rewards program, points card, or customer loyalty program. Whichever name you choose, they are all the same thing. For the remainder of this discussion, I will refer to it as a rewards program. According to Kim (2001), a rewards program is a promotional tool to develop customer loyalty, offer incentives to consumers on the basis of cumulative purchases of a given product or service from a particular firm or group of strategically aligned firms. The concept is simple and many companies obviously like the results. Evidence of this can be seen in practically everyone’s wallet or on their keychain.
The concept for the rewards program that I propose as my cultural artifact is the A.U.T.A. Giveback program card. This proposed program would be for the purpose of the giving back the rewards in the form of a monetary contribution to the participating communities chamber of commerce or port authority. The contribution derived from the program would be for the sole purpose of promoting a youth entrepreneurship and community awareness program. The aim of this program would be to promote to the individual young people of the participating communities the need to be entrepreneurial, as well as, the importance of giving back to their community. The acronym that I chose, A.U.T.A., stands for Always Understand The Alternative. The alternative in this case is the realization that the entrepreneurial spirit is vital to every child’s success in the future and without that understanding they are less likely to be fulfilled by their livelihood and the world will suffer as a whole.
The concept of a youth entrepreneur program isn’t anything new. The problems with most of those programs that are out there are that they are operated only in large communities while leaving many small, rural communities out of the loop. The young people of rural communities are most often left with the prospect of struggling to go to college and the possibility of never returning to their hometown. This is in part due to the fact that the education they go to college for, more often than not, doesn’t offer them a career in their hometown community. Their post-education lives are then going to the benefit of a community other than the one they grew up in. Most of the kids in my hometown can’t wait to get “outta here” after they graduate. They see the lack of opportunity as a motivator to go to college and never return except to visit family. Actually, there are probably more young people from smaller, rural communities that either choose not to go to college or simply can’t afford it in the first place.
I currently work for myself as a Small Business Finance Consultant and I see more people that are entrepreneurs that don’t have a college education than those that do have one. My observation is that many young people have a desire to work in their hometown but aren’t lucky enough to be able to work in a family business or have the role model necessary to teach them those skills. They should be afforded some type of education that teaches them about how to develop and run their own business. Currently, the only option available to students in rural communities is that they might choose to attend a Vocational School that has a business program. Unfortunately, the students that go to a Vocational School are often stereotyped as the ones that couldn’t make it at the traditional high school, and, consequently, most students don’t choose that path. Here again is an example of a stereotype that is detrimental to the educational advancement of a certain group of students.
The primary icon of this program is the rewards card itself. The proposed rewards card program features either a standard Visa-type card or, alternatively, a simple rewards card as is shown in figure 1 below. The option of a straight rewards card without the credit option would be available for those who do not wish to actually apply for a new credit card. Either card would garner the same benefits for the program. The participating retailers in the community would be donating a portion of their proceeds not to exceed 3% of the sale amount to the program. These funds would essentially be a discount for the consumer that is directly deposited in the program’s account for use in the youth entrepreneurship program. This very simple concept has the potential to provide a very valuable service to the communities in which it is implemented.
Fig. 1
I think that the creation of this program is a shot in the arm to helping the children in small, rural communities learn about the American dream and perpetuate the myth to yet another generation. Although the myth of the American dream can give false hope to some, others latch onto the inspiration and truly make the most of the opportunities that are offered to them. Entrepreneurship is at the center of the American dream because the primary goal of so many Americans is working for themselves and doing what they enjoy in order to provide for their family. It could be said that the American dream is more of an attitude rather than a set of ideals. American history is full of stories from people all over the world coming to America to live their lives to the fullest and seize the opportunities that this country offers.
Many rural communities contain populations of children that are somewhat disadvantaged in the fact that they aren’t encouraged to excel beyond their ability and eventually become willing accept their fate of working at a menial job for minimum wage. Sexton and Bowman-Upton (1991) define entrepreneurship as the process of identifying opportunities, gathering resources, and exploiting these opportunities through action. For the purpose of this discussion youth entrepreneurship is defined as adolescents using this process by working in non- structured (for example, babysitting, yard work) and semi- structured (such as, paper courier, contract worker) work environments.
Acquiring the skills, being proactive, and exploiting opportunities is a difficult thing to instill in a generation of children who would rather play video games than learn new life skills. I want people to look at this program and realize that technology has made the children of today too lazy and unmotivated to do anything but get to the next level in their favorite video game. Instead of buying them video games and further their expectations of entitlement, parents should go back to instilling the values that made this country what it is. I firmly believe there are a lot of children out there that could be far more productive than they currently exhibit.
There are stories of many entrepreneurs that spent their childhood being encouraged to excel and think outside the box. It is in those stories that reside the heroes that the children of today should be excited about. One of those heroes could be Bill Gates who is one of the most famous child entrepreneurs in the world. There are many more examples that I could mention but that is exactly my point; childhood success stories are still possible and very plentiful in our history. Hero is a relative term and, to an impressionable child, a hero that is an entrepreneur is valuable to every one of us.
I envision this program highlighting those stories in depth during regular educational sessions, summer camps, and ongoing meet-ups at the chamber of commerce or community center. I have included below, in fig. 2, a possible schedule of an event for the introduction of the program and signing up participants that is based on that of the Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour (2009).
Event Introduction
A.U.T.A Program Staff Member Intro to event, what is entrepreneurship, intro of the speakers, and corporate partners (5:00 – 5:15pm)
Inspirational Keynote 1
Successful Young Entrepreneur ‘How they did it’ story with lessons learned (video or in-person guest)(5:15 – 5:45pm)
Workshop
Workshop, Facilitator, and Entrepreneur Dream / idea creation with action plan and accountability.(5:45 – 6:45pm)
Networking Break / Exhibits
(6:45 – 7:00pm)
Inspirational Keynote 2
Successful Young Entrepreneur ‘How they did it’ story with lessons learned (video or in-person guest)(7:00 – 7:30pm)
Speed Networking
Attendees share their ideas with each other and partner up
(7:30 – 7:45pm)
Networking Break / Exhibits
(7:45 – 8:00pm)
Extreme Entrepreneurship Panel
Moderator, Student & Alumni, and Entrepreneurs Panelists choose 1-2 questions to answer and open up for questions
(8:00 – 9:00pm)
Fig. 2
Empowering and inspiring today’s youth to become the leaders and innovators of tomorrow is no small task. Employing all available public relations outlets will be vital to get the word out about this program. The media plays a great role in garnering the attention of the public for essentially no cost. This will initially be the primary mode of disseminating the information about the program. It will be vital to have a grass roots effort in coordinating the participation of the local businesses that will provide the outlet for funding this initiative past its inception. After the program has the support of the local businesses, funding for the educational programs and resources will make the program self-sufficient. I also believe there is funding available through federal and state grants that will prove very beneficial in getting this program launched successfully.
The future of America can be bright if we can teach tomorrow’s leaders and innovators how to exploit the opportunities available in the marketplace. As it has been for many decades, small business is vital to providing new wealth to our economic system of capitalism. In the story of this program, history repeating itself is essential to teaching the lessons of this country’s best and brightest. America can continue to lead world through innovation but we can only do that by tapping every young person’s vitality and by instilling the inspirational messages of self-made success. I hope this program can spread to every small town and community throughout America and be an example of excellence. Our economy and our future well being very much depends on it.
According to an article in Home Business Magazine (2009), a vast majority of the new jobs in America are derived from small business. Below are some interesting facts about small business and job creation that were contained in that article.
• Small businesses created 65% or more of America’s net new jobs in the last year.
• The United States saw an estimated 580,865 new small firms with employees start up in the last year.
• Small businesses are 97% of America’s exporters and produce 26% of all export value.
• Small businesses employ 50.1% of the United States’ non-farm private sector workers.
• Small businesses make up 99.7% of all United States employers.
Those insightful facts outline the huge responsibility of small business in America. We must
nurture and develop tomorrow’s business leaders from today’s young people. We have, not only the ability, but also, the responsibility to instill the values that make America the destination of people around the world who want the freedom to make their own future and realize their dreams. The American dream can live on but we must feed the dream through leadership and foresight. As was so correctly stated in the iconic song created by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie titled “We Are the World”, we must never forget that the children are our future!
References
Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour. (2009) Event Format. Retrieved August 7, 2009, from http://www.extremetour.org/about/event-format.php
Jackson, M., & Richie, L., (1985) We Are the World [Record] United States: Columbia.
Kim, B., Shi, M., & Srinivasan, K. (2001, Spring2001). Reward Programs and Tacit Collusion. Marketing Science, 20(2), 99. Retrieved August 7, 2009, from Business Source Complete database.
Sexton, D. L., & Bowman-Upton, N. B. (1991). Entrepreneurship: Creativity and growth. New York: Macmillan.
Small Businesses Drive the U.S. Economy. (2009, January). Home Business Magazine: The Home-Based Entrepreneur’s Magazine, Retrieved August 8, 2009, from Business Source Complete database.
