How Entrepreneurial Is Generation Y?

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In today's economy of youth unemployment and reported low work-readiness skills by employers, teaching entrepreneurship knowledge and skills would seem to be a worthy goal that parents and business owners might appreciate. Public school systems are focused on the 3 R's with little time for this specific area. Our youth may miss several years of work experience by the time unemployment rates are down and, new opportunities develop regardless of state of the economy. Would parents be willing to pay for this special training/education for youth ages 12 to 21? Are educators open to new curriculum to fill the gap? Are businesses concerned?

Tinker of CO 11:25PM April 01, 2010

Can someone provide a link to the actual Gallup poll that Malone says he used for his WSJ piece? It looks to me like he took the numbers from a secondary source (a book on entrepreneurship) and could not find a link to the actual Gallup poll. I can't find this poll anywhere, and the book excerpt posted by Mr. Malone only makes matters worse--unfortunately it omits the citation for the statistics used by Mr. Malone.
And Mr. Malone, a true journalist would not openly insult a professional colleague, as you did in this case. For that matter, a true journalist wouldn't obfuscate a sourcing issue by pointing fingers at the WSJ or McGraw-Hill fact-checkers. Looks like armchair journalism is producing some loud-mouthed folks nowadays.

Joseph of NC 12:41AM June 20, 2008

We used CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll data in one of our research reports on Gen Y and young adults and their interest in starting small businesses. The data was for 18-29 year olds and it showed that 72% of the respondents in that age group wanted to start their own business. The survey is at: http://www.gallup.com/poll/15832/Majority-Americans-Want-Start-Own-Business.aspx.
While I agree that we don't yet know how entrepreneurial Gen Y will be, a lot of trends point to Gen Y being a very entrepreneurial generation.

Steve @ www.smallbizlabs.com of CA 5:05PM June 06, 2008

Starting a business is a lot of work. Sure, they say they want to start a business, but if they are lazier than the previous generation - the last think they will do is start a business. Then again if the economy continues into a long recession and their are no new jobs, starting a business could be the only option.
The Gen Yers that I talk too are just an excited about getting into the marketplace and any other generation. Gen Yers don't want to start a business, they just don't want to spend their life in a cubicle. Instead of start a business, the Gen Yers are likely to change the corporate culture. The trend has already started, with more free time, more working from home, coming and going on their own schedule as long the work gets done.
Curt @ www.PennyJobs.com

Curt of MN 2:31PM June 06, 2008

Matt:
Next time, before you imply that I simply made up numbers I used in a Wall Street Journal piece, why don't you simply contact me directly via the Journal or ABCNews? I would have been happy to oblige, and it would have been professional courtesy. Here's a quick view of the source I used, which I also gave to the Journal to vett before running the piece:
http://books.google.com/books?id=7Ine-JasRhMC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=70+percent+of+high+school+start+their+own+companies&source=web&ots=wHkgkBjJS2&sig=ArzP4fTurMCcTYHJVLVRgW8C8Tc&hl=en
Now if you think that in turn is made up, perhaps you should take it up with the author or McGraw-Hill.
As to whether I'm overstating the case, time will tell . . .
Mike Malone

Michael S. Malone of CA 10:19PM June 05, 2008