There’s a new message being offered to ghetto kids in America. Becoming a basketball star isn’t the way up and out of poverty, owning and running your own business is.
Could entrepreneurship be the real hoop dream for the internet age and for a red hot economy? Kids from tough neighborhoods may be just right for the rough and tumble world of competition and the bottom line.
If they’ve got chutzpah; if they’re not afraid to take risks, if they’re desperate to improve their lives, they’re like a lot of great entrepreneurs already.
Steve Mariotti has been teaching inner city kids business skills for two decades and he says it’s not about business knowledge; it’s about motivation. Show him a kid with low test scores who’s in trouble and Steve Mariotti says he will show you the next Bill Gates.
The new entrepreneurs in this hour of The Connection.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Steve Mariotti and Richard Futtrell, a graduate of Mariotti’s NFTE program and CEO/President of Futtrell Promotions.