A peer of the realm lamented recently that girls just want to have fans. Far from aspiring to be tycoons, today’s school pupils, it was claimed, would rather be pop princesses.
Before you throw down your microphone in disgust, let me sound a note of caution. You see, the rise of the celebrity idol, is too often greeted with sighs of despair. Beneath these stellar ambitions, I detect a more noble aim. The desire to make their mark on the world, to achieve real recognition and to make a difference. That is what the young people I have been meeting recently are after, and so maybe we ought to be encouraging their dreams of fame and fortune.
I return from Los Angeles inspired. Among the new entrants to this year’s British American Project is Tim Ferris, whose Four Hour Work Week I may have shared with your assistant before. Add to Tim the timeless charms of Austin Powers star Michael York and a cast including BBC political correspondent Ben Wright, and you have a recipe for a terrific few days. Jane Buckingham, author of The Modern Girl’s Guide to Life and founder of one of the world’s leading trend forecasting firms, shared with this month’s conference the hottest Generation Y sites and phrases. These included HandMeDowns.com and even the term ‘Recessionistas’.
The idea that spending less could become fashionable may strike fear into many a retail entrepreneur, but it’s at times like these when it might cheer us up to assess the wider benefits. If your family spends less this year on the High Street than last, you may well be pleased. If they bought fewer of the things they didn’t need, spending more quality time at home with their loved ones, you might be delighted. So in the gloom, if we can’t see a silver lining as entrepreneurs, let’s look for one as family members.
Whether they are saving or making money, 20,000 teens will be seeing what they can do in a month with a £10 note at the start of January, as part of the national competition I’ve just launched. Now in its second year, ‘Make Your Mark with a Tenner’ is funded by NESTA, Michael and Xochi Birch (founders of Bebo), and Dragon Peter Jones. Peter had a formidably busy time recently, during the first ever Global Entrepreneurship Week, escorting the prime minister through the crowds at Chain Reaction, a groundbreaking event exploring how public, private and third sectors can work together to change the world around them. Tenners may have seemed like small beer to some of them, but Peter was as fired up as I’ve seen him about giving school pupils the chance to prove their many critics wrong.
Another keen supporter of Britain’s entrepreneurial talent is, of course, Sir Alan Sugar, who himself famously started out small, selling car aerials and reinvesting the profits. I caught up with one of his Apprentice winners, Michelle Dewberry, this month over lunch. She has remained on good terms with Sir Alan – a wise move as she unveils her latest venture, Chiconomise. Starting out as a newsletter for style-conscious penny-pinchers, she assures me it’s just as relevant to boys as girls.
For savvy entrepreneurs surviving the downturn, it seems we all just want to have funds.