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"What do you want to be when you grow up?" is the silliest question I've heard asked of a teen. Our CEO Tatiana Tsoir grew up in the Soviet Union where you didn't have a choice after you're sixteen: you pick your career and you go to college to study it. Oh wait, we have the same exact thing in the US. The only difference is that in the US you can take other, liberal arts, classes and potentially find what you like more and switch midway. This is a good thing.
The idea behind college education is to get a job afterwards and build an independent life. And somehow somewhere we got this idea that we must find our calling at work. That the only way to never work is to enjoy your work. Well, the ugly truth is that not everyone experiences a calling in life. Most adults actually never find a particular purpose in a career. And sometimes a job is just a job that pays the bills, and you have to seek fulfillment and passion somewhere else.
So adults who tell teens to "make a choice", to "find your passion", to "just do it", statistically don't even like their own jobs (three out of four don't). And none of us can know what the future holds, but we can control our destiny if we learn how to think like an entrepreneur. What does business have to do with it? Well, entrepreneurs in many ways are just like teens - at crossroads and not sure what to do next. Entrepreneurs have the same power struggle going on inside: they get this freedom to do whatever they want and make every decision for themselves, but they're overwhelmed by it and the only thing they think about is how not to screw it up!
Do entrepreneurs succeed? About 50% of the time. Half of the businesses don't make it over the five-year hurdle. Every business starts with a big hope and a big dream, but when it closes doors there is a lot of heartbreak, often debt and no money, and no sense of what to do next. This is one of the reasons Tatiana Tsoir wrote her book Dream Bold, Start Smart (which every awardee will get a copy of, free!) to give every dreamer a playbook on how to start a business and do it right (and learn from the mistakes of others). She believes that business is personal, and people start businesses not just for the sake of it, they start businesses to have a better, free-er life for themselves and their families.
Also, not everyone can afford to go to college and many drop out and go to work. Some start businesses and do some cool things. Usually, though, it takes time and making all the mistakes to get a business to a solid level.
Finally, the United States economy was built and grown on small business. To this day small businesses are the biggest employer in the country. Not large corporations, mom and pop shops. That's why the US Tax Code is geared toward small businesses. Linza Advisors, Tatiana Tsoir's firm, doesn't work with clients who don't have a business because there is nothing they can do for those who work for someone else!
And entrepreneurship done right allows for a good life. This skill also builds character: people who know how to build and run a business usually make really great employees, too. They own their tasks and treat the business as their own.
This program is a bootcamp to entrepreneurship. Geared toward teens and young adults (up to age twenty-seven) this program is teaching the basics of business. And businesses, in turn, boost the economy, create jobs and further innovation. It's a win-win for the economy, for the entrepreneurs and for the private equity, accounting, and wealth management firms, who get to grow better businesses (and make them into clients!). We will have competitions and business incubators, plus pitch tank for graduates! We are excited to launch this program in 2025!
Each cohort will be supported 2-3 times a week for the duration of the program. We will hold technical sessions, Q&A, business case studies and so much more.
This program will run on a cohort-based system, just like our other projects. We will have up to 50 participants in the cohort to make sure that the material is well digested and can be applied
Our plans also include eventually opening up a VITA (low income tax assistance clinic) where these students can get their first experience under supervision.
This is a very comprehensive project so we are looking at launching it in 2025! It is currently open to funding on a limited basis.
