Aspiring entrepreneurs learn how to build profitable businesses
| Thursday, Apr 29 2010 05:55 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Apr 29 2010 05:55 PM
The Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour is more like a concert or pep rally than a business conference. Energetic speakers hurl T-shirts into the audience and pop music blares from loud speakers.
The idea is to convince young people that they don't have to wait decades to start a business, and to give them tools to convert their dreams into profitable enterprises.
The entrepreneurship tour has been to about 140 campuses since its creation in 2006. On Thursday, it stopped at Bakersfield College, where nearly 100 people heard from entrepreneurs in their 20s and 30s running successful companies. Some spoke live. Others addressed the audience remotely via the Internet or were videotaped in advance.
Author and entrepreneur Arel Moodie, 26, opened the program with a lesson on fear. Moodie co-founded the tour and founded a Web site that helps students find housing and roommates, and shared some amusing anecdotes, including a story about jumping feet-first off a bridge into water 60 feet below.
Then he asked for a volunteer to join him on stage.
Amber Troupe, 23, raised her hand and, when selected, bounded over with a broad grin. She waited patiently while Moodie pulled a $10 bill out of his pocket and snapped it in front of him for the audience to see.
"This right here is a nice, crisp Alexander Hamilton," he said, then turned to Troupe. "This is for you. Have a seat."
Moodie then playfully shamed those who had remained in their seats. "I'm speaking to a group of about 100 people and only one person raised their hand," he said. "The rest of you just sat there because, what, you were too embarrassed to speak in front of an audience?"
Successful entrepreneurs, Moodie said, must be willing to stretch out of their comfort zone. That doesn't mean jumping off a bridge unprepared. It means doing some research on how to do it safely, including talking to mentors who have done what you want to do, but at the end of the day, you must be passionate and willing to take a risk.
The program also included a montage of corporate giants who started companies in their 20s or even teens. They included the founders of FedEx, Subway, Vivendi, Rolling Stone and Yahoo, as well as Chester Greenwood, who at age 15 patented the first pair of earmuffs.
Hamid Eydgahi, dean of career and technical education at Bakersfield College and advisor to the school's Students in Free Enterprise business club, hailed the speeches and hands-on workshops.
"It's an exciting opportunity for the students to learn how to be innovative, creative and successful," he said.
Harjot Kaur, 19, said she thought the program might help her learn how to start a business one day.
"I always wanted something of my own," Kaur said.
Troupe, the winner of the $10, said she wants to use what she's learned to start a nonprofit organization that would guide at-risk youth into making positive choices.
"I'm just gung ho," she said. "As soon as I heard they were doing a seminar, I knew I had to get down here as soon as possible."
Marisol Guzman, 21, drove in from Delano to participate. She said she would like to be her own boss one day.
"Who doesn't?" she said.
