ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION
Why Entrepreneurship Education?
Entrepreneurial thinking and spirit has never been more important for preparing future leaders and innovators. Schools love to espouse frameworks like STEM (STEAM), digital literacy, and fusion education. While wonderful, however, these approaches are only 50% of the entire picture - they only foster cognitive, academic abilities and increase a student’s IQ. The other non-cognitive, life success skills that help increase a student’s EQ , for example, are often overlooked.
Entrepreneurship experience takes students out of the comforts of their classroom and pushes them to the edge of comfort and put all that they are to the test. Entrepreneurship requires creativity, collaboration, the ability to clearly communicate and think critically to solve real world problems.
An Entrepreneur's Heart, Head & Hands
HEART
Entrepreneurship education begins from the heart. You need to know who you are and what makes your heart beat, for example, with joy, happiness, or anger. Once you discover your healthy, warrior heart, use it to identify that big hairy problem that makes your heart beat with passion.
HEAD
You use your head to figure out how to solve that big hairy problem. God has given you a wonderfully powerful and creative mind. So let’s use it. Two is better than one - so we must work collaboratively in teams. Once we figure out how to solve the problem, we make business plans.
HANDS
Finally, you and your team will use your hands to execute your plans. You boldly test your theories and philosophies. You make products and build services. You run pilots. You try to achieve your sales or success targets. You move your hands to make an impact.
Why Silicon Valley Mind™?
Silicon Valley Mind™ is a framework designed to teach and measure 21st century skills:
COLLABORATION &
TEAMWORK
CREATIVITY &
IMAGINATION
CRITICAL THINKING &
PROBLEM SOLVING
COMMUNICATION & PERSUASION
Silicon Valley Mind™ prepares students for the future:
INVENTING A JOB
CREATING OPPORTUNITIES
EMBRACING
LIFE-LONG LEARNING
RECEIVING HELP &
PAYING IT FORWARD
Entrepreneurship & Empathy
There is a heavy relationship between entrepreneurship and unique humans traits like empathy. The impetus of every entrepreneurial endeavor is the simple question - “What pain point or problem am I trying to solve?” The pain/problem cannot be one that the entrepreneur feels, but the rest of the world doesn’t. And on the other hand, the pain/problem cannot be one that the rest of the world feels, but the entrepreneur doesn’t. Impactful entrepreneurs are extolled as great humanitarians that have amazing love and empathy for humankind because the pain and problems they address are not only universally felt by others, but are also personal to the entrepreneur.
Let’s take the founders of Lollaland, Hanna and Mark Lim, for instance. The inspiration and motivation for their flagship product, Lollacup, was born from their eldest daughter’s nine-month-old pain point - there were no easy to use and clean, and made in the USA toddler straw cups that their daughter could get a sip out of because of the spill-proof valves. Keeping their daughter’s safety and well-being at the heart of their entrepreneurial endeavor, Hanna and Mark ideated and created a product that addressed millions of toddlers’ and parents’ pain points. Hanna and Mark went on to pitch and be featured on Shark Tank and win deals with Mark Cuban and Robert Herjevac.
Empathy + Entrepreneurship = Smart and Impactful outcome