YE Entrepreneurial Mindset

The following activity will challenge your students. Many of them will fail to answer correctly. Correct answers are not the goal of this activity. For the purpose of the Youth Entrepreneurs curriculum, it helps introduce and reinforce concepts related to Sound Judgment, Be Principled, and, if deployed in conjunction with the YE Classroom currency (YE dollars) it can create an Opportunity for the students to build wealth by solving problems.

Speak Out Cards afford students the opportunity to practice standing in front of others and speaking extemporaneously. There is little risk but high return for the students during this activity.

Speak Out Cards afford students the opportunity to practice standing in front of others and speaking extemporaneously. There is little risk but high return for the students during this activity.

The purpose of Pitch It is to help students experiment with different product or service concepts and then try to convince customers to choose their idea based on the perception of value. This activity requires students to be creative, think quickly, and be persuasive.

The 100 Entrepreneurs who Changed the World activity allows students the opportunity to independently research an entrepreneur from history who made an impact on their community, economy or the world.

The Extraordinaire’s Design Project is set-up in a way that guides students through the practices of sharing knowledge, showing incomplete work, accepting feedback, and focusing on the user.

There are many ways you can foster creativity in your students and the Invention Activity is one of them. In the Invention Activity there is no right or wrong, no impossible. There are no lines to color in. No box to stay in.

The Innovation activity gives the student an opportunity to take an existing product and improve it. When doing this activity it is important to remind students that innovation is not just creating new products, but improving existing products to meet new needs, demands, requirements, etc.

The Footwear Project is a fast-paced project leading students through the design thinking process. This project supports the same mindset, thinking and outcomes as The Extraordinaire’s project in less time (without needing The Extraordinaires Design Studio). Students pair up, show and tell each other about their footwear, ideate, and make a new solution that is “useful and meaningful” to their partner.

The Decade of Entrepreneurship activity affords your students the opportunity to research an entire decade worth of entrepreneurs and share that knowledge with their peers.

For most of us adults, a handshake is simple, easy, and it comes naturally. That is not the case for most of our students. And unfortunately, there are a lot of ways a handshake can go wrong. Handshakes are very important in a professional environment.

Soft skills are the personal attributes that complement an individual’s technical skill and knowledge. According to Career Builder, 77% of employers say that soft skills are just as important as hard skills. College professors identify the same skills as important to college success.

Pit is a fast-paced card game designed to simulate open outcry bidding for commodities. If you are familiar with this classic game, be aware that we don’t necessarily play by the rules, as written. We use the game as a way for students to learn about trade, simple negotiations, and focusing on the economic principle of comparative advantage. In this variation we use the concept of trade from Pit but NOT the Pit cards. Additionally, there is no buyer or seller needed. The purpose of this variation is to give your students the opportunity to practice the art of the trade while also getting to know their peers.

Marshmallow Towers is an activity that allows your students to gain a basic understanding of different business structures. Students, working in groups, are randomly assigned a business structure. The goal of their business is to build the tallest tower using only the provided resources.

This is an activity to help your students get to know one another better and practice their soft skills.

This is a project to help your students understand brands and create a brand for themselves. This is a good time to discuss why creating a brand for yourself is important.

Zoom illustrates the costs and barriers to exchanging needed knowledge and information in a fun, interactive way.

Disruptus is a game that demonstrates the importance of being Opportunity Obsessed, Innovating and properly Aligned Value Creation. This activity puts the students in the position of knowing who their market is and properly aligning their innovation strategies with their market in order to create value for the customer, therefore creating value for themselves.

This lesson is all about vision and sharing knowledge. It is important that any group, organization or business communicates their vision, has a shared vision, and shares the knowledge required to reach common goals.

Money Bowl provides an applicable example of greed while exploring the effects of communication and trust within a group.

YE instills an entrepreneurial vision in students. And as they create their own business ideas, the Business Model Canvas is a powerful tool to jumpstart the entrepreneurial process.