Friday, February 06, 2009

Stimulate This!

This week's Financial Post column took a second look at a little item in last week's federal budget: Jim Flaherty's proposal proposal to spend $5 million over the next two years to help upgrade the "financial literacy" of Canadians.

But imagine what would happen if the feds got what they wish for. Financially literate consumers would see right through a stimulative budget trying to persuade hard-pressed Canadians to spend lots of money on cars and real estate in uncertain times.

I propose a better idea: invest more in entrepreneurship education.

Excerpt: Entrepreneurship education is the foundation of financial literacy. After all, financial assets aren't just something you manage; they first must be created. Entrepreneurship values alone -- vision, initiative, selling skills and the dedication to meeting people's needs -- teach you how to build the value that leads to wealth.

You can read the full column here.

Earlier this week I received a delightful email from a Post reader who is working hard to save an entrepreneurship training and development program is his hometown. He asked for permission to adopt the slogan, "Entrepreneurship education is the foundation of financial literacy," as his personal mantra as he goes about raising funds for the program.

I wished him the best of luck. And anyone in a similar position is welcome to adopt it, too.

Let me know if it helps!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have to speak to a university group on Wednesday about the writer's life, as part of a panel. My message to them is that the writer is an entrepreneur. So if you want to write for a living, you have to learn to sell. And to do that while you are doing an arts degree, you'll need to self-educate, and you'll need to start now.

Will fall on deaf ears, I'm sure, but as long as one or two of them are listening...

Anonymous said...

I completely second your motion to invest more in 'entrepreneur education!!'

Case in point, Junior Achievement has been doing just this for years - sparking an interest and fostering basic business/entrepreneurial skills to youth in effort to build solid foundations from which to succeed.

I'm currently engaged in a regional Junior Achievement expansion project to do just that ... educate our future entrepreneurs about the value of business ... and will suggest this mantra as the project moves forward!

Cheers,
Jennifer