When I was in high school, I got good grades, did community service work through my church, played baseball and basketball, and ran a fan website about my favorite rapper (it was a long time ago, and it was profitable). It may sound like a lot, but I can’t believe how much time I wasted. High schoolers are capable of a lot, and they need to be challenged. That’s exactly what the San Francisco, CA based Conrad Foundation does. They’re a non-profit organization that challenges “high school students to create innovative products using science, technology, and entrepreneurship to solve real-world, 21st century problems.” They do so through the Spirt of Innovation Awards, which is a competition put on in honor of Pete Conrad (whom the foundation is named after), the astronaut who commanded Apollo 12. Pete was expelled from a prestigious high school because he couldn’t read or spell. It turned out that he was dyslexic, and the headmaster at his new school was able to help him make the most of his genius. After high school he went to Princeton and the moon. Not bad for someone who couldn’t read or spell in high school.
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It’s tax time, which means that I’ve spent some time looking over my records from last year. This year is already looking better than last year thanks to our sponsor mentioned above. Hopefully it will mean that when I do my taxes in 2011, I won’t consider myself a “low-income entrepreneur.” But if I still do, I’ll at least have the option of getting some support from the Corporation for Enterprise Development. They’re a Washington, DC based non-profit that is “dedicated to expanding economic opportunity for low-income families and communities.” The program that I’m alluding to is the CFED’s Self-Employment Tax Initiative, which helps to provide free tax preparation services for people like me (though I haven’t actually taken advantage of any of these resources). That’s just a small slice of what CFED does, though. Their broader goal is “working at the local, state and federal levels to create economic opportunity that alleviates poverty.”
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Today is the two year anniversary of the launch of One Day, One Job! I started working on a job search related project in late May of 2007 (how do you like that old logo?); however, the entire concept didn’t come to fruition until November 12th, 2007 when I featured entry level jobs at InsideTrack. Since then I’ve taken a look at 730 more companies and their employment offerings for new college grads (see all of our entry level employer profiles). In that same time I’ve reached more than a million job seekers with my content, received a ton of press, signed a deal to write a Career Development textbook, and, most importantly, created my own entry level job.
Thank you all for reading and helping me make this a reality. Without you I wouldn’t have my entry level job.
The Entrepreneurship Option
One Day, One Job was created as a resource for people who are seeking employment—not entrepreneurs. With that said, I’ve learned a lot about entrepreneurship over the last two years, and I’ve reinforced my feeling that entrepreneurship is a great option for some recent college graduates.
Being an entrepreneur is not easy, and making your venture profitable takes a lot longer than you ever expect it will (I’m barely there).
Still, entrepreneurship has allowed me to reach a level of “experience” that I could have never achieved in an entry level job. It’s not something that I would recommend for most of you, but if you’ve ever had any questions about starting your own business, I want to answer them. Although One Day, One Job isn’t hiring (unless you are confident that you can immediately drive revenue, then contact me ASAP), I want to put the spotlight on my own company today.
If you have any questions about creating your own entry level job through entrepreneurship, I’d love to answer them. You can post your questions in the comments below, or you can e-mail me at willy@onedayonejob.com if you don’t want to post your question publicly.
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Yesterday I told you about TechnoServe and all of the good that they’re doing by spreading entrepreneurism. Mercado Global is taking a similar approach to fighting poverty, but they’re doing it with a very specific focus. They are a New Haven, CT based non-profit organization “that links the world’s most rural and economically-disadvantaged cooperatives to the U.S. market through a model that provides both fair wages and investments in community’s long-term development.” Even more specifically, they focus on working with women who produce handmade products. So, not only is Mercado Global creating positive change in the developing world, but they’re also providing you with shopping opportunities.
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As an entrepreneur I am a strong believer that businesses are often the best way to solve problems. Don’t get me wrong—I love non-profits, but the ruthlessness of the business world breeds efficiency and effectiveness. We’ve seen plenty of non-profits try to cure poverty, yet poverty remains one of the world’s biggest problems. Lately we’ve seen more and more business based solutions aimed at eradicating poverty. TechnoServe, is a non-profit (the irony!) that is doing just that. They help “entrepreneurial men and women in poor areas of the developing world to build businesses that create income, opportunity and economic growth for their families, their communities and their countries.” What they’re doing may sound like some new social entrepreneurship startup, but they have a 40 year track record of successfully transforming the lives of the world’s poor. I guess business based solutions to poverty aren’t a new idea at all.
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Steve Mariotti was living a successful corporate life when he decided that he needed a change. He didn’t buy a sports car, get a toupée, or start dating 20 year-olds. Ok, he could have done those things, but we have no reason to believe that he did he did. He chose to leave his job and to start teaching special education in the New York City school system. This presented obvious challenges. Teaching special ed can be hard enough in a community with extensive resources, but it must be near impossible in underserved public schools like those in New York City. Mariotti realized that one of the only ways that he could reach his students was by teaching them how to run a business. They loved the subject matter. As Mariotti developed a entrepreneurship based curriculum for his job as a special ed teacher, he realized that he could extend the reach of his educational successes. He founded the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship with the goal of bringing entrepreneurial education to low-income youth
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