Teens Believe Their Future is in Business

America's teens are all business when it comes to thinking about possible careers.

According to a recent survey, a majority of teens believe owning your own business is worth the struggle and many see it as offering the greatest degree of job security.

These are some of the key findings in the most recent version of an ongoing poll of the attitudes of young people concerning business and financial matters.

Nearly three-quarters of teens interviewed indicated that they would like to start their own business someday. More teens-41 percent-believe "owning your own business" provides greater job security than the security offered by "working for a company"-32 percent. Only 11 percent of teens said such an effort would be "very easy" or "easy."

Called the 2003 JA Interprise Poll on Teens and Entrepreneurship, the project is sponsored by the world's largest organization dedicated to educating young people about business, economics and free enterprise-Junior Achievement.

Surprisingly, when asked what kind of business they would like to start, restaurant or food-related businesses, the most common source of employment for teens, accounted for only about 13 percent of the responses.

"This poll shows that today's teens have a great deal of confidence in the power of striking out on their own," said Jack Faris, president of the National Federation of Independent Business.

Some teens, however, aren't waiting to start their own businesses. "My business is growing every day, and is still true to one of its original goals: to show that kids can make a difference in the business world," said Rohan Singh, 15, founder of Fuzzelfish.com and Junior Achievement's most recent National Student Entrepreneur of the Year.

"In a free market system," said Singh, "children...can make a positive difference, like adults. I hope to one day go public on NASDAQ."

The 2003 Junior Achievement Interprise Poll on Entrepreneurship was conducted online last spring. A total of 1,101 students participated.

Through age-appropriate curricula, JA's programs teach children how they can impact the world around them as individuals, workers and consumers.

Courtesy of NAPSnet.

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