Global Entrepreneurship Week Kicks Off  in More than 100 Countries with Thousands of Organizations Holding Events to Inspire Next Generation of Entrepreneurs
Despite a difficult economic climate, many young Americans are still interested in entrepreneurial pursuits. A Harris Interactive® online poll, conducted on behalf of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, released today in conjunction with the start of Global Entrepreneurship Week, reveals that 40 percent of youth ages eight to 24 would like to start a business at some future point, or already have done so. Additionally, young people are overwhelmingly optimistic about the possibility of owning their own business. Seventy-five percent of the eight- to 12-year-olds, 62 percent of the 13- to 17-year-olds and 62 percent of the 18- to 24-year-olds agree that they can successfully start their own businesses if they work hard.
Results from the August 2010 survey of 5,077 young people are consistent with a previous study conducted in 2007.
“The economic downturn, it seems, has done nothing to dissuade young people from their dreams of business ownership,” said Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, who kicked off the Week on Friday in front of more than 1,700 entrepreneurs at the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum in Palm Springs, Calif., the largest gathering of high-growth companies in the country. “The survey findings are good news, because economic recovery hinges on entrepreneurship. The survey results also attest that connecting with successful entrepreneurs inspires young people to pursue their entrepreneurial aspirations, which is what Global Entrepreneurship Week was founded, in part, to accomplish.”
The survey shows that youth who know an entrepreneur personally have the strongest interest in starting their own businesses. (To access the complete youth poll findings, go to www.kauffman.org/youngentrepreneurs.)
Connecting young people to successful business owners is just one aspect of Global Entrepreneurship Week. It also inspires them to get started on their ideas and shows them what it takes to turn them into real-world projects and ventures. Co-founded by the Kauffman Foundation, the world’s largest foundation dedicated to entrepreneurship, and Enterprise UK, a business-led, government-backed campaign in the United Kingdom, Global Entrepreneurship Week helps current and would-be entrepreneurs gain knowledge, skills and networks to inspire and enable them to grow sustainable enterprises.
In the U.S. alone, more than 1,300 organizations in all 50 states – including top universities, non-profit organizations, successful entrepreneurs, government agencies and corporate sponsors – will be hosting hundreds of events, engaging students and celebrating firm creation during Global Entrepreneurship Week. The Week has grown exponentially since its inaugural event in 2008: more than 10 million people in 103 countries will participate this year. In 2009, more than 7.5 million people took part in an estimated 32,000 events across 88 countries.
The U.S. Senate is on board, too. Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, will be introducing a Senate Resolution to officially designate the week of November 15-21 as Global Entrepreneurship Week.

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