How we came up with the idea for this game.
In 2017 after becoming a Finalist in Toastmaster International’s World Championship of Public Speaking, I decided to begin teaching free entrepreneurship classes to youth in economically depressed communities. This particular summer, I had a group of 22 young people between the ages 8 and 19 years old sign up for the classes, and their parent signed up to come with them, so I committed to teaching a Free 5-week workshop during the summer, at the Richmond Public Library.
One day during class, I began asking several children what type of business they would open if they could open one right now. One young man, 14 years old, said, “I can’t start a business, I’m not special. You have to be special to start a business”. My heart immediately began hurting for this young man; the crazy thing is, he knew how to fix bikes. He had the makings of a low-to-no overhead business he was already doing for himself and his friends, but didn’t know what he had.
At that moment I looked around the room at all those children, and their parents, sitting there, not knowing that that they had the ability to be entrepreneurs too! Imagine going to the corner store and not ever once thinking, “I could do this”. Imagine all of the people that this child had come in contact with; parents, extended family, teachers, preachers, friends, etc…and not one of them every encouraging this young man to imagine the possibility. Then I say a class full of young men and women who had no idea that they could bring value to our world in ways we can’t imaging, if the skills were unlocked, the mind was engaged, and the mere opportunity was presented. Then I thought of all the millions of children around the world who were just like this young man; had no idea that it was possible for them to be a producer, a problem-solver, a value provider, instead of just a consumer.
And that is when it hit me. I loved Monopoly when I was younger. It didn’t teach me how to buy and sell Real Estate, but it got me interested as a child, and I have accomplished that as an adult. I thought, “what if there was a game that showed people exactly how to start a business, how to make decisions for that business to grow it, and how to expand a business through real entrepreneur situations. I looked online for a game like that, and there were none on the market. I found finance games to help you learn what to do with money, but nothing that shows you how to take an idea and build something that will take care of so many other than ourselves.
I saw a problem, and The Entrepreneur Game is the solution to that problem. Get the game and allow your children to learn to do the same!