059 - Teen Microbusiness with Carol Topp

Show Notes | YouTube | iTunes

What is a microbusiness?  What lessons can teenagers learn by running a microbusiness?  Can teens run successful, money-making microbusinesses?  Join us today to discover more about teens with microbusinesses.

This is the podcast where we discuss success and innovation for teenagers.  No spoiler alerts today, but if you are interested in teenagers getting a jump start, stay locked in here!  

I remember reading an article several years back that discussed the dilemma of being a modern teen. In ages past, societies considered teens to be adults, and expected them to step up into the adult world and prove their worth to the society.  If we observe the teenager, we see the deep desire for significance.

Yet in the modern system of education, teens are asked to solve problems and challenges with little or no lasting value.  With apologies to my own fields of study, solving for x or finding the equations of motion of an already well-known set of differential equations just feels hollow and thin.

How do we navigate this juxtaposition between a teenager's internal drive for significance and the typical 4 years (and possibly another 4 year in college) of knowledge gathering which seems disconnected from reality?  I'll look up the article and post it in the show notes, but the conclusion of the article was to restructure our expectations and opportunities we offer during these years filled with passion and purpose.

On the podcast we discuss an alternative to our modern conundrum of how to keep teens engaged in meaningful education.  Carol Topp is an Engineer turned accountant--I know that's an unusual shift.  In the last few years, she has worked with many teens in her accounting practice, helping them structure what she likes to call a "microbusiness".  The experiences and learning that occurs in a microbusiness can be a great catalyst toward adding significance to the otherwise "dry learning" teens dread.  Let's find out more about Carol's experience and explore some new possibilities.

Original Release Date: 10/29/15

Category: Business Professionals