For us the essence of entrepreneurship is making an impact on the world. Our students develop and carry out impact projects individually and in teams.
Impact happens by looking at problems as opportunities and creating solutions. The problem may be as simple as “I need a tool to help me manage my emotions” to “teen photographers need a way to create a community that can protect wildlife and wild spaces in urban environments” to “people who carry their earbuds with them a lot need a device that conveniently, hygienically, and aesthetically stores them.”
In order to become entrepreneurs, students need to look at the world through three lenses:
Students need a process for seeing opportunities: for defining problems, and generating solutions. They need to use this process over and over again until it becomes second nature. At The Incubator School, we deploy human centered design as the process through which students become opportunity thinkers.
Students need to be able to define at what level they want to make an impact. Are they focusing on themselves, their school, their community, or beyond? We have developed a simple tool that enables our students to choose their area of focus.
Students need to be able to gauge how their projects succeed and how they do not. They need to think in terms of measuring the impact they make, both qualitatively and quantitatively. We are developing our process for incorporating metrics into impact project evaluation.
You can find the details of how we organize and launch Real World Impact Projects under Impact Projects Toolkits.
My favorite things in life don't cost any money. It's really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.