Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

I've only read a little bit about Andrew Yang's brainchild, Venture for America, but it sounds like a great idea.  Like Teach for America, the goal is to expose bright young minds to a profession we need more bright young minds to get into.  In this case, the profession is entrepreneurship, and boy can we use more innovators nowadays. 

Of course, I went to business school, and then worked for 10 years at a non-profit incubator of minority-owned entrepreneurial ventures, so I'm predilected to these kinds of things.  But I think it's healthy for all young folks to get some exposure to the grind of bringing an idea into reality, getting the door slammed in your face 100 times so you can hear "yes" the 101st time, figuring out a path to profitability, and so on. 

I realize not everyone is going to be a cut-throat capitalist when they grow up.  But we'd probably be better off if every young person had at least a little exposure in the fast-paced world of start-ups, if only to know better how how that important part of the economy works and what it takes to succeed there.  At the very least, I'm glad for the small sliver of talented young grads who will sign up for Venture for America.  It's a start.