Hi Harold,

Here's a student business plan that perhaps your Grade 11s could relate to:

An Acadia University student duo won this entrepreneurship award last year for their business plan to open a hip-hop clothing and stuff store. http://www.nicol-award.com/alumni/2005/acadia.html

Somewhere out there exists a brief "elevator pitch' video (the team making a brief pitch to a potential investor) that we watched at last year's award event. I couldn't find the video online, but here's a link to the winning team. The video is very short and very cute, and revealed (at least to me) the combo of chutzpah and vulnerability that entrepreneurs require. I'll be at this year's ceremony tonight (which is what made me think of it!) so I'll try to find out if the video exists online.

Another item that comes to mind for a balancing perspective was a quote from Mr. Trump (of all people) in yesterday's paper (either Globe and Mail or Ottawa Citizen) saying that there's nothing wrong with a good job.

And finally.... a friend of mine runs a very successful chain of coffee shops here in Ottawa. I will never forget bumping into her one day when she was in the middle of a deal to open a new location. Her eyes fair gleamed as she waved some papers at me and said "I LOVE this part". You gotta love the deal, I think, to be an entrepreneur. Which is why I am not one!