EDITORIAL

The Advocate-Messenger

Boyle County High School sent not one but two teams of student entrepreneurs to the state finals of the annual Lieutenant Governor’s Entrepreneurship Challenge, and one came back with second place and a total of $16,000 in scholarships and winnings.

It was a successful end to the challenge, which Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton actually kicked off at Danville High School in Gravely Hall in October. Boyle and Danville students bookended the innovative program this year, which aims to encourage students to think big about the future and develop their own ideas and plans.

“The goal is to introduce students to a realistic business environment, highlight entrepreneurial values, promote business ownership, and encourage lifelong learning,” according to the challenge’s website, kylgec.com.

Entrepreneurship is often thought of as something only a few people with extra money lying around can do. Most of us, we think, have to get “normal” jobs and work for someone else.

But in today’s economy, it’s becoming more and more important to be entrepreneurial. As automation slowly takes away more and more jobs that used to require humans, we must become better and better at doing and inventing new things in order to have success in the future.

Even if you don’t come up with the next big product or revolutionize an industry, learning the skills required to be an entrepreneur — critical thinking, pragmatism, budgeting, engineering, science, math, public relations, relationship building — can benefit anyone in any job they do.

The days when someone could get a 9-5 job doing the same thing every day for 30 years are long gone, and the days when you could keep a job without constantly improving yourself and learning new skills are quickly disappearing.

The good jobs of tomorrow will be taken by those who develop their entrepreneurial skills today.

We will help our own community become stronger and better prepared for future changes by helping our students — the ones who will be running everything in a couple decades — embrace entrepreneurship as a part of their education, and part of who they are.

If this year’s entrepreneurship challenge is any indicator, our schools are doing just that, and it’s already paying off.