Looking for a Dose of Inspiration? Try Mentoring a Young Entrepreneur.

Peter Gasca, an Entrepreneur and Small Business Strategist, recently had the experience of working with several young entrepreneurs. All of the young entrepreneurs, between ages 11 and 16, had already successfully started at least one business with aspirations for opening many more. 

Peter's takeaways from the conference included the value he gained from working with the young entrepreneurs. According to Peter "be assured, you will find that the benefit of becoming a mentor goes as much in your direction as it does in theirs."

Peter's reasons for taking on a youth mentee are summarized below: 

• Wildly Creative. Peter stated that he was pleasantly surprised by the entrepreneurial ideas that the group suggested and recommended that entrepreneurs bounce ideas around with young entrepreneurs. 
• Contagiously Enthusiastic. Their excitement and passion for their businesses was invigorating, and if you can handle this energy level, having their enthusiasm around will undoubtedly rub off on you.
• Crazily Optimistic. Engaging in the exuberance of young entrepreneurs will remind you of a time when you ambitiously looked beyond roadblocks, paradigms and potential failures.
• Youthfully Elastic. Mentoring a young entrepreneur is like mentoring a younger you. More important than foretelling risks and mistakes, however, all of which should be experienced firsthand, you should instill in them the idea that failure is an option and, in fact, inevitable.