Free Enterprise Symposium
Independent Youth's Free Enterprise Symposium is an annual half day event designed to introduce youth to entrepreneurs in their community. During these symposiums students are able to interact and speak with entrepreneurs and learn from their personal experiences. The symposiums also provide students with a better understanding of free enterprise, increasing awareness of what it takes to be a successful business owner. The IY Free Enterprise Symposium includes:
- A meet and greet
- A panel of successful entrepreneurs
- Break-out sessions
“Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve.”
– Mary K Ash, founder of Mary Kay cosmetics
“As long as you're going to be thinking anyway, think big.”
– Donald Trump, real estate and entertainment mogul
“Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.”
– Coco Chanel, fashion designer
“An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he'll quickly learn how to chew it.”
– Roy Ash, founder of Litton Industries
“You take on the responsibility for making your dream a reality.”
– Les Brown, founder of best-selling author and motivational speaker
“The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.”
– Nolan Bushnell, founder of Chuck E. Cheese's
“Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.”
– Thomas Edison, inventor and scientist
“Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won't, so that you can live the rest of your life like most people can't.”
– Anonymous
“What I know is, is that if you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come.”
– Oprah Winfrey, business mogul, talk show host and producer
“Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.”
– John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil Company
“I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them!”
– Madam C.J. Walker, creator of a popular line of African-American hair care products and America's first black female millionaire
“If you dream it, you can do it.”
– Walt Disney, co-founder of The Walt Disney Company
“I think there is something more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers. There aren't enough who will move ahead and take concrete steps to actualize their vision.”
– W. Clement Stone, Businessman
“Capital isn't that important in business. Experience isn't that important. You can get both of these things. What is important is ideas.”
– Harvey Firestone, founder of Firestone Tire & Rubber Co.
“You take on the responsibility for making your dream a reality.”
– Les Brown, founder of best-selling author and motivational speaker
“Find your passion...then it is no longer work!”
– L.A. Reid, co-founder of LaFace Records
“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. everything else is secondary.”
– Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple and Pixar
“The important this is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try.”
– Debbi Fields, founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies
“The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning; to create a product or service to make the world a better place.”
– Guy Kawasaki, venture capitalist, CEO of Garage Technology Ventures