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GRANDPRIZE $2,500 IN SCHOLARSHIP FUNDING TO APPLICANT
WITH
$2,500 MATCHING GRANT TO PARTICIPATING SCHOOL!

Is entrepreneurship for you or anyone you know?  Do you have a great business idea?  Are you ready for the Mark Victor Hansen Foundation's Young Entrepreneurial Challenge?  

Mark Victor Hansen knows what it is to dream big - to have the vision, creativity and drive to convert a new idea into a thriving business. He also knows what it takes to make those dreams a reality. The Mark Victor Hansen Foundation wants to share this knowledge with every teen, cultivating that natural entrepreneur in every individual.  Each of us are born entrepreneurs, with the ability to consistently produce phenomenal results.  Now is the opportunity for each and every teen to create and fulfill dreams larger than ever thought possible!

An entrepreneur, by definition is a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk. Of course, not everyone will want to start their own business. However, increasingly, the competitive marketplace is pressuring everyone to become more entrepreneurial. So, instead of asking, "Am I cut out to be an entrepreneur?” you should ask, "How I can become the most successful entrepreneur possible?"  

We, at the Mark Victor Hansen Foundation, engage young entrepreneurs throughout the United States to learn and grow by providing various tools to support business development. Our goal is to promote innovative entrepreneurship supporting faster growth to ease fiscal pressures on future generations.

2008 Project Descriptions: The Young Entrepreneurial Challenge

The Mark Victor Hansen Foundation has created The Young Entrepreneurial Challenge and looks forward to becoming the foremost entrepreneurial competition and a “rallying” point for young entrepreneurs throughout the United States. This competition is open to any individual from the age of thirteen to twenty-four. The individual applicant must be the existing or proposed principle owner or president of the represented business or corporation.

This challenge is open to teens and young adults throughout the United States.  There are two categories to this challenge. The first category is focused toward individuals who have developed and are managing an existing business. The second category is focused toward individuals who are interested in developing a new business and are willing to put their new business ideas to the test. These two categories are further divided into three sub-categories: Enlightened Technologies—innovative products that define a segment of a new market, or transform an existing one; Positive Social Impact—creating a business that would affect the environment positively, promote peace, decrease poverty or promote social justice; Global Market Potential—a business best suited to global markets.

Our influential network of business leaders embrace young entrepreneurship and are proud to support our participants throughout this challenge with scheduled sessions focused on a variety of areas relating to business development.  Winners will be notified on January 5, 2009. Winners will be acknowledged during the Soul Motion Ball-Rockin’ The Universe gala event at The Marriott Hotel, located in Southern California on January 31, 2009.