Today at the UVEF luncheon Junto Group presented.
What an amazing idea. Basically its one amazingly successful guy who wanted to help entrepreneurship in Utah so he got a bunch of young entrepreneurs together on a saturday morning and layed out a plan where he would teach them everything he knew about entrepreneurship over the following 8 weeks. Then, over the next 8 weeks he taught them and also put them through the ringer testing them to see how dedicated they were. At the end of the 8 weeks he selected 5 of them and gave them $50,000 each to fund their businesses.
They’re not just off the hook with the $50,000, they each own part of each others businesses and the Junto Group also owns part of each. The plan is to have the group fund itself in upcoming years so the founder doesn’t have to keep putting in tons of cash. This year, he got someone else to put in money and they awarded $50,000 to 10 entrepreneurs.
What an amazing idea and amazing execution of it. I have for a few years now talked with Neal Harmon about doing something similar to this. While we haven’t had the tremendous success yet that the founder of Junto has had, we will. We’d really love to give back by teaching entrepreneurs the things it takes to succeed.
I’d love to give back right now if I could by teaching people what I know about internet marketing. I’m a big believer in giving everything without expecting anything in return. I know it will all come back to me at some point.
Right now I have people ask me for help all the time in getting started with internet marketing. I’d love to do it on a larger scale. I’m sure I’ll have the opportunity at some point in the future. Whether it’s teaching a class or mentoring young entrepreneurs, I’m looking forward to it.