Helping young people focus on their goals is one step to improving the local economy, said the co-founder of a visiting entrepreneurship group Tuesday.

The Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour visited the RiverPark Center for the afternoon and took time to give high school and college students a little advice on how to pursue and develop their goals into ways to support themselves. The tour's visit was sponsored by the Green River Area Development District.

"One of the reasons why we brought this here is there's been a big push in our community to help people discover entrepreneurship. We want to give them the tools to do that," said Jodi Rafferty, program planner with GRADD. "It's also for students to focus on what their success would be and get motivated and pumped up about achieving these goals."

Promoting entrepreneurship is one possible way to try to stimulate Owensboro's economy, particularly since it means keeping Owensboro's young people here, officials said. First, though, they have to have ideas to pursue and the courage to pursue them.

"I think there's so many opportunities for entrepreneurship in communities like this," said Sheena Lindahl, president and co-founder of Extreme Entrepreneurship. "There's really a way for people with an entrepreneurial mind-set to build up their cities and become the growth. It's a way to keep young people in the cities and build the growth that way."

One of the speakers, a multimillionaire at the age of 23, said entrepreneurship is key to the way business works worldwide.

"I believe that entrepreneurship drives the world economy," said Ryan Allis, the 23-year-old CEO of North Carolina communication firm iContact and author of his self-published business book "Zero to One Million."

"I think the first step to becoming a successful entrepreneur is knowing what to do with your life," Allis said. "It's an awareness of what motivates them. Once they have that awareness, (then they need) that courage to take action."

Allis said he hoped that speaking out about his own experiences helped encourage other young people to search for their own possibilities.
"If an event like this can inspire people to become entrepreneuers, build jobs and stay here, it can have a large impact," he said.

Lindahl also said by targeting high school and college students, they hope to hammer the ideas home while they're still possible.

"At these ages, there's so little to lose," Lindahl said. "That's a perfect time in their life to figure out what they want to achieve in the coming decades. It's so easy to get up and start over again. They don't have mortgages or kids or families to support."

Mikel Colbert, a client services manager with GRADD, said he was glad to see young people serving as an example for and encouraging other young people to be successful. He hopes some will step out of the usual mold and become successful at whatever it is they want to do.

"Who better to talk to young people than young people? You've got to have a group that young people relate to," Colbert said. "They don't have to follow the usual role they're assigned to."

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