Young entrepreneurs receive sage advice
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Updated: June 21, 2009 3:55 PM
David Black, founder of Black Press, has advice for aspiring young entrepreneurs.
“You have to work bloody hard. You have to learn everything you possibly can about the area that you’re in, and focus on doing a good job, providing the service or product or whatever you’re doing, just focus on that” he said.
“Don’t worry about the money. The money will take care of itself if you do a good job.”
Black delivered a speech at the Junior Achiever Awards in Victoria last week.
Junior Achievement is a non-profit organization that brings business mentors into schools to encourage entrepreneurship. The awards were presented to a group of Spectrum community school students who raised money for impoverished youth in Mexico.
Black believes that mentoring young minds is important because “it has certainly helped me in my career. It’s an easy and rewarding way for business people to give back to business students.”
Black served as the founding chairman of the board of advisers for the University of Victoria School of Business. He volunteered there as a mentor when the school began in the early 1990s.
In 2008, he established the Black Press business scholarships, which are awarded annually to high school students entering UVic Faculty of Business.
Black purchased his first newspaper, the William’s Lake Tribune, from his father in 1975. Since then he has acquired more than 150 newspapers in Western Canada, Washington, Ohio and Hawaii, including the Victoria News. This year he was inducted into the Business Laureates of BC Hall of Fame.
“I was fortunate enough that I had my father as a mentor,” he said. “He was the kind of guy who was more of a coach.”
Black said
Junior Achievers is a great program.
“For some reason, students tend not to think about going into business. I find it kind of odd because it’s what makes our world go around, our society work. It’s also a way to make some money for yourself. There’s not enough entrepreneurs out there, that’s for sure.”
editor@vicnews.com
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