Assets, Dreams & Goals
A goal is a dream with a deadline.

Source:  Ken Proudfoot, President of the Enterprise Institute of Rhode Island and Development Director for the Rhode Island MicroEnterprise Association in Providence RI. 

Goal:  To have students think like an entrepreneur does as he/she begins the process of quickly assessing where they are at, what they have to work with, where they are going, where they want to be, and perhaps (though not so often), when they want to get there.  (Note: Creating a Dream List and Making Plans to Achieve Goals can be done as two separate exercises)

The activity supports the Entrepreneurship Content Standards/Performance Indicators as follows: 
A.01 Explain the need for entrepreneurial discovery, 
A.06 Describe idea/generation methods,
B.12 Describe desirable entrepreneurial personality traits, 
B.14 Determine interests, 
B.15 Evaluate personal capabilities, 
B.16 Conduct self-assessment to determine entrepreneurial potential.

Time Needed:		15-25 minutes

Materials:  Each student is given a sheet divided into three columns. Teacher writes the three columns on the board (can also use overhead projector or other visual aid tool). These columns are in particular order and you may set them up any way that works for you. (see example above)

Activity:  Opening statement:  An entrepreneur has a balance sheet that she/he carries around inside their brain, in their subconscious. For them, the ability to see what they have and what they don’t have is almost intuitive. They are constantly evaluating opportunities, risks, possibilities and projected outcomes; quickly—in the flash of a firefly.  They have an uncanny way of being able to create something from almost nothing. They can’t explain how they do it; they just do it. 

They do know one thing and that is that they have lots of assets.  You also have lots of assets.  And I’m not talking about money or equipment or your vehicle.  I’m talking about assets that are even more important than money, cars and equipment.

What other assets do you have?  Let’s write them here on the board and you write down the ones that correspond to you on your sheet.  If we begin with our assets we can then note the correlation to achieving our dreams and reaching our goals.

Note:  Students will come up with many thoughts about their assets:  Friends, family, love, experiences, ideas, health, faith, talents, belief, good attitude, skills, knowledge, etc.  You will be amazed.  Some of these sessions fill an entire board with 50 or more inputs.