Every year, I work with a number of college students through the SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) organization, and inevitably, those students, along with countless others ask "What can I do to help me stand apart from other future graduates."

To Barry:

I know that you say that there's no better time than the present to start a business. Too much planning, and you miss the ball... Regarding that, what have you seen colleges and mentors do to open college students' eyes to entrepreurship and small business ownership? I can't think of anything better to do to set yourself apart, yet students typically seem 'unaware' of the possibilities that entrepreneurship provides.

Until recently, I was always skeptical about an "entrepreneurship" major in College. I always asked what does this mean? Do they make you borrow from your parents, stay up all night and live off your credit cards? :-)I think to many graduates in the 90's thought they were ready to run companies and this was not the case.

But entrepreneurship classes and majors are changing. They are adding real life scenarios into the mix. They are getting all around good educations and real life intern experience.

One college, Ball State in Indiana has a unique program that I learned when I visited there and I outline it my blog. They have a very unique Venture Formation Class for their seniors. Each person puts together their own business plan which get reviewed at the end of the semester by 5 business people. If the the presentation and the plan pass, the student graduates from Ball State 4 days later. If they fail, the have to wait a year to repeat the course and try to pass it to graduate again! Now that is real life risk!