From humble beginnings come great accomplishments. The lessons kids learn at "the lemonade stand" stay with them when they enter the workforce and provide a solid foundation from which to grow. That's why Junior Achievement offers programs to teach students from Grades 3 to 12 about entrepreneurship, economics and management. Last year, 10,000 business professionals volunteered their time to teach in-class and after-school programs to 220,000 elementary, middle and secondary school students across the country. Now that the organization is in its 50th year in Canada, we look at some Junior Achievement alumni to find out how their experience helped them become the major achievers they are today.
BRUCE POON TIP, president and CEO, G Adventures
Confidence is first and foremost what Bruce Poon Tip gained from Junior Achievement. He initially got a taste of business success at 14, when he sold more than 5,000 "Weather Worm" bookmarks that he developed though a JA program in Calgary. At 22, when Mr. Poon Tip moved to Toronto and wanted to start his own adventure travel company, G Adventures, he was certain he could do it. "I had no fear at all because I had already run my own business," Mr. Poon Tip says. Learning how to handle a meeting with senior businesspeople early on proved to be invaluable. JA volunteers coached him on how to sell his bookmark to drugstore owners and buyers. With that experience under his belt, selling his adventure trips to senior executives at billion-dollar tourism companies in Europe didn't faze him. He was also exposed to the challenges of supply and demand with his JA venture: He had more demand than supply. Just as he had to convince drugstore owners to keep giving him counter space while he enlisted other students to make more bookmarks, he has had to convince wholesale travel companies to keep promoting G Adventures while he increased the number of trips to an area. His early training served him well. Mr. Poon Tip's business has grown from a one-man operation to a company that employs more than 300 people and offers hundreds of adventures on all seven continents. More than 40,000 travellers take a G Adventure each year.