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My business hero/dad participated in YES back in 1983 and was a mentor in Hawkes Bay when I was in high school. So, I wanted to kick off this series by interviewing him!

Wayne is the owner of The Alternative Board in Hawkes Bay and Taupō. He helps SME business owners to achieve their vision with one on one coaching and facilitation of Peer Boards.

In 1983, he was a 16-year-old at East Otago Boys High School, and the Young Enterprise Scheme was operating in a handful of schools around New Zealand. The average weekly wage was $293 and there were 118, 594 registered companies in the country, approximately 17% of today’s total.

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So, do you want to start by telling us a bit about your Young Enterprise Scheme business?

We created our own greeting cards, got them printed and put them in packs of 6, and wrapped them in cellophane. We didn’t set the world on fire by making lots of money, but even the Young Enterprise Scheme back then was very basic.

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What differences do you see between when you did YES in the 1980s and today?

The ability for us to work on it before and after school was limited. No one had a car back then; you couldn't travel to meet each other. You had no cell phones, no text messages, and you couldn't do conference calls or anything like that, so everything was done pretty much during school as far as the collaboration was concerned. Now, you’ve got group chats, and social media, everyone can message any time.

Technology has made a huge difference as well. If you look back to the early 80s, that's when the technological age kicked off. We had one computer at the school that was locked in a room. It was a big old Apple; it was a massive thing. It was purple and the only kid I knew that was able to use it was the principal’s son.

It was very different from what it is now, particularly in your ability to market. Since we had no social media, and everything was kind of word-of-mouth, or you put flyers out, a lot of the people we sold to were family and friends.

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And the journey from high school to career was very different as well, right?

In the 1980s, a lot of students left school after Year 11 and went into apprenticeships. I’ve done jobs now that wouldn’t exist back then. The creation of new businesses, new roles, and new functions or projects is massive now. I think the opportunity to go through the Young Enterprise Scheme in high school and come out of that ready or have started your own business is way better now than what it was back in my time.

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How much of that do you think is down to someone having an entrepreneurial mindset, or a different way of thinking about business?

You can have an entrepreneurial mindset and be an entrepreneur, but not own a business. There are all sorts of things that come with entrepreneurial thinking that will enhance a lot of aspects of different businesses, whether you’re the owner or the CEO, or a team member. One of the key things is that people can come through Young Enterprise and realise they can contribute. If they end up working in an environment where they foster that innovation as well, and feel that they are listened to, those businesses will thrive.

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Is this something that comes up in your current job?

‍In my current role, I work with a lot of business owners. A common thing in their decision to start a business is that they have a business mindset, sure. But they also have a mindset of wanting to do it themselves and a desire to be more in control of their destiny. They see an opportunity to fill a gap and no one’s filling it, so they think “Why don’t I do that?”. But almost every single one of them had to overcome their fears to make that decision.

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Do you think there are skills or lessons you learned from YES that you continue to apply today?

Working with other people on the business side of things because you did have to collaborate a bit more than what we had before and if I look back, what I learned from there is that you've got to try and work with each other and get consensus on things. People have different levels of skill but also different levels of interest and motivation to get into it. I think it's the same in business and life. You may be the keenest and most focused person but that doesn't necessarily mean everyone is going to have the same level of keenness and focus on what you do. As a kid, that could be incredibly frustrating and probably still is frustrating to me now for me to be fair.

There are a lot of interpersonal skills that you’re developing at that young age when you’re influenced by things that are going on around you. Those are some of the years that form who we’re going to be as we become adults and as we go through life, so those life skills are valuable.

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How was it coming back in as a mentor so many years after doing YES at high school?

I’ve been a part of Young Enterprise in many ways for several years, from being a student to a mentor later on. I appreciated the opportunity to go back into it, and it was pretty cool to see how it had changed.

The other thing I learned through that is that the level of motivation and drive is important. If you've got goals that you've set as a group that you've all agreed on, then you’re going to be a lot more successful. And that certainly is true in business anywhere. If everyone knows what you're trying to achieve and why, you have a way better chance of getting there, as opposed to people doing it for different reasons.

As a mentor, I had one team with quite a big company, and the two students leading it asked if they could fire the rest of their team because they didn’t feel like the others were contributing. I said, “It’s entirely up to you”, so they did, and they did well because they were focused and had a shared goal. What they wanted to do was make enough money to buy a laptop each for university, and they did it.

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What impact do you think the Young Enterprise Scheme has on students as they progress into the real world?

I hope that the Young Enterprise Scheme helps people to be better colleagues, better bosses, better employees, and better business owners because I think that experience as a young person can be something that will benefit you for that in the future.

Success in business is not just about the profits, or the profile of the business or winning awards. A lot of it is about the people that became the way they are because of their interactions with others. I think that students that have gone through Young Enterprise and have focused on that, somewhere along the line that experience will help them do something cool.

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What advice would you give to students who are thinking about doing YES?

Firstly, have a crack at it. If you’re thinking about it, just go through with it and see what you think. You won’t have a good feel for it until you do.

Secondly, work with people you know you’re going to enjoy working with and find out what everyone wants from it. Find some common ground to focus on. Make sure you can also achieve the individuals’ goals along the way, and check in on a regular basis to say, “How are we going?”. If you can do that well, you’ll have a much higher chance of succeeding.

Finally, it’s not about making money. I mean, making money's cool and it’s nice if you can, but that’s not the bottom line. It’s about making a difference, whatever that difference may be. Plenty of start-ups around the world lose money for years. It’s better to have a purpose that is not focused on money and be focused on getting there, as a business and as an individual.

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Learn more about The Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme