Long before television’s “The Apprentice” turned private sector enterprise into popular entertainment, Utah Business Week was making corporate culture a real-world experience for high school students. In recent years, more than a thousand Utah high schoolers have participated in Business Week, and this year—just a few weeks ago in fact—I was fortunate enough to be able to speak a group of them up at Utah State University (in Logan, UT).

In all, about 150 students were in town to learn about the principles of business, how to work as a part of a team, and participate in mock company meetings and business simulations. The weeklong event’s organizers asked me to present an hour session on what it means to be an entrepreneur, and to share my own story for how I became a successful business owner.

As one might expect, the title of my presentation was “Adventures in Entrepreneurship” (why reinvent the wheel, right), and after covering my upbringing on a farm and how that experience taught me the value of hard work, I dove right into the meat of the presentation, which covered:

1. Risk versus Reward
2. The Law of the Harvest
3. Being a Firefighter or a Firestarter
4. The Value of Specialization

The most valuable part of the presentation though, I thought, was the part on Risk versus Reward. Rather than present a bunch of boring PowerPoint slides or talk the subject to death, I made it experiential (“hands-on” if you will). In preparation, I brought three decks of playing cards with me to the talk. One deck of cards I left intact; one had all the diamonds and hearts removed; and the third contained only spades.

After telling the students what I had done to each deck, I asked for three volunteers but stipulated that each needed to have cash-in-hand in order to participate. Not a lot of hands shot up at first, but eventually three students came forward to help out.

Here’s what happened next:

• Once the first student came to the front of the auditorium, I posed the following question: “Using the first deck–the one that I left intact–how much of your own money would you be wiling to risk on being able to pull either the Jack, Queen, King, or Ace of Spades?” She bet $8.00, and with only an 8 percent chance of pulling it off, she lost, and I kept her $8.00. (Hey, it’s risk versus rewards, right? You risk, you lose, and someone else gets your money. That’s how it works!)
• The next student was given the same option but with the second deck (the one with all the diamonds and hearts removed). The odds this time around were about 16 percent in his favor, and with that in mind, he risked $10.00 on being able to pull either the Jack, Queen, King, or Ace of Spades from deck number two. Unfortunately, he didn’t win either, so I was up $18.00 (great, enough for gas money for the drive back to Orem).
• The final volunteer had the best odds of all. Using the third deck–the one that contained only spades–there was a 32 percent chance that the student would pull either the Jack, Queen, King, or Ace of Spades; but like the other two, he lost, and I counted his $10.00 towards my winnings.

“Entrepreneurship is a lot like gambling,” I told the packed auditorium; “You risk, and you might you be rewarded; but as we saw, not each and every time!” “The first person–the one who wagered $8.00 of her own money,” I said, “played ’straight up Las Vegas style’ gambling, which is always the most risky type of gamble there is. That’s why the Las Vegas casinos make so much money. The odds are always in their favor!”

“The second deck,” I told them, “well, that’s like entrepreneurship… you put more odds in your favor because you control more of what happens, but not entirely.”

“The final deck–the one with the best odds,” I said, “that’s like entrepreneurship with smart advisors and helpers.” “Even though the odds are more in your favor than with decks one and two, it’s still risky, as evidenced by the fact that I just added the cost of a value meal and then-some to my gas money!”

By this point, I think everyone understood the notion of Risk versus Reward. And even though I could have ended the session right then and there, I chose to go a little further. What type of entrepreneur would I be if I didn’t complete the Risk versus Reward scenario by introducing the much-heralded Venture Capitalist into the mix.

Here’s what happened next:

I pulled $500 in ten dollar bills from my pocket and said that I need three more volunteers. This time, every single hand in room shot up, and when my three volunteers came to the front of the auditorium, I asked each for their best business idea. I told them that if I liked their idea, I’d invest in it, and that with the money I invested, they could either walk away or risk some or all of it with deck number three (the one containing only the spades).

• The first volunteer’s goal was to open a nice Bed and Breakfast. I asked if this ‘nice’ B&B would have a similarly nice day spa, and since she said it would, I chose to invest $50.00 in her business. With 32 percent odds in her favor, she decided to risk $40.00 of my money on being able to pull the Jack, Queen, King, or Ace of Spades. Like the others before her, she lost, but was able to walk away with $10.00.
• The next volunteer said, “I want to open a custom electric guitar shop,” to which I replied, “Cool… do you have a celebrity sponsor or spokesperson?” ” Yep… it’s Eddie Van Halen,” he proudly proclaimed.
  
  Now let me go on a bit of a tangent for a second here. I really like Van Halen, and I really like a lot of the music from the late 80’s and early-90’s that has been referred to as ‘glam rock,’ ‘hair bands,’ and even ‘cheese rock.’ Bands like Poison, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, and Van Halen are right up my alley.
  
  Naturally, given my own passion for his business, I said, “Okay, ‘I’ll fund your business with $250.00!” The crowd went nuts with students left and right yelling, “Take the money and run!!” But, like a good entrepreneur, he said, “I’m risking $200.00!” Unfortunately, he didn’t win either, but did end up going back to his seat with $50.00 of my money.
• The final volunteer said, “My idea is to open a veterinarian business, but I’ll be different from all the others because I’ll only do house calls.” “Sounds good,” I said, “so I’ll invest $100.00 in your business,” to which she replied, “I’ll risk $50.00 of it,” and wouldn’t you know it… she pulled out the Queen of Spades and walked off stage with $150.00 (much to the applause of the audience, which was going crazy over the fact that someone had finally won).

I’m glad that the final student walked off with more than just a bit of my money. I really wanted someone to do that. Obviously, I could not have given everyone in the room $150.00 to teach that lesson, but the fact that one person did succeed… well, I’m guessing they’ll be talking for a while about that crazy entrepreneur at Utah Business Week that gave a student $150.00 as a part of a lesson in entrepreneurship.