I’ll be posting photos from Fashion and Finance later this week. In the meantime, I wanted to share this great TED talk.

In the video from the conference in Edmonton earlier this year, entrepreneur Cameron Herold argues schools are stifling, rather than nurturing, entrepreneurialism and offers some solutions.  Follow the discussion on this TED talk or share your opinions below.

Skirt! is a very cool online and print magazine that’s all about women, work, play, creativity, and style. Every month an expert shares advice in a section Skirt! calls “Girl’s First.” This month, they asked Joline to share her advice for aspiring entrepreneurs. Check out three of her tips below, or see full article in Skirt.

1. Be weird.
Before you start a project, pass your idea through the Ben & Jerry’s test. Ask yourself, is it weird enough? Don’t waste your valuable time on something someone else can do easily.

2. Take yourself seriously.
It’s the difference between “maybe someday” and “yesterday I did.” People who believe in themselves get things done. And not taking yourself seriously gives others license to do the same. Never say, “But, I’m a girl,” or “But, I’m too young.” Just do it.

3. Learn the language.
If you’re going to start a business you need to talk the talk. Read the business pages. Subscribe to Inc. and GOOD magazines. Take a business course. Intern for savvy businesswomen. In no time you’ll be fluent in profit, net income, assets, debt and a hundred other business words.

Read all of Joline’s Entrepreneurial Eight.

Don’t undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.
Edwin Land, inventor, founder of Polaroid

Edwin Land challenged the laws of physics to invent instant photography, in the pre-dawn days of digital imaging. Land was still in his lab when I worked for Polaroid (I was very young) and to be in that environment in those days was to know what it meant to work for someone who believed in his bones that impossible is just a state of mind.

image via SavePolaroid

Friends and colleagues know that I carry Land’s conviction with me. Like a tube of lipstick in my purse, I am never without it. And three pieces of news in the last few days reinforced my adherence to Land’s directive.

The first is the passage of the Health Care Bill. Though still under siege, I know that families concerned about the safety of uninsured 20-somethings will rest easier as they understand the implications of what the bill means to them.

Fifty percent of all college grads under 25 are working at jobs that do not require a college degree. This suggests that millions of twenty-somethings work at jobs that don’t offer health insurance. And though you hope young adults are healthy, life happens, and an emergency appendectomy, an accident, or a virus picked up while traveling can undermine the economics of the most financially secure families.

As one dad said to me: “My son [23] doesn’t want to spend the money to get health insurance. But if anything happened to him I would of course spend whatever it takes to care for him. Of course, that has consequences for the rest of my family…” Giving kids a chance to ‘launch’ without the extra burden of hefty healthy insurance bills is a boon to family economics and peace of mind.

The second bit of news is the Impossible Project’s Announcement that the film made famous by the SX-70 camera) has in fact been recreated and is available to serious photo buffs. Read more about this improbable story. I love watching people challenge the notion of ‘impossible!’

And finally, some impossible news of my own. Going through old files this week, our editor came across an 2002 WSJ article profiling financial education firms. Of six companies mentioned, only two on are still operating. Building a company, any company, is an almost impossible task. And that our vision—‘financial education, it’s not JUST about the money’ still resonates with clients, friends, investors, and partners is encouragement enough for me to stay committed to the ‘impossible.’

The devastating news from Haiti will, like the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, launch thousands of new recruits to philanthropic action. This is a good thing as the world needs all the humanitarian soldiers we can get.  And it’s good news for that stricken country. Until the 7.0 earthquake struck, Haiti was the second poorest country in the western hemisphere–the quake could move it into first place. They have extraordinary needs.

So what parent, faced with the heartfelt plea of a teenager (“I want to use my spring break to build shelters in Haiti,”) or the well-reasoned argument of a college student (“..taking a semester off to help rebuild the country will be good experience,”) could/would turn them down?

Hopefully not many. But this sad moment is a teachable moment. Encouraging humanitarian concern doesn’t have to be accompanied by a willful suspension of critical thinking. “Yes, I support your desire to make a difference,” can be followed by questions and criteria that will make the aid effort, whatever it is, more effective, while reducing some of the risk that comes with a plan not well considered.

Five parental requests will help high school and college students make a real contribution to disaster relief. “I support your intention,” the wise parent responds. “And if you respond to my needs with the same care you hope to respond to the needs of the [Haitians, homeless, etc.], we’ll do our best to support your plans.”

1. You have to do a thorough due diligence. This is a skill that will serve a lifetime of needs (from supporting philanthropic causes to taking a job or investing in a new company). But if they’ve never been involved in a disciplined process of investigating the capacity of an organization, they will need direction. Send them to the web to read “Exercising Due Diligence for Disaster Relief.” Written in 2004, it’s an excellent brief on what to look for in a ‘helping’ organization.
2. Show me what you know. [about Haiti, the homeless, etc]. The video feeds are powerful and YouTube will be running footage that fuels an understanding of how dire conditions in Haiti are. But a blind impulse to help, untempered by an understanding of context and on the ground conditions will put everyone at risk. Help them find a few knowledgeable adults who can provide background (you have a wide social network, now is the time to tap it). Send them back to the Internet to gather data on issues that were active before the quake. Encourage them to confer with teachers or professors who have expertise in Caribbean and/or Latin American politics and issues. Ask them to consider urgent needs versus long term needs.
3. Give me a budget. This is another way of helping them understand what they’re getting into.  They will be working with people, many of whom make less in a year than the cost of sending kids to the front lines. Require the work of tallying the cost of tickets to the site, accommodations (no matter how humble), food, and out of pocket cash needs that may come up while they are there. Which do they think will make greater impact: their presence or the money they would have spent to get there? The answer may be ‘both’ but walking them through the consideration may be an eye opener.
4. Inventory your skills. Kids who are caring, smart, and brave enough to volunteer for disaster work typically have plenty of human capital to contribute. But it will be better directed if they can articulate what their human assets are. Energy and physical strength may be obvious, but ask them to create as comprehensive a list of their contributions as possible. Help them think about the basics: Can they cook? Do they know how to assemble things? What experiences have helped prepare them for this task? Do they have first aid skills? Do they speak other languages? Granular skills: the ability to communicate, move things, solve problems, sustain life, are critical in the aftermath of a disaster.
5. Show me a plan for your own safety net. In other words, who do they know who will also be there, what networks can they tap in case of a personal emergency? What provisions will they need for their own sustenance? Do they have medical issues that will be compromised? What can they expect in terms of climate, resources, etc.

If your young humanitarian demonstrates preparedness, you might want offer more than a blessing and resource support. You might decide to go with them. Our list is a great start, but kids interested should take a look at this list from Take Part  to get an idea of the breadth of organizations offering help.

As we start a new year, kids are more economically mindful than they were in 2008.  A newspaper headline in December noted, “Recession? Teenagers Get It, and Are Cutting Back.” But that’s cold comfort to parents dealing with young people behaving badly with money.

Financial acting out is an oft-hidden family secret.  Family tensions, depression, powerlessness (and prematurely gray hair) are linked with concerns about prolonged financial irresponsibility. Financial oblivion at 10 is normal; at 16 it’s a concern; by 25 it’s a chronic and serious problem. And the issue is as prevalent in families with significant assets as in those just eking it out. It’s not about the money, it’s about the behavior.

Your family could learn from a probation violation reduction program.

Steven Alm, a state trial judge in Hawaii intent on reducing the prison population in that state, developed a strategy families will do well to emulate. As Jeffrey Rosen tells the story in the New York Times Magazine, Judge Alm’s effort, a program called HOPE (Hawaii’s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement), had almost immediate success.

The Judge observed that the state prison population was swelling, in large part because parolees continuously violated probation and were inevitably sent back to prison. He asked himself, “What did I do when my son was young?” And told writer Jeff Rosen, “If he misbehaved, I talked to him and warned him, and if he disregarded the warning, I gave him some kind of consequence right away.” So, Rosen reports, Alm reasoned that if parolees knew a probation violation would lead immediately to some certain punishment, they might shape up.

Alm began with a fair warning. At a hearing for 34 offenders, he announced that if any of them tested positive for drugs or missed an appointment, they would be arrested within hours and most would have a hearing within 72 hours. Those found to have violated probation would be quickly sentenced to a short jail term proportionate to the severity of the violation — typically a few days. Like a good parent, Alm added,

I can guarantee that everyone in this courtroom wants you to succeed on probation, but you have not been cutting it. From now on, you’re going to follow all the rules of probation, and if you don’t, you’re going to be arrested on the spot and spend some time in jail right away.

Alm steeled himself to handle a flood of parole violations. That didn’t happen. Rosen says, “There were only three hearings in the first week, two in the second week and none in the third. Within six months, parolees return to prison fell by 93%, compared to 14% in a comparison group.”  How did Judge Alm change the behavior of parolees?

Child development specialists have long understood that threat of mild punishment, reliable and immediate (loss of cell phone privileges for a few days), is more effective than threats of severe punishment that’s delayed and uncertain (that unfilled threat that “your father will never allow you to use the car again”). As Rosen notes, current research in behavioral economics demonstrates that “people are more sensitive to the immediate than the slightly deferred future and focus more on how likely an outcome is than how bad it is.”

Rosen reports that, “in the course of implementing HOPE, Alm discovered another reason why the strategy works: people are most likely to obey the law when they’re subject to punishments they perceive as legitimate, fair and consistent, rather than arbitrary and capricious. “When the system isn’t consistent and predictable, when people are punished randomly, they think, ‘My probation officer [my parent] doesn’t like me, or, Someone’s prejudiced against me,” Alm told Rosen, “rather than seeing that everyone who breaks a rule is treated equally, in precisely the same way.”

Parents who are ready to ‘re-launch’ family expectations and financial behavior as part of a new start to 2010 may find that emulating Judge Alm’s methods will bring about change in their own family. Critical to keep in mind is that the Judge started with his own behavior before expecting his parolees to change theirs. Often that’s the hardest part.

Read the full report.

Our very own Scotty Claus (a.k.a. Scott Martin), founder of The Living Christmas Company, has just been featured in The New York Times.

Our 2009 campers had the chance to meet Scott, tour one of his tree nurseries, and talk with him about the ins and outs of starting his own company. It was a Camp Start-Up highlight and one we hope to repeat next summer.

Americans say they want to become more financially confident, but they’re not providing their children with the training for economic self defense, two surveys released last week suggest.

We’re as skeptical as any sensible reader about broad claims from surveys, especially when come out of financial institutions that offer the services the survey just happens to discuss. Still, read in conjunction, these two paint an interesting landscape of the world of parents and financial preparation in 2009 and 2010.

Via Northwestern Mutual

In a survey of users of its financial literacy website TheMint.org Northwestern Mutual Foundation found a gulf between how adults and kids perceived the impact of the economy on their families. Almost half of those 18 and over (47%) said “the economy brought their families closer by working together to change their spending habits and priorities.” But only around one in four children aged 17 and younger (27%) agreed. In fact, about a quarter said family members had “drifted further apart.”

Another statistic may make some sense of the disparity: 50% if children said their parents didn’t discuss the family budget or do anything differently.

We’ve talked about this time and again: it is essential that families discuss finances and the family economy openly.

Even if families were not been directly impacted by the downturn–and with everything from employment rates to university endowments taking considerable hits this last year, few were completely unscathed–they need to talk about it with children if only to inculcate Money Skill #5: How to Talk About Money.

Silence communicates, however inadvertently, that all is well and these are not issues for their concern. These are issues of their concern and will become much more important as they transition to adulthood. A reasoned discussion will help to calm fears and establish context.

Another study adds an interesting, if conflicted, note to this. In telephone survey of 1,000 Americans age 18 and over, Fidelity Investments found more Americans are considering financial resolutions. According to the survey, 43% said they were “more likely to consider financial resolutions,” an increase of 23 percent from the year prior. Seven in ten said they want to increase their confidence level in their finances. People want to get this stuff.

Again, a skeptical reader should take any of these press release surveys by institutions about products and services they provide with a grain of salt (e.g. ‘National Salt Institute Survey Finds 85% if Americans prefer salt on their popcorn!’). But even with dubiety, we can glean something from these surveys:

Americans want to become more financially savvy, but they aren’t taking the critical steps to extend that to the whole family.

If 2010 is to be the year that changes anything, let alone the year that changes everything, as some have suggested, Americans will need to step up and learn to discuss finances with their children and give a clear and consistent message.

U.S. Teens are smoking and drinking less, new report finds.

We know it’s been a long time since we’ve shared something great with you, but rest assured we’re hard at work preparing great material for 2010. For now, a bit of good news: 15-year-olds in the U.S. smoke and drink less than teens in other countries around the world, according to a new survey.

In its Economix blog, the New York Times reports on a report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development that finds the percentage of teens in the U.S. that reported being drunk twice in their lifetimes was half that of teens in the United Kingdom, a leading country in the survey. New York Times tempers the good news with a bit of the bad: while children in the United States seem to have avoided the vices of alcohol and cigarettes, the rate of childhood obesity in the United States appears to be more than three times greater than the rate in the Netherlands, which had the lowest ranking.

For those of you waiting for a Joline post, look forward to a year end recap and reflection very soon.

In the week before Thanksgiving, we’re busy putting together new programs for client families, but a few things on the web seemed worth sharing:

• Wall Street Journal’s Neal Templin grumbles about the wastefulness and inefficiency of gift cards. His wife, who actually buys gifts, begs to differ. Newsletter readers will remember we talked about some alternatives in our last issue.
• The Atlantic looks at the anti-debt gospel of Dave Ramsey. We don’t want to give away spoilers, but the consensus seems to be debt is not good.
• Deloitte wants to teach new employees about ethics. “The young people, coming out of all schools, care about this in a way that others didn’t,” says a Deloitte partner.
• The New York Times looks at the correlation between teen unemployment and minimum wage. The paper makes readers wait for a conclusion.
• On that note, Slate says employment will return sooner than some predict.

So cool we just had to share it. This video shows different ways people in different countries count their money. Watch with the kids to spark another money conversation. [via VSL]