About

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• Rules
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• Winners Receive

OK, so you might be saying to yourself, "Umm, I think this guy needs to go back to the first grade. He spelled 'forward' wrong." To which I'd reply, "I AM slow, and clearly not the sharpest tool in the shed, BUT there's a method to my misspelling here."

Fourward is the name of my company. More importantly though, fourward is the way I try to live my life. Fourward is a result of all the books that I've read, people I've met, sights I've seen, and experiences I've had. In one word, fourward reminds me of everything that I need to do to realize my wildest dreams. I'm sharing it with you because I think that it can help you too. Fourward is all about moving forward in life through four really basic, yet underappreciated principles. They are:

• Be positive (maintain a positive attitude at ALL times)
• Be patient (live in the moment, take life one day and one step at a time)
• Be passionate (have a burning love for what you do)
• Be persistent (relentlessly move four..I mean forward until you reach your goal)

When you really think about it, life boils down to two choices: "I can" or "I cannot." The power to choose lies solely with you, and the attitude that you choose to hold. You can be positive or you can be negative. Choosing positive will lead not only to more happiness, but also greater success. If you think that you can achieve a certain thing. If you truly believe that you can achieve that certain thing. If you are patient, and take things one step at a time. If you are passionate about what you're doing. If you work persistently towards you goal... You WILL achieve it. I have no doubt in my mind about that. Be careful though because it's a double-edged sword. If you allow any doubt or negativity to creep in and linger in your mind, you are going to fail. Period. As Henry Ford once said, "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, either way you are right." I could go on and on, but I'll save that for another day. On to the competition!

The goal of this competition is two-fold: One, to show high school students that they do not necessarily have to work for someone else for the rest of their lives...they do have another option: They can be an entrepreneur. In other words, they can be in business for themselves, doing something that they truly like (or hopefully, LOVE) doing.

And two, to give the competition winner the tools necessary to successfully get their idea off the ground. "So what kind of business should I start though?" a student might ask. I would respond with some questions of my own. What are some things that make you want to keep moving fourward? What are you passionate about? What subject or topic can keep you interested for hours on end? What kinds of things make you the happiest? Now obviously these questions are not the be all, end all when it comes to identifying business opportunities. However, putting oneself in this frame of mind, while persistently thinking of of associated potential business opportunities will more often than not lead to some kind of actionable business idea. Holy crap, what?!? In plain English: Thinking this way plus constantly asking yourself good questions, will usually lead to an idea you can run with! Here are some more questions one might ask themselves to get their entrepreneurial juices flowing: What is it about X that you love so much? Is there anything you could think of that would make you love X even more? If so, do you think it would do the same for other lovers of X? What is the one thing that annoys you most about X? Why does it annoy you? Do you think it annoys others as well? What two things could you immediately do to make X less annoying? And so on...

The point of all these questions is that one question will lead to another question, and another question, and another question. At the end of your series of questions lies some type of solution. Now for my dose of reality: Just because you're passionate about something, and have a good idea related to it to pursue, does not necessarily mean that it would make a worthwhile business. You need to also ask yourself whether the idea/concept has the potential to generate revenue. Can this improvement on X put some money in your pocket? Can you make money consistently from a business in X? How much money will it take to get X going? Get the picture? Good, enough of these questions then. Click on the Enter link at the top of the page once you're ready to go! I have always been interested in the subject of entrepreneurship, and have always wanted to start my own business. Fourward was really the first idea that I truly wanted to pursue, and after further developing the idea, giving something back to society was a crucial part of my overall plan. I thought that an entrepreneurship competition funded by the company would be a great start to that giving. Plus, I want more kids to know that they do have another really cool option when it comes to their future career: They can work for themselves!