Emphasis Preaching Journal

Steve Mariotti is the founder and president of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, a nonprofit organization which has taught 20,000 inner-city youth how to start small businesses. From his experiences as a remedial teacher in inner-city schools in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn and Fort Apache in the Bronx, Mariotti has learned that children born in poverty have special gifts that prepare them for business. They are mentally strong, resilient, and full of chutzpah. They are skeptical of hierarchies and the status quo. They are long-suffering in the face of adversity.