Warren Miller Freedom Foundation

Warren Miller is undeniably an entrepreneur. His entrepreneurship evolved out of a need for food and gas as he lurched from one alpine region to another as a bona fide ski bum while filming and building his company, and for the most part, an entire industry. To honor Warren and to enable others to learn from his life-long entrepreneurial endeavors, the Warren Miller Freedom Foundation has been formed to teach ethical principles of business and entrepreneurship to young people, and young is sometimes a relative term.

The social and economic strength of Western society in respect to small business communities, is largely influenced by those who conceive, plan, build and operate a business well. Shouldering all the challenges and responsibilities inherent in business ownership builds incredible strength of character, sense of accomplishment, responsibility and self worth. All of this has been gained by Warren over the course of his life as an entrepreneur and is being shared through the Foundation’s programs.

The Warren Miller Freedom Foundation will stimulate, challenge, educate, and train young teens to open their own businesses.

Overindulgent parents make it unnecessary for many kids to work, and the insurance and legal systems make it impossible for many young people to work legally. They miss learning early some of the most important life lessons such as how to be independent, financially responsible, goal oriented and dedicated.

The Foundation is named after Warren as he is a great example of entrepreneurship when you reflect on his ski bum days and the freedom earned by his successes. Successful entrepreneurs and small business owners spring from a “hunger within”, in many cases it is sadly the hunger in the tummy. For others, it is the hunger for achievement. An important responsibility in parenting is to provide children and teens with that which they need to develop independence avoiding a sense of entitlement.

The components of starting and operating a lawn mowing service or a babysitting business are the same as if one was starting the new Boeing, Nordstrom’s or Microsoft. Every business starts from scratch, and each require careful and thoughtful planning and execution. Taking away the uncertainty or fear is an important element to help someone take the step to form their own business. We are developing a curriculum to help teens learn this in a non-lecture format. The program will teach them how to start their own companies, develop business plans and recognize why each component is important. They will market their plan; track their expenses and income; write periodic reports of their progress and, when all this has started to make sense to them, teach them more about how our whole system works. We will share with them how lucky we are to live in this country and the responsibilities we have to pay taxes and support the infrastructure of roads, national parks, police and fire forces. We limit the ‘class room’ environment, and stimulate them to get out and try their ideas in a practical, hands-on learning experience.