At 19, Colin Lee migrated with his family from Malaysia with no job in sight. Ten years later and the Baulkham Hills resident and entrepreneur already has an imposing series of awards to his name and he has just added another to the list, the 2009 Best Young Gun In Business, out of 500 applicants from all over Australia. His entrepreneur education program is not only supporting him but is growing faster than he ever imagined.

Four years ago, he set up Shift International, a business that inspires young people to help people to be inspired and to achieve goals they may have thought they were never capable of. The company conducts workshops around schools for years 10, 11 and 12 with the focus on teaching employment, communication skills and increasing confidence.

So not only is he successful in business, but he is helping others and ensuring the future of his adoptive country by helping the next generation learn through entrepreneur education. And it is his openhearted philosophy that translates into success.

Lee says that over the years that they have run hundreds of programs for more than 30,000 young people, it has become evident that deep down, young people across all ages, cultures and sexes today want to inspire and be inspired, to be considered important and supported.

They mostly run programs in NSW schools and have expanded into Victoria and Canberra, with the plan being to crack Brisbane, Perth and eventually Asia.

According to Lee, it’s all a journey and entrepreneur education is getting him on the right road it seems.

Shane Krider- Polaris Media Group

I met a guy the other day who  got me thinking…..is there a difference between being cocky and arrogant and self reliance – that art of  being self assured?

I reckon there is. Cocky seems to be a word bandied about when describing a young kid full of brash bravado, and that’s about right. Especially these days when it seems to be the norm to listen to bad poetry over a bone-crunching bass while swaggering down the street like a wannabe hip-hop gangsta (sic).

But this guy wasn’t cocky. Not a bit. Just calm and collected. Young, certainly. Stupid? No. Cocky? Far from it.

He owns a small business and his competence has carried him through some dark patches. I could see it in his eyes. He was completely sure of himself and his business. He knew it inside and out, and lived it. The recession hasn’t affected him. If you can believe it – he has expanded.

I asked him if he used to be called cocky when he was younger. Sure was, he said.  But then he was exposed to some life lessons and he realised he didn’t know everything. He found that he could learn from successful entrepreneurs. He followed his dream and he’s living the good life.

It is guys like this who give me hope. A bit of entrepreneur education and mentoring and the self-reliance kicks in. Then the world is their oyster.

Shane Krider- Polaris Media Group