Study Links High School Friends to Higher Midlife Entrepreneur Earnings Decades Later
Updated
Updated · The Conversation · Aug 20
Study Links High School Friends to Higher Midlife Entrepreneur Earnings Decades Later
3 articles · Updated · The Conversation · Aug 20
Summary
Two long-running U.S. cohorts showed that teenagers with friends who later built incorporated companies were more likely to become business owners themselves and earned more from those ventures in midlife.
That link did not appear for friends who later did only informal self-employment, suggesting visible, formal company-building matters more than freelance or solo contract work.
The study could not fully separate peer influence from self-selection: lasting and faded friendships were similarly predictive, implying adolescent ties may either transmit entrepreneurial examples or reveal shared traits such as risk tolerance.
For Canada, where Futurpreneur applications rose 50% last quarter and most support starts at age 18, the findings suggest entrepreneurship policy may need to reach students earlier in school.