In Saturday's OpEd in the New York Times, Tom Friedman wrote, "We need to get millions of American kids, not just the geniuses, excited about innovation and entrepreneurship again."

In 2001, Frances Hesselbein, founding President of The Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, now the Leader to Leader Institute wrote "When the Roll is Called in 2010," "To meet the challenges and opportunities of the years to come requires hard work..." In the article, Frances listed a detailed checklist, "not just for survival, but for a successful journey to 2010." One piece of advice was to "Develop the leadership mind-set that embraces innovation as a life force, not as a technological improvement. Adopting Peter Drucker's definition: Innovation is change that creates a new dimension of performance." 

Tom Friedman's OpEd prompted Donna Fenn, on the Inc. blog to write "The Entrepreneurial Generation" and Ms. Fenn actually describes meeting Frances Hesselbein:

"Last month, I had the incredible privilege of having tea with Frances Hesselbein, former CEO of the Girl Scouts, founder of the Leader to Leader Institute, and now the Chair for the Study of Leadership at West Point (she’s the first woman appointee and the first non-graduate of West Point to hold the position). Ms. Hesselbein, who Peter Drucker described as one of the greatest leaders he had ever met, knows leadership when she sees it. And she told me with great enthusiasm that she views the current generation of cadets at West Point as the most promising group of future leaders she has ever met. Why? “They understand the importance of service,” she said. And she wasn’t talking just about service to one’s country, but to communities in general. “The first thing they want to tell you about is the volunteer work they’re doing,” she said. I found the same to be to be true among the young entrepreneurs I interviewed for my book: 70% said their companies had a social mission. But make no mistake: they’re laser-focused on the bottom line as well and they understand why growing a profitable, sustainable company that creates jobs is a social good in and of itself. It’s pretty clear to me: this is a generation worth investing in."

In Frances Hesselbein's words: "To serve is to live."