You might not think of professional musicians are entrepreneurs, but in the world of hip-hop – where artists often start their own studios – it’s not that unusual. While media pundits like Bill O’Reilly hammer the recording industry for negatively influencing young people, there are also examples of hip-hop artists helping to mold young people into tomorrow’s business leaders.

One such artist is Common, whose last album debuted at No. 1 and who recently co-starred with Denzel Washington in “American Gangster.”

Common launched the Common Ground Foundation, which supports youth-empowerment organizations. One of those organizations is the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), which focuses on helping students in low-income metropolitan areas learn the skills necessary to start their own businesses.

In a recent article in the Chicago Sun-Times, Common explained his motive for supporting NFTE. “Youth are the future and our tomorrow,” he said. “If they believe in themselves and know how to do for themselves, then they will know how to build a better community.”

As an entrepreneur himself, Common should understand the necessity of seizing an opportunity, and opportunity is what NFTE provides.

According to the NFTE, “In an NFTE program, students learn business concepts, practice skills including negotiation and pricing and work on completion of business plans for their own individual businesses.”

Each year, students who have developed the best business plans are honored by the organization’s Entrepreneur of the Year awards. Winners from 2007 included Andrew John Kutches from San Francisco, who took an NFTE class while in a juvenile facility and parlayed the lessons into an apprenticeship at a construction firm and, later, his own construction company.

Paola Calcedo of Miami started a tutoring service, thanks to the guidance of the NFTE program at her school. Sarai Mykelle Jefferies developed a business plan for her customized greeting card company through NFTE in Baltimore, and Matthew Ryan Elliot founded a computer repair company with the help of NFTE.

There has always been a debate about what should be taught to our children in school, whether it’s sex education, evolutionary theory or even Mark Twain. For businesspeople of any stripe, however, this is one issue about which there should be no debate – teaching kids good business is just plain good sense.

Young people are naturally inventive, and high school is the perfect place to give them the know-how to capitalize on their ideas.

The people who will shape the business world in the 21st century are in America’s schools right now.

Supporting organizations like NFTE is a way for your business to make sure that those future entrepreneurs make the most of their ideas and energy. For more information on NFTE, visit www.nfte.com.