Why We Are Building NEXT in Jackson

We could build NEXT somewhere else.

We are choosing Jackson.

That choice is intentional.

Jackson is easy to criticize. People do it every day.

They talk about the roads. The schools. Crime. Businesses leaving. Empty buildings. Taxes. Leadership. Population loss. The things that are broken get plenty of attention.

What does not get nearly enough attention is the potential sitting right in front of us.

Our children.

That is why we are building NEXT here.

Not after Jackson gets better.

Not once somebody fixes everything.

Now.

Jackson's Children Are Growing Up Inside Two Different Stories

One version of Jackson says there is nothing here.

Nothing to do.

Nothing to build.

Nothing worth staying for.

You hear it casually all the time.

"You have to go to Ridgeland for that."

"You have to go to Madison."

"Nobody wants to open anything in Jackson."

"As soon as these kids grow up, they need to get out."

Imagine hearing that your entire childhood.

Then imagine adults turning around and asking why young people leave.

Children listen.

They notice where their families shop. They notice the neighborhoods adults avoid. They see empty storefronts. They hear conversations about which businesses closed this month. They hear the frustration when their parents deal with local systems.

Without realizing it, we can teach them that opportunity exists somewhere else.

NEXT exists because we reject that lesson.

There is another Jackson story.

It is a city full of people who create things.

• People run restaurants here.
• They build houses.
• They sell products.
• They practice medicine.
• They design.
• They cook.
• They repair.
• They teach.
• They create art.
• They open businesses with very little money and figure things out as they go.

There are entrepreneurs working from homes, offices, salons, storefronts, commercial kitchens, trucks, laptops, and anywhere else they can build.

Our children need to see that Jackson too.

We Have Asked Children What They Want to Be. We Need to Ask What They Want to Build.

Most children hear the same question from adults.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

A doctor.

A lawyer.

A teacher.

Maybe an engineer.

Those are good careers.

But there is another question we should ask much earlier:

What do you want to build?

A company?

A product?

An app?

A nonprofit?

A restaurant?

A clothing brand?

A technology company?

A construction business?

A farm?

A new solution for something in your own neighborhood?

Children do not usually think this way automatically. Somebody has to introduce them to the idea.

Exposure matters.

If every adult a child sees works for somebody else, employment feels like the only path.

If every business owner they know seems wealthy, distant, or completely different from them, entrepreneurship can feel like something meant for other people.

NEXT is being built to change that.

We Are Starting Earlier

Too much business education starts after someone already has a problem.

• The business is losing money.
• The owner cannot get financing.
• Their pricing is wrong.
• They do not understand taxes.
• Their credit is damaged.
• They have no systems.
• They have been operating for years without really understanding the numbers.

Then someone sends them to a workshop.

Why are we waiting?

Imagine introducing some of these ideas at 11.

At 13.

At 16.

• Teach a child what profit means before they start making money.
• Teach them how to price something before they sell it.
• Let them understand the difference between revenue and what they actually get to keep.
• Talk about credit before anybody offers them a credit card.
• Let them pitch an idea.
• Let them fail at something while the consequences are small.
• Let them make ten dollars.
• Then teach them what to do with it.

That is part of NEXT.

We Want Children to Experience Business, Not Just Hear About It

There is a huge difference between attending a lecture about entrepreneurship and having somebody actually buy something you created.

That first sale does something.

So does the first customer who says no.

• The first time you calculate what your product cost.
• The first time you realize you priced it too low.
• The first time you have to talk to a stranger about what you made.
• The first time somebody asks a question you were not prepared to answer.

Those are lessons.

NEXT will give young people room to learn them.

Our cohorts are designed around real business development. Students will be able to create ideas, build products and services, understand marketing, learn about money, use technology, and practice selling.

Then they will get opportunities to take those businesses into the real world.

That includes the NEXT Market, where students can sell directly to customers and keep what they earn.

It also includes the NEXT Shop, where young entrepreneurs can have another way to get their products in front of buyers and learn how commerce works beyond a one-day event.

That matters to me.

I do not want young people completing a program with a certificate and a folder full of worksheets.

I want them leaving with experience.

Jackson Needs More Owners

Jobs are important.

We want children prepared to work.

We also want some of them prepared to hire.

Jackson needs the future nurse.

It also needs the person who owns the healthcare company.

We need skilled tradespeople.

We also need young people thinking about how to build contracting companies that employ twenty skilled tradespeople.

We need people who understand technology.

We also need somebody from Jackson creating the technology.

That shift from worker to owner does not happen because we yell, "Be an entrepreneur."

Ownership requires knowledge.

It requires confidence.

Sometimes it requires permission.

A child may need somebody to tell them:

Yes. You could own that.

Technology Changes the Stakes

Our children are coming of age during a major shift in how work gets done.

Artificial intelligence is already changing business.

Children growing up now will enter a workforce where AI is ordinary.

Some young people will learn to use these tools to build companies, automate work, analyze information, create products, solve business problems, and make money.

Others will only know how to ask an AI tool to write something for them.

Those are very different levels of opportunity.

Jackson children deserve access to the deeper end of that conversation.

We want them learning how technology works inside a business.

• How can AI help a company serve customers?
• How could technology help a restaurant?
• What could it do for a contractor?
• Could a student build a simple AI solution for a local nonprofit?
• Could they create their own digital product?
• Could they use technology to solve something they see in Jackson every day?

Those are the questions we want them asking.

NEXT Is Also About Keeping Talent Here

Jackson has lost people.

We talk about that like it is some mystery.

It is not hard to understand why people leave a place when they believe their best opportunities exist somewhere else.

The solution cannot be telling young adults to stay simply because Jackson needs them.

We have to build a city they can imagine themselves succeeding in.

That begins long before adulthood.

• Children need relationships here.
• Opportunities here.
• Mentors here.
• Customers here.
• Connections here.
• A reason to believe that they can build something meaningful without leaving Mississippi to find permission.

Some of our NEXT students will leave Jackson one day.

That's okay.

We are not building cages.

We are building options.

I want a young person to leave because they choose to explore the world, not because they believe Jackson has nothing to offer them.

And I want Jackson to be the kind of place they consider coming back to.

We Cannot Wait for Government to Solve Every Problem

Government matters.

Policy matters.

Schools matter.

Economic development matters.

We should hold institutions accountable when systems make it harder for families, children, or businesses to succeed.

NEXT will do that too.

But we cannot spend ten more years waiting on everybody to agree about what should happen.

There are children growing up right now.

They do not get those years back.

• If we believe young people need greater exposure to business, then expose them.
• If we believe they need mentors, bring mentors into the room.
• If they need opportunities to sell, create a market.
• If they need technology education, teach it.
• If they need to meet business owners, introduce them.

Sometimes community development starts with somebody deciding to build what they wish already existed.

NEXT is our decision.

And Jackson Businesses Have a Role in This

NEXT should not belong only to the people who work inside the organization.

This should become part of Jackson's business community.

• A restaurant owner can talk to students about food cost.
• An attorney can explain contracts.
• A contractor can show what it takes to bid on a project.
• A banker can explain business credit.
• A marketer can help a student sell something.
• A developer can explain commercial property.
• A business owner can open their doors for a field trip.
• Somebody can sponsor a student who could not otherwise participate.
• Somebody can purchase from a young entrepreneur at the NEXT Market.

You do not have to start a youth organization to help build the next generation of Jackson entrepreneurs.

You can bring what you know.

Why Jackson?

Because these are our children.

Because this is our city.

Because Jackson's challenges are real, and pretending otherwise serves nobody.

But its potential is real too.

I am tired of watching those two things discussed as though only one can be true.

Jackson can have serious problems and extraordinary young people.

The city can frustrate us and still be worth investing in.

We can demand better leadership and still take responsibility for what we build ourselves.

We can acknowledge what has been lost without deciding that everything worth creating has already left.

NEXT is not being built because Jackson is an easy place to build.

We are building here because this is exactly where the work is needed.

We want a generation of Jackson children who look at their city and see more than its problems.

• They see customers.
• Property.
• Technology.
• Business ideas.
• Needs they can solve.
• Companies that have not been created yet.
• And opportunities they have the ability to create for somebody else.

That is the Jackson story I want them to inherit.

Now we have to help them write it.