Archive · 21 Aug 2026
High School Friends May Shape Entrepreneurship Decades Later
Researchers studied whether the friends people had in high school were connected to becoming business owners later.
They found that people were more likely to start businesses if a teenage friend eventually created an incorporated company.
This connection appeared even decades after the friendships began.
Friends who later worked only as freelancers did not show the same connection.
People with entrepreneurial friends also earned more from their own businesses in midlife.
The study does not prove that friends directly caused these outcomes.
Friends may have shared traits, such as independence or willingness to take risks.
Or successful former classmates may have inspired one another later in life.
The researchers say schools could help young people explore entrepreneurship earlier.
A study found that teenagers with friends who later formed incorporated companies were more likely to become entrepreneurs themselves decades later.
The association extended to both incorporated and unincorporated self-employment, but not to friends who later worked informally as freelancers or solo contractors.
People whose teenage friends built incorporated companies earned more from their own ventures in midlife, even after accounting for their businesses’ legal structure.
Researchers studied two American cohorts, including one followed from the 1950s to age 65 and another followed from the 1990s into participants’ late 30s.
The findings suggest schools and policymakers may need to expose students to entrepreneurship before adulthood, while acknowledging that friendship influence and shared traits cannot be separated.
- Who
- Seok-Woo Kwon and colleagues studied two American cohorts and their teenage friendships.
- What
- The study found an association between having a high-school friend who later built an incorporated company and becoming an entrepreneur decades later.
- When
- The findings concern outcomes measured from adolescence into adulthood; the article was published August 21, 2026.
- Where
- The research examined two American cohorts, including a Wisconsin cohort, while the policy discussion focuses partly on Canada.
- Why
- The findings may help educators and policymakers understand when entrepreneurial ambitions develop and when support programmes should begin.
Social influence explanation
Shared-traits explanation
Why teenage friendships matter
Social influence explanation
Former classmates may continue sharing entrepreneurial examples through reunions, mutual acquaintances or social media, and information from meaningful connections may be especially influential.
Shared-traits explanation
Teenagers may choose friends with similar appetites for risk, independence or autonomy, so the association could reflect traits that friends already shared rather than direct influence.
What the findings establish
Social influence explanation
The results suggest that adolescent peers can be an important social pathway shaping later entrepreneurial entry and venture performance.
Shared-traits explanation
The data cannot fully distinguish friendship influence from pre-existing similarities, and friendships that faded were similarly predictive to those that continued into adulthood.
- Study subjects
- Two American cohorts were followed from adolescence into adulthood; one was tracked to participants’ late 30s and the Wisconsin cohort to age 65.
- Key association
- Teenage friends who later built incorporated companies were associated with participants’ later entry into both incorporated and unincorporated self-employment.
- Informal work
- Friends who later worked informally as solo contractors or freelancers did not predict later self-employment outcomes in the study.
- Earnings
- Participants whose teenage friends built incorporated companies later earned more from their own ventures in midlife.
- Canadian demand
- Applications to Futurpreneur rose 50 per cent in the last quarter, compared with 15 per cent growth a year earlier.
- Programme timing
- Many entrepreneurship-support programmes, including Futurpreneur’s core startup programme, begin at age 18 and expect applicants to have a business idea.