Understanding the entrepreneurial mindset
of disengaged young people
Before supporting, you need to understand. These young people don't lack motivation - they lack visible ways in. What you see as passivity is often caution learned from systems that have already let them down.
Marvin explains it from his own path: what makes the difference is mindset. But mindset can't be decreed - it's built with time, trust and experiences of success, however small.
Your role: create those experiences. Not imposing a model, but opening a space where trust can be rebuilt.
Deep-rooted impostor syndrome. Lack of nearby role models. Often a negative school experience. No professional network.
Real informal skills: organising, motivating, managing a group, keeping a commitment. This capital exists - it's just invisible to them.
Not money, not qualifications. It's personal legitimacy. "It's not for me" is the phrase heard most often on the ground.
A role model who looks like them. A first successful experience. Someone who believes in them before they believe in themselves.
"First of all, I think it's my mindset. I've always been someone who moves forward. I was won over by the project and that helped me a lot. It's about not giving up, being determined and questioning yourself a lot - because you don't always do good work."
In priority neighbourhoods, the impostor syndrome young people experience is often doubled, for women, by an extra obstacle: the legitimacy to occupy a sporting and entrepreneurial space still largely designed for men. Fewer visible female role models, less encouragement to see themselves as project leaders or coaches, sometimes different family or social pressure depending on gender.
It isn't inevitable; it's a starting point for support. Showcasing women entrepreneurs in sport matters as much as showcasing young people from the neighbourhoods. The two often add up and reinforce each other.
Approaching entrepreneurship
with NEET audiences
Alessandra Machado, sports educator and founder of the association Passerelle, sums up the challenge in one sentence: "It's not pedagogy, it's andragogy." These are adults with life experience. Build on it, don't ignore it.
Sport is a powerful lever - but it can also hold people back if the approach isn't right. Pressure to perform pushes away those who already feel illegitimate.
Start with what they already do. Not with what they should do. An exploratory conversation before any theory.
Organising a tournament = project management. Motivating a group = leadership. Your role: translate the informal into recognisable skills.
Like Alessandra with her instructors - they were her students first. The supporter learns too. Show it.
Trust isn't built in one session. Plan short steps and quick wins before long-term goals.
"I say it all the time: you come when you can and you leave when you want. It's important to let go of guilt. The proposal has to be flexible everywhere - removing the guilt around movement, first of all."
Lesson for entrepreneurship support: same logic. No imposed timetable, no rushed goals. Autonomy is built on calm, not pressure.
The partner ARISTA DEKA, in Nicosia, supports vulnerable young people with methods such as Lego Serious Play - a play-based, hands-on approach particularly suited to audiences who don't connect with traditional theoretical formats. The lack of perceived legitimacy is widely shared across borders: all over Europe, young people far from employment associate entrepreneurship with a world that isn't theirs.
What changes are the available levers. In Cyprus as in France, andragogy and an approach based on lived experience remain key - but the tools vary with national teaching traditions. Hence the value of exchanging practices between partner countries rather than importing a single model.
In France, supervising a sports activity for pay generally requires a sports educator's professional card, issued after a recognised qualification (BPJEPS, DEJEPS or equivalent). This is often overlooked by self-taught young people starting out: lived legitimacy isn't always enough, regulatory legitimacy is needed too.
This requirement isn't uniform across Europe: each country has its own qualification system, and equivalences aren't automatic. For a young person thinking of coaching across borders, finding out early about European equivalences saves a lot of disappointment.
Alessandra Machado's path shows how sport helps people regain confidence, especially those from minorities or marked by difficult life paths. Starting a business with these groups is also about moving into a market that carries meaning.
But you don't run a session the same way: with people with disabilities, for example, the content, the pace and the instructor's qualification change. A project that aims to "right an injustice" calls for different steps and questions than a standard project.
Socialisation and the different ways girls and boys are raised weigh on sports practice: many girls stop sport in early adolescence. Offering physical activity, and then an entrepreneurial project, to women who left sport young therefore calls for a specific approach.
A few levers: women-only slots, female instructors who act as role models, places where people feel safe, and showcasing women entrepreneurs. See also the tool sheet "Starting a business in an urban sport as a woman".
