Comfort and Growth Do Not Coexist

What a Former Student Reminded Me About Entrepreneurship Education

Author

Stephen Carter
June 01, 2026

Last week, I had breakfast with a former student named Connor Sheehy.

Connor was part of the first group of students who meaningfully launched the Leaning Eagle Coffee Bar at Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy. The coffee bar originally began in 2013 as a rolling cart, which was really our first prototype. It was scrappy, imperfect, and experimental. In many ways, it was our minimum viable product before we knew how often we would eventually use that language with students.

But in the fall of 2015, everything changed. The coffee bar moved into its permanent location in Miracle Commons, the central gathering space of the high school. What had once been a rolling cart became a full-fledged, permanent coffee shop. And if you walk into Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy today, all these years later, you will still see that coffee shop operating in the same location.

To help lead the process, I chose twelve seniors to oversee real business operations, work together as a team, solve problems as they emerged, and try to turn an idea into something that would last.

Connor was one of those students.

Now he is 28 years old, fully into adult life, and far enough removed from high school to see the experience with a kind of clarity that students rarely have in the moment. As we talked over breakfast, I asked him what he remembered most from that year and what, if anything, had stayed with him.

His answer was fascinating–he said that one of the biggest lessons he carried from the experience was the realization that you are not going to be great at everything the first time you try it. In fact, the things that matter most are often the things that feel difficult, unfamiliar, and uncomfortable in the beginning.

He then talked about the importance of being unafraid to fail. He talked about the need to take risks. He talked about the reality that life often rewards the people who are willing to step into hard things before they feel fully ready.

That hit me because this is exactly what entrepreneurship education should do.

The best entrepreneurship programs are not merely about helping students start businesses. They are about helping students become the kind of people who can move toward hard things instead of away from them.

They teach students that comfort and growth do not coexist.

When students are given real responsibility, they are pushed out of the safe and predictable spaces where everything is already structured for them. They have to collaborate. They have to communicate. They have to solve problems that do not have obvious answers. They have to receive feedback, adjust, try again, and keep moving.

Growth happens when students are trusted with real work.

Connor is proof of that. Ten years later, he was not reciting vocabulary from a class. He was describing a way of thinking that had shaped how he approached life. He remembered being stretched. He remembered not knowing exactly what he was doing. He remembered learning that he could step into something hard and grow through it.

That is the long-term power of entrepreneurship education.

We do not always get to see the full impact in the moment. Sometimes it takes years. Sometimes it takes a breakfast with a former student who is now 28 years old to remind us that the work mattered more than we realized.

But when students are given the chance to build, lead, risk, fail, and grow, they carry those lessons with them.

And if we want students to be ready for the future, we have to stop designing educational experiences that keep them comfortable.

Let’s go!

Standing out as a Christian school while staying true to your values is more challenging than ever. At Seed Tree Group, we help schools implement a proven entrepreneurship program that empowers students to take ownership of their education, equipping them with life-ready skills and creating a distinguished school with engaged students, inspired parents, and energized donors.

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Imagine your culture infused with growth mindset, grit, redefining failure, and opportunity seeking. Imagine your team acting and thinking like entrepreneurs.

Stephen Carter