Steve Mariotti, a teacher in some of New York’s roughest schools who discovered that his bored, disrespectful students suddenly tuned in when he talked about running a business, inspiring him to create an organization that has taught business skills to more than 1 million at-risk youths in the U.S. and abroad, died on Oct. 20 in Union City, N.J. He was 71.

His death, at the home of a friend with whom he was living, was caused by a heart attack, according to the nonprofit organization that Mr. Mariotti founded in 1987, the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, or NFTE.

Mr. Mariotti believed that imparting business basics to poor, mostly minority students who saw no connection between school and the quality of their lives could help them develop an interest in math and writing, improve their behavior, and instill a belief in themselves and a hope for the future.

The organization, which he started on his modest teacher’s salary, now has a $12 million budget, oversees programs in 28 states and 27 countries, and reports that 80 percent of its alumni have earned or are earning college degrees or professional certificates.

Jasmine Lawrence Campbell, an alumna of a NFTE course, who founded EDEN BodyWorks, a beauty products line sold in Wal-Mart, wrote on LinkedIn: “There would be no EDEN BodyWorks without NFTE. I’m so grateful for the organization Steve Mariotti founded that radically changed the course of my life.”

Mr. Mariotti’s own life was changed by an emotionally shattering episode that led him to become a teacher.