Let’s Raise Entrepreneurial Kids, Not Kid Entrepreneurs

As most entrepreneurs will know, starting a business is a pretty big deal. It involves all sorts of decisions that can’t be taken lightly, and it requires an understanding of all the moving parts. Hiring, firing, managing suppliers and maintaining an online presence are for grown-ups. There is a huge difference between raising a child with entrepreneurial qualities and raising a child entrepreneur. The former is the goal.

Kids gaining experience of the real world is great, but they shouldn’t be used as cheap labour, or pushed into something they’re not ready for. Going down a serious route too soon isn’t conducive to their happy or successful future. You may know someone who was thrusted into a career in medicine or law, only to panic and U-turn when they realised it was someone else’s plan for their life. Being an entrepreneur isn’t for everyone. It must be chosen rather than forced.

Resourcefulness and resilience

The cringeworthy stock images of kids in boardrooms and kids in suits is not the playful, fun and light-hearted scenario that can be achieved when the focus is being “entrepreneurial” rather than starting a business. A young person being raised to be entrepreneurial will likely progress well in whatever career path they take. The economy needs leaders, thinkers and doers. It needs resourcefulness and resilience, and that will never change.

Raising entrepreneurial kids involves finding fun ways of applying the four-part framework discussed in an earlier article. Cultivate the mindset of dreaming big, endless possibilities, and an awareness of what it takes to get there. Teach entrepreneurial skills and look for fun ways to incorporate them into a risk-free environment. At home, in school or during trips out.

Be their biggest fan and look for ways to grow confidence, resourcefulness and resilience. Work through challenges together. Teach them a framework for assessing risk and a way of making decisions. Give them responsibility and develop their sense of ownership and independence. Prize mastery, practice, long attention spans and delayed gratification.

Raising entrepreneurial kids also involves looking for ways to experiment with entrepreneurial opportunities. That might involve listing items on eBay to learn the basics of supply, demand and an online shop. It might be playing selling games or washing the neighbours’ cars. Finally, it involves introducing them to people who can inspire them, and leading by example as a parent or educator.

An entrepreneurial kid does not have to be a kid entrepreneur. You do not have to start a business as a teenager in order to be successful as an adult. You can learn 95% of the mindset and skills required without registering a business or buying a domain name. The more that playing businesses is seen as a fun thing to do, the more that ethos will carry forward. Let’s not take the fun out and stifle the opportunity before its time.

Purpose comes sooner than profit

Let’s raise kids who love to add value and be decent people. They will go on to be the best type of entrepreneurs. Being raised with virtuous characteristics in mind will mean they are more likely to start a valuable and responsible venture that they can make a great living from. If the focus from childhood is purely money and profiteering, it misses out the main part of being an entrepreneur: making a difference and serving a customer base.

By definition, entrepreneurs are those who take a risk in order to make a profit. Therefore, it’s impossible to start a business without the aim of making a profit. Rather than teach kids to make money doing things they don’t really care about, that people don’t really want (lemonade stand, anyone?) let’s teach them how to develop an idea and solve a problem that people really need solving. Then the next step, of monetising that idea, can be taken. The sole purpose of a business is not to make money however possible and instilling that belief in a young person is damaging and counterproductive to the future leader they could be.

The role of parents and educators

Whatever someone chooses to do with their future is up to them. The role of parents and educators is to help set them up for success and happiness. According to Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga in their book, The Courage To Be Happy, the goal of education is self-reliance. More than that, it’s empowerment, confidence and an awareness that not only can someone choose their own path but that they have the courage to do so.

Focusing on raising entrepreneurial kids, not kid entrepreneurs, means preparing someone for long-term prosperity rather than focusing on quick wins or shallow profiteering. It will mean when they are ready to start a venture, should they choose, they will have everything they need in order to get going. They will have learned the principles in a fun and safe environment, and they will only have dealt with age-appropriate issues. There’s no rush. Let kids be kids.

Do ten-year-olds want to deal with supplier negotiations? Do fifteen-year-olds want to hire staff? Do secondary school students want to file accounts or create forecasts? Save the admin side for later, and for now focus on developing an entrepreneurial personality and inspiring the young person in your care. The rest will slot into place.

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