#BackToSchool — You need to teach your child entrepreneurship
How 5 skills can help your child be prepared for the new world
It is that period of the year when everyone who is a parent starts racing to the shops to prepare their child for the first day of school. Doing that is normal and you should do that too. This is a period where new arrangements have to be done, you have to find a way to be home when your child arrives from school, or you have to get up earlier to make breakfast. You have to do all of that, but you also have to teach your child something that is not thought in school… You have to teach him how to think like an entrepreneur and how to always be curious.
Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.― Jim Rohn
Jim Rohn died in 2009, but his words are still valid today… In the world we live in now, the school didn’t adapt very well with the new economic conditions. I have a degree in finance, I have a master in marketing, but everything I do now I’ve learned on my own. I don’t say that school is all bad, I just say that after a certain level, where your child knows how to do basic math, how to read and write properly, all the things that he learns in schools might be obsolete by the time he graduates.
A couple of months ago I discovered this video protest against the innovation of the schooling system. Is both fun and sad at the same time if you think about it…
According to Business 2 Community, there are five reasons why people want to become entrepreneurs: they admire other entrepreneurs, they don’t want to have a boss, can’t handle a 9-to-5 job, they like risks and they just have no other choice. Taking all those and many more reasons into account, we want to raise our child to think like an entrepreneur.
This is why you need to start right now and teach your children entrepreneurship skills. Here is what you are going to learn in this article:
1. How to train your child to avoid the “I don’t know” answer
2. How to make your child develop an unsatisfied curiosity
3. How to think about failure and what it means
4. How to be independent, but also know how to work in teams
5. How to accept their rebellion
1. Don’t ever only say “I don’t know”
I don’t know is not a valid answer. If you don’t know something right now you should say “I don’t know yet, and I’m going to find the answer…”. Adopting this mentality for yourself and installing that mindset in your child is going to help him always look for solutions instead of problems.
An entrepreneur has to develop the mindset to try things out. This is what sets them apart from the rest of the population. Thinking outside the box is not a trait that we are born with. We learn it along the way. Start by helping your child find answers on its own. For example, if you still have problems with making them tie their shoelaces think outside the box and suggest him to watch some videos on Youtube on a different way to tie their shoes and then let him try them out on its own. If your child knows already how to do that, think of other ways to encourage him to learn on its own. Another example could be helping him find a way to do simple chores around the house or finishing their homework faster.
The simple and best way to move your child from the “I don’t know” answer is to be creating and follow up with this question: “Well if you did know, what would your answer be?”. In this situation, children have to put their brain muscles in action and start thinking of possible solutions. Studies discovered that this follow-up question works in more than 50% of the cases. Is not 100%, but is a good start. With time, your kids will get used to you asking this question and this rate will improve. When asking this question you have to have patience. Let your child really think about it and give it time to consider the question and respond thoughtfully.
Robert Reich, the former U.S. Labor Secretary predicted that by 2020 more than 40% of the Americans workforce will be freelance, contract, self-employed or engaged in some other contingent work arrangement. This statement tells us how important it is right now to start teaching our children entrepreneurship skills.
2. Make your child be more curious
Children are curious by nature. From the time they start talking they ask questions and want to learn more about things. As parents, we need to have the patience to answer those questions and always encourage them to ask questions if they don’t know something. Unfortunately, there are many people, well-meaning, that will try to “help” your child don’t ask stupid questions. They are educators, teachers, and people that don’t have a lot of patience.
Asking questions work hand in hand with the “I don’t know” answer. If you teach your child that he can search for answers, he will first try to find an answer of its own and then follow up with questions for you. Responding to your child questions will allow him to follow his passion and grow up to think as an entrepreneur.
Persistence is very important. You should not give up unless you are forced to give up. — Elon Musk
Here are some activities that will make this process much easier
- Go on Amazon and buy Wh-Bingo game and schedule a time to play each week (this game encourages your children to answer the 5 W questions — Who, Why, When, Where, What)
- If you have more than one child play Question Toss (this game encourages both asking questions but also finding answers fast)
- Play one on one Show and Tell (send a picture with an activity your child likes and put children in pairs an create a game so each child learns more about the other child favorite activity)
3. Having a failure is ok, giving up is not
A failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough. — Elon Musk
What happens when your child comes home with a bad grade? Do you encourage him to study more in order to improve the grade or do you punish him for the bad grade? What you do here is fundamental for your child entrepreneurship mind development. You have to encourage your children to see failure just as a step in the achievement of their goals. Encourage your kid to have a positive attitude no matter the results. If your child develops a positive attitude around failure, he will achieve anything he put his mind on in life. True failure is giving up too soon. Encourage them to have persistence and never stop trying.
Look up online for the marshmallow test. In this test, researchers left children in a room with their favorite dessert for 10 minutes. If they resist the temptation to not eat the dessert they promised to double up the marshmallow. You could try to do this test for a couple of times each month if your child eats the marshmallow the second you close up the room. Getting patience can be a great virtue for your child in life.
Successful entrepreneurs ask more questions than the rest of us. They are alert to their surroundings and find and fill gaps that the rest of us don’t see. Parents can cultivate the traits of successful entrepreneurs by taking the sting out of failure! — Amy Wilkinson
4. Be independent but also be able to work in teams
This is a little hard for a parent to do because we always want what is the best for our children. We must develop an attitude where not all the time we take decision for our children. We need to leave them to make mistakes on their own and make decisions based on their judgments. This encourages their independence. Create an environment where kids always have to make decisions. You could start by giving them the option to choose between what vegetables they should eat at dinner, how they dress from time to time or simply what one toy do they want to buy from a large toy store.
Developing a team player attitude is another skill that is important. Encourage your children to play board games in teams or play sports that require him to be a team player. In a team, it doesn’t matter who shoots the goal or hits the touchdown. In a team is important to do your best in order for the team to succeed. Sometimes independence and teamwork can seem as opposite but when your child nurtures both these skills, he will become unstoppable.
5. Accepting their rebellion
Everyone has a time in their life when they are young and rebels. We both been there. In that period we felt that nobody understands us and we had to “fight the system”. System here means school, parents, how things are done etc. When we have a teenager or a young adult we have to embrace our children rebellion and don’t fight them all the time. If your child does something that could hurt his life you have to take action but having a piercing done, a new haircut or a tattoo is not something we should worry too much. If we accept that our child is changing we could help them challenge the norms constructively. This will help them in the long run and make them feel loved no matter what.
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