How to raise a child as an entrepreneur

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Do you want your child from early childhood to learn to perceive work correctly and to look at the future work of life not just as a process of making money, but as an activity that can also bring pleasure? Then read this article.

We are sharing with you the wonderful story of Jake Johnson, who certainly knows how to help a child form the right attitude towards his future profession.

What did your parents tell you about money? If your childhood was like mine, then you were told that you need to earn money by your own labor.

As a child, I had a kind of weekly allowance. My parents made me a list of household chores. Every week I had to throw out the trash, do the dishes, vacuum and do the laundry. For this I received $ 5.

It seemed like a great deal to me then, but what could I know? I was a child. In retrospect, I realize that my "salary" was about $ 0.50 an hour. It was a very generous act on the part of the parents.

Now I am the father of two boys, Liam and Dylan, and I am now trying to decide if I should introduce such a "wage" in my own home.

This is my oldest son, Liam. He is seven years. He is amazing, extraordinary, funny and, as you can see from the photo, cheerful. And he wants to earn some money.

After all, there are tons of things he wants to buy. These are toys, books, computer games, and a whole bunch of other things.

So, a few months ago, Liam expressed a desire to receive benefits from me.

My first thought was to do what my parents once did: make a list of necessary household chores and set the payment so that the amount was in favor of the child.

But after a little reflection, I realized that if I did this, I would be doing my son a disservice: the money thus received would form a wrong view of things in him. Here are some of the wrong lessons.

Wrong Lesson # 1. Time and Tasks Are Your Main Commodity

Employees sell their time to entrepreneurs, completing in due time the tasks that are assigned to them. You walk into the office, work hard for 8-10 hours, do whatever you are told, and get paid in return.

Your most valuable commodity as an employee is your time, or, more correctly, the tasks that you are able to accomplish during this time. The problem is, if you don't have time to sell (you get sick or seriously injured, for example), then you are not making money. And if companies aren't looking to buy your time simply because they don't have tasks for you, then you will be unemployed, no matter how talented you are.

Entrepreneurs, on the other hand, do not sell their time, but their ideas or products. They are paid not for the hours spent on the task, but for the value that they are able to bring to society and for the jobs that they are able to offer people.

If I pay Liam for his time and for the tasks he does, he might think it is valuable to me. But this is not the case.

Wrong lesson # 2. Do only the bare minimum

As a child, my goal was to deal with all household chores as soon as possible, so that later I would leave more time for walks and games. I was not proud of my work - I just got paid for the time spent and tried to get the tasks done as soon as possible during this time. My parents and I were constantly tug-of-war: they wanted me to do the job as well as possible, and I wanted to do this job as soon as possible.

In the future, we often project this model when we act as employees. We have no property, our goal is to simply complete tasks without much effort. I'm not saying that absolutely all people do this, but most definitely do just that.

I notice this pattern of behavior in my son as well. I have to practically force him to perform tasks in good faith. Entrepreneurs, however, know and understand how important it is to be interested in their work and to fulfill the assigned tasks conscientiously. Because in order to earn a living, they need not only to do the job quickly, but also efficiently, they put their whole souls into their work - something that those who just work off their working hours do not do.

Wrong Lesson # 3. Work Can't Be Fun

If you are selling your time, then the natural result of this is that your life is kind of split in two. Right now, Liam thinks that work is a burden he carries. In other words, he needs to go through labor in order to play freely. This creates a misconception that you start to view work as a necessary evil that gives you money to do what you want to do.

Not only children, but also adults can be tuned in the same way. This is why you hear so often that people are looking forward to the weekend. That's why the phrase "Thank God it's Friday!" became a real anthem for the majority of employees.

The main goal is to get through the work week so that "real life" begins on the weekend.

Entrepreneurs will never have this attitude, at least not true entrepreneurs. Real entrepreneurs do not put their lives aside - they live every day. They don't spend their weekdays waiting for an omnipotent weekend. They live to solve problems and create things that will be of value not only to them, but to other people as well.

So my wife and I decided not to introduce the benefit system in our home. My dream is that Liam, regardless of which professional path he takes, has an entrepreneurial attitude to work.

With that in mind, this is what we are trying to teach our child

Correct lesson number 1. Not always and not everything is paid

Liam still has chores around the house. Every day he feeds the cat, takes out the trash and cleans his room. But for this he receives nothing but a sense of satisfaction from a job well done.

He protested, of course. He thinks he should get paid for it. But we taught him that he doesn't have to pay to clean his own house. Mom and Dad do not receive money for this, which means that he should not receive either.

He has not yet fully realized this, but we hope that soon he will understand: any person should be responsible for something, and not always they are obliged to pay money for something.

Right Lesson # 2. Something worthwhile comes from the problem solving process

I am ready to pay my son for the fact that he will solve any important problem. I taught Liam this: if he wants to make money, he must pay attention to the world around him, identify the problem that needs to be solved, and come up with his solution. That's when I'm ready to talk about rewards.

For example, in the fall, Liam noticed that there were too many dry leaves in the yard. He came up to me with a proposal: he will clean the yard, but for a fee. We negotiated for a long time about the amount and settled on $ 10. He did a great job and got his honestly earned $ 10, which is pretty good for a kid.

And he didn't stop there - he went on. The other day he noticed that his father's car was too dirty. He offered to wash it for $ 5. I agreed. Then he volunteered to wash his aunt's car, but asked for it not $ 5, but $ 10.

At the end of the day, he decided that he was starting his own business - he would wash cars. And proudly announced that he had already come up with a name: "Liam's Car Wash."

Right Lesson # 3. Great Business Starts with a Great Plan

I was proud of Liam because he wanted to start his own business, but I wanted him to learn a few more lessons. I asked him what he was going to use to wash cars. He told me he would take a bucket from the garage and a sponge from the bathroom. I told him that it was a good idea, but these things were not bought for him. If he wants to start his own business, he must buy everything he needs with his own money.

Then I asked him how people would find out about his service. He said he would put an identification mark. I replied that this alone would not be enough. He needs a marketing plan.

We are now working on this plan together. Liam now knows that he needs to buy everything he needs for a car wash and find a way to spread the word about his service to the whole city. He begins to understand how important it is to plan his business.

Good Lesson # 4. See Work as Enjoyable Play

Liam loves projects. One day he woke up at 6 o'clock in the morning and read a lot of magazines. When I asked what was on his mind, he replied that he was trying to figure out what kind of plane he wanted to design.

Children like to build something. Lego is a good example; millions of children around the world simply adore it. The main lesson Liam learned from this is that work can be fun, especially if you're passionate about it.

In the end, I have no answers to absolutely every question. All of the above is based only on experience - mine and Liam's. But it's amazing to notice that my son begins to see the world differently, and not the way I did in childhood.

He's only seven yet, but I hope he actually starts his own business. The prerequisite for this is his changed views on money and business. I hope that what he learned as a child will become a support for him on an adult journey, on which, without a doubt, many cruel lessons await him.

I am very glad that I see passion and interest in him: he looks at making money as a project in the process of which it is necessary to solve problems, and not as tasks that need to be solved somehow.

I see that he is gradually starting to think like an entrepreneur. And no matter what he does in life, this way of thinking will always help him stand out from the crowd.