Teaching Entrepreneurship to Kids: Should We Do It?
Should we teach entrepreneurship to children? When you were a child, did you ever have a stall where you sold soft drinks like sodas? Have you ever offered cakes and sweets to other students at school to earn some money?
However, not everyone gets the entrepreneurial bug as a child. I truly believe that teaching entrepreneurship to children is vital. The harsh reality of entering the workforce in a tough economy presents many challenges. The alternative of being an entrepreneur and working on your own is something that should be explained to children and young people.
Making them aware of an Alternative
The main thing that prevents our children from having an entrepreneurial mindset is our educational system. With only a few exceptions, most of the teaching we receive from the time we’re in kindergarten until the day we graduate from college is…
* Make sure you get a good education
* Study hard and graduate with your degree
* Get a wonderful job with great fringe benefits and you’ll be set for life!
There are a number of problems with this.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with working and getting a good job at a great company. A lot of people end up doing this and some of them enjoy it and make a great contribution to their company.
The truth is that there is a HUGE portion of people who are dissatisfied with their work and, in fact, totally dissatisfied. This may be due to the fact that they don’t like the work they do, who they actually work with, or they may not be paid enough and are just one paycheck away from being broke.
The second problem is that it is very rare in these modern times to find someone who works in a specific job for more than 3-5 years. Changing jobs regularly has become the “new standard.”
This is why it is so essential to teach entrepreneurship to children and to reveal to them that there is an option of having to go out to work for a living. Wouldn’t it make more sense to educate children about entrepreneurship and show them that there is a very real alternative to living a life in the corporate world?
Teach them things like starting their own home business…particularly an online business. We have to remember that the younger generation now spends most of their time online nowadays. So when they’re young, why not educate them on how to make money from a medium like the Internet that they’re so comfortable using?
being realistic
Understanding that kids today can really benefit from figuring out how to start their own business, how do we start teaching them about it?
I think it’s extremely important to set the right expectations from the start. Having your own business can be an amazing experience, however, children should be taught that it also includes hard work and dedication. This is something that children (and adults) in some cases choose to ignore.
The reality is that starting an online business has the potential to make a lot more money than most everyday jobs.
Offering children choices is essential. Make them understand the benefits and challenges of working in the “rat race” and the alternative of working for themselves in their own business.
To be really practical, we need to remember that children will regularly want to select the simplest and “safest” method rather than something that might be more challenging and require a little extra effort, although in the long run it might be much better. off.
keep your dreams alive
The last thing to keep in mind is to be supportive of children who want to start their own business. You see that most children still have dreams and goals when they are young.
As time passes and life presents some obstacles to their dreams in various ways, children begin to lower their goals and are more willing to settle for mediocrity. That is unless they have someone to look up to and learn from. Be the kind of person who motivates and supports those kids to dream big and work hard to realize their ambitions.
With it becoming more difficult to find a good job today, young children (and many adults) need to be made aware of the option of a home based business as a vehicle to achieve their dreams and goals. Teaching kids entrepreneurship and helping them preserve their dreams can help pave the way on their journey to financial freedom and a life filled with passion.