7 Reasons Why Every Kid Needs to Learn Entrepreneurship
As a parent, I’m sure you have a long list of goals for your kids. You want them to be well-behaved, polite, respectful, smart, diligent, kind, generous, and creative. Oh, and you want them to be morally upstanding citizens. And full of gratitude. Not to mention responsible and wildly successful.
Okay, the point is we all have big dreams for our kids. You might think the best way to develop these important character traits is for your kids to learn how to play violin or to speak fluent Arabic. While those are certainly admirable pursuits, there’s an even better way to instill these qualities in your kids.
That’s right. I’m talking about fostering an entrepreneurial spirit that automatically inspires these characteristics. Here are 7 reasons why your children should learn entrepreneurship:
- The jobs of tomorrow require an entrepreneur’s mindset. In 2021 and beyond, traditional jobs are expected to no longer dominate the job market. There’s only so many full-time positions available at any given company. Instead, our society is making a paradigm shift to the gig economy, with contract and virtual work becoming more and more prevalent. For your children to succeed in this new world, they need to be able to think like an entrepreneur. They need to understand basic free market principles and have the tools to think creatively about their careers. After all, the majority of jobs in 15 years will be in an industry not yet created.
- Listening skills are crucial for everyone in the workforce. Can you imagine anything more frustrating than your employee not listening to you? While it may seem like something simple, having good listening skills is difficult to come by in an age of video games and passive scrolling. That’s where entrepreneurship comes in. Listening with the goal of serving people well is a key part of what entrepreneurship demands. Kid business owners listen well because they have to hear what their customers are saying and adjust accordingly. This is the kind of attentive listening that really makes a difference in the workplace.
- Problem solving is quickly becoming a #1 job skill. Problem solving has always been important, but now it’s more vital than ever. The new world will have more complex problems to solve, so kids need to build the powerful mindset of problem solving now. There’s no better way to develop problem solving than through entrepreneurship. Kids get a thrill out of brainstorming how to solve problems for a profit. As young entrepreneurs, kids start asking themselves, “How can I do this a different way? How can I solve this problem in a way that’s better, faster, or cheaper?” That kind of thinking makes them invaluable to any company.
- Entrepreneurship builds confidence. It’s becoming more and more clear that our society is experiencing an epidemic of mental health issues, even among kids. I wouldn’t be so bold as to suggest that entrepreneurship can cure all that single handedly, but it can certainly help build confidence in kids who are struggling. I’ve seen shy kids come out of their shell when they’ve created something they’re really proud of that they want to share with the world. I’ve watched kids who come from a difficult background thrive when they hit their stride in business. Even the most confident kids can grow through entrepreneurship.
- Every job opportunity involves making a sale. The relevance of sales skills is not limited to the marketing world. Every single career move involves persuading someone you’re worth hiring or you deserve a promotion. You have to know how to sell your ideas—and sell yourself. Even applying to college, grad school, and internships requires selling yourself. The most organic way to develop sales skills is to start your own business. So many of our MyFirstSale kids were terrified when they were making their first few sales calls, but now they’re pros who relish every opportunity they have to sell their products.
- Resumes are being replaced by real world results. Don’t show me what you’ve learned or experienced; show me what you’ve done. As a serial entrepreneur and the CEO of numerous companies, I have screened over 2,500 resumes. You know what makes me laugh? When I see a homeschooled kid got #1 in their class. Trust me, it’s not about which school you went to or how many honors societies you were part of. I want to see how you’ve made a difference in the world, the effort you’ve put into doing something meaningful. I’d rather hire someone who started a creative business as a teenager than someone who got perfect grades in high school and never did
- Principles of money management are essential. No matter what kind of future your kids have, whether they become a doctor, a hair stylist, or a serial entrepreneur like me, they need to know how to manage money well. The only way for kids to truly learn responsible money management is when they earn their own money. Allowance or gifting doesn’t do it. Kids are motivated to start budgeting, investing, and saving the money they’ve worked hard to get—because they understand its value. An effective way to encourage your kids to make a profit is to have them negotiate the price you pay them to do specific chores around the house. This idea comes from the legendary entrepreneur Cameron Herold.
Your role as a parent is to gently guide your kids on a path that instills important skills in them to make them successful. When you look back on the 18 years you had with each child in your home, what do you want to remember? Starting a business together as a family creates lifelong memories you’ll never forget…and your kids won’t ever lose the entrepreneurial skills they’ve acquired along the way.
Ready to raise your kids to be entrepreneurs? Check out this how-to guide. And don’t forget to sign them up for our incredible MyFirstSale community.