Editor’s note: This article was first published in January 2013. The closing paragraph’s reference to this global crisis we’re immersed in means the post-2008 economic crisis in Spain.
A few months ago we shared some tips on teaching financial literacy to our children, because they need to learn as early as possible that money DOES matter in life. Telling a child otherwise is lying to them, and it does them no favors.
Tomorrow’s business leaders are children today. The people who will work in all kinds of jobs and roles at those leaders’ companies are children today, too. Which side of the table they end up on will depend on many factors, and as parents we can influence many of them, for better or for worse.
As you’ve heard a thousand times, children are like sponges that soak up everything (the good and the bad). If you take your child to football matches from an early age, I’m sure they’ll love football, and if you take them skiing on holiday, they’ll probably end up liking skiing. So how can we nurture that entrepreneurial spirit in a child?
We need to start with social and emotional skills, and with skills like these, the sooner the better.
1. Comfort with risk
Most people haven’t succeeded for the simple reason that they weren’t willing to take risks. We live in a culture of fear. “Don’t quit your job even if you’re unhappy, in case you can’t find another one.” “Don’t leave your partner, you’ll end up alone”… We need to help our children feel comfortable taking risks; only then will they be able to face risks with composure later in life.
2. A positive attitude toward failure (but not too positive)
Taking part is not what matters; that’s what they always tell the loser. There are various sayings, and one of them goes: “We can’t win every battle, so we have to choose carefully which battles we’re willing to fight.”
In fact, there’s nothing wrong with losing, as long as you don’t get used to it, or as the old saying puts it: “There’s nothing wrong with tripping over a stone, as long as you don’t grow fond of the stone.”
We should teach our children to give it their all, to bring out the best in themselves and to allow themselves the luxury of making mistakes while they’re young. If, at the end of the fight we’ve chosen, we’ve given every last drop of sweat, it doesn’t matter if we lose, as long as we learn from the mistakes we made and apply those lessons next time.
Teach them that failure is part of learning, and that the only person who fails is the one who gives up.
3. Help them solve problems effectively and intelligently
There is always a way out of a difficulty. Teach your child not to drown in a glass of water, as we say in Spain. Encourage them to solve problems on their own, to develop strategies and not to turn their back on problems.
When I was 12, a group of boys set out to make my life impossible at school. After analyzing the situation and weighing up the options, I concluded that turning the other cheek is fine if you’re going to become a priest (which wasn’t my case), and that telling my parents so they would step in wasn’t a solution either, not least because it was frowned upon. The thing is, they were older than me and there were more of them. The solution was to form a strategic alliance, using what we might call my social skills. The problem went away, and they never bothered me again.
See also: 10 toxic behaviors that are ruining your life
Some will think nothing positive can come out of this example, and I would strongly disagree, because that is exactly what you’ll run into as you go through life. So what positive lessons can we draw from it?
First: Everything we do in life has an effect or, in that case, a consequence. I took a risk to get out of a problem and felt proud of it, because I believed doing nothing carried more risk. The consequence for me was a telling-off afterwards from my parents and the headmaster for the means I used to settle the conflict. In my own particular view, though, I had done a great social service, because we all learned that our actions have consequences. Those boys certainly learned that lesson: not only did they stop bothering me, but I’m sure they’d think twice in future before bothering anyone else.
Second: Apparently nobody approved of the way I had acted, and yet my conscience was perfectly clear, because I believed I’d done the right thing. That taught me that sometimes we shouldn’t give a damn what other people think, including family, friends and neighbors.
That experience applies very well to business. If at some point a strong competitor appears with far more resources than your company, you either close the company or form strategic alliances with other companies. Likewise, as business owners we can’t do everything, and our company may not be prepared, or may not have the resources, to carry out a particular task, so sometimes we need to outsource or delegate those functions.
And third: Never underestimate your competition, because even the smallest can grow in the face of adversity.
4. Teach them constructive ways to challenge the rules
Dr. Andrea Vazzana of New York says children get used to following rules blindly. In other words, we don’t teach them to reason out why those rules exist, or whether it really makes sense to follow a particular set of rules, and according to her, that inhibits entrepreneurial activity.
See also: Make a business profitable before you open it, not after
Sometimes we need to challenge the rules, always constructively. Challenging the rules is how thousands of advances in business have come about. When your child is unhappy with a rule, teach them to analyze why they think it should be changed and what they would put in its place. Get them to argue their case eloquently.
5. Build your child’s self-confidence
Although we said that part of failure comes from not taking risks, the truth is that most people don’t take risks because they lack confidence in themselves. As the same doctor argues, a person’s confidence is formed in childhood, and it isn’t very hard to help a child gain it by giving them a sense of mastery through simple tasks that get progressively harder.
Children need the freedom to test their limits and fears when they’re small, because only that way will they learn that the only limits we really have are the ones our own mind sets.
Give your child tasks that carry responsibility, gradually raising the level of difficulty. Help at first, and scale back that help as the difficulty increases. As they get through each level, they’ll feel more confident. That will make them more and more willing, and less afraid, to take on new challenges.
6. Let them make decisions
A business owner has to make decisions every day. Not everyone is cut out to make important decisions, which is why some people wouldn’t be suited to positions of responsibility, much less to running a company.
Give your child options when it comes to choosing dinner or the clothes they want to wear. At first we can steer them toward a particular decision. As they grow, start asking for their opinion so they feel part of certain decisions, and when the time comes, let them make big decisions.
7. Habits
It isn’t true that surgeons’ children become good surgeons because it’s in their genes. The only reason they become as good professionally as their parents is that they pick up the same habits. In fact, it was only once the children of the poor had the chance to go to university that Spain began to increase its number of world-renowned professionals in different fields.
Help them build the habit of reading, a study plan and well-defined schedules. Remember that great entrepreneurs stand out for being disciplined in their work and orderly in their lives in general.
8. The company they keep
“Tell me who you spend your time with, and I’ll tell you what you’ll become.” Success in business is preceded by the quality of the people you surround yourself with and work with. Both as children and as adults, we come across three kinds of people: “those who can give us something, those who give us nothing, and those who are a reflection of what we don’t want to be.”
If more of the people in your circle of friends belong to the first group, your path is likely to be much better guided.
9. Let them be unique and authentic, and not be manipulated by society
It’s inevitable that children will compare themselves with others, especially when it comes to material things. Your child will want brand-name trainers, brand-name clothes, a games console like their friend’s, and even to go and see “Pablito’s bathroom”.
Some parents say it’s a good thing for their child to wear an earring and get a mohawk, because that’s developing their own personality.
But when you look at some children, they wear an earring and a tattoo because their friends do, and they have exactly the same haircut as whichever footballer is in fashion at the moment. That isn’t developing their own personality; it’s giving up being themselves in an attempt to look like someone else.
Wanting to be like other people is what has led millions of families into excessive debt, and it’s what keeps hundreds of business owners always ten steps behind their competitors, because they never manage to be anything more than would-be imitators of the company they want to resemble.
10. Help them think
Thinking is the most valuable asset any company has, so exercising the art of thinking from an early age will give us a brain ready for the marathon we enter as adults.
The biggest business ideas come from solving a problem people have with a product and/or service that we offer. Work on this with your child from an early age: “What would you change? What would you like to improve? What would you suggest for…?” And why not teach them early on to look for ways to earn money to pay for their own treats (read: Learning from 12-year-olds).
Finally, going through this global crisis we’re immersed in can be a positive learning experience for your child, since they are probably feeling first-hand that their family’s financial situation has got worse. Don’t hide it from them; quite the opposite. Explain what has happened, why it happened and how they could avoid it in the future.
Further reading
- 5 business ideas invented and patented by children
- A 9-year-old builds a business with $80,000 in sales
- A 13-year-old solves the solar energy puzzle
Featured image: Hannes Grobe, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
