In a country where millions of young people are unlikely to ever get a job, we as parents have to help our children to be job creators instead of job seekers.
There are many different definitions of what it means to be an entrepreneur, but we think entrepreneurs are people who can see an opportunity and turn it into a way to earn money and even create jobs for other people.
True entrepreneurs – those who build business empires from nothing – are rare, but nothing stops most people from achieving more modest employment and income goals. Well, that’s not quite true – what stops most people is that they have grown up believing “someone” has to give them a job. As a result, they spend their lives looking for “someone”, instead of looking for ways to create their own job.
Here are six ways in which you can give your children a different mindset.
1. Approach education with self-reliance as goal.
Instead of chasing the highest marks, help your children to use their school years to learn the skills they will need to succeed at life.
These include:
– Setting goals for themselves and implementing the steps to achieve those goals.
– Learning the power of self-motivation – this means taking pride in their achievements instead of studying for tests because you give them money for good results.
– Solving problems. Encourage your children to come up with solutions instead of you stepping in to solve their problems.
2. Teach your children to see opportunities and to grab them.
You can do this by praising your children for pointing out small problems or setbacks, from losing unsaved essays to not being able to reach items on a high shelf. Brainstorm solutions on how to resolve what’s troubling them. Turning problems into opportunities teaches children to focus on creating positive solutions rather than the problem itself. Every issue has a solution; so, rather than accepting life as a fact, teach children that they can always have an impact. This habit will allow them to develop profitable ideas in their future businesses.
3. The ability to sell is an invaluable life skill.
Even if you don’t want to be a business owner, you have to “sell” yourself every time you go for a job interview or even apply to rent a place to live. You can help your children develop selling skills with small projects like selling their old toys online, or offering a pet-sitting or car-washing service to the neighbours. Work with them on their sales pitch and help them think about ways to add more value to their offering. Most importantly, let them do the selling themselves – it’s no use if you talk to the neighbours on your child’s behalf.
4. Understanding and working with money is a skill every person needs, but it is even more important for business owners.
Help your children become financially literate by letting them deal with money from an early age. Encourage them to save, draw up a budget for spending their allowance, and set financial goals. When they start selling things, help them to work out what the price should be to cover their costs and make a profit.
5. Teach your children how to fail successfully.
Yes, this sounds crazy, but helping your children to learn from their mistakes will turn them into confident individuals who know how to persevere when times are tough. When your children fail, instead of punishing them, try discussing which factors led to the failure and brainstorm ways to prevent it from happening again. Encourage them never to give up.
6. Help your children develop their communication skills.
To be successful in life and in business, you have to speak to people – communication is far more than social media posts and texting. Here are some practical ideas:
- Teach your children to be polite and respectful, and practice maintaining eye contact when speaking in person.
- When using the phone, teach your children to speak slowly and clearly.
- Practice communicating with your children in emails. Don’t let them abbreviate words and phrases and encourage them to write grammatically correct sentences that flow together clearly and logically.
Many of the skills you need to be a successful creator of jobs are also the skills you need to be a successful person. Set your children up for long-term prosperity by teaching them empowerment, confidence and the courage to choose their own path.
