Success is the goal of every individual. Who does not want to prosper in this competitive world? Since the competition has doubled up, the efforts to conquer the practical world have intensified. Today, parents have this sense of the changing scenario and this is why the children are subjected to survive in a competitive environment from a very young age.
Competition and childhood
Today, even the children understand the competition through which they have to survive. Children always tend to find the shorter paths of success that prevent them from doing a lot of effort. Parents are somehow responsible for igniting the unhealthy spark of competition among children from the time they start learning about the world. The only concern of parents is to somehow make their children perfect enough so that they become invincible against this world. The need for the right kind of competition is the current need of the town in light of the entire scenario.
Entrepreneurship and children
Well, this looks quite strange but it is not some extraordinary concept when viewed in light of the current tradition of the digital world. Today, entrepreneurship seems an enchanting idea to young minds and we have young entrepreneurs who have proved themselves right amidst the big fish of the market. There are various enterprises that are owned by children or a concept that brewed inside them. The greatest benefit of introducing entrepreneurship for children is that the children will finally be able to use their individual potential for their own ideas sustaining in the right type of competition.
What is the right age to introduce entrepreneurship to children?
A lot of parents after getting inspired through the success stories of the young masters find themselves meddling with the idea of introducing the same kind of concept to their own children. However, their question is about the right age when all the basic tenets should be fed to a child?
The answer is simple it depends again on your child. Just like not every individual can be an entrepreneur, in the same way, not every child can have this mentality. It is very necessary that you let the child decide about the direction in which he wants to go because entrepreneurship is not some profession that can be fed in the classrooms or family sessions like the academic knowledge. It is necessary to mold your child in an entrepreneurial pattern at the beginning.
Steps through which entrepreneurship can be made a part of the children’s life
Entrepreneurship no doubt is an effective idea but before that, you need to make your child about the entrepreneurial mentality. You need to clear the doubts of the real world for him and let him shape his ideas in the way he wants them to. Creativity is an essential part of entrepreneurship. You cannot expect an entrepreneur lacking the basic innovative success because it is something that actually counts for success in the practical world.
Other than that, you can make entrepreneurship a digestible concept for your children through:
- Educating about the significance of goal
- Creating little opportunities and leaving hints for their identification
- Encouraging the creativity
- Teaching the value of money
- Approving the failures
- Accepting their suggestions
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Education about goal’s significance
You must know that the person in front of you is not someone who is learned enough about the customs and phenomena of the world. He/she is a child who has a very basic understanding of the way things work. It is often said that children are like raw clay patterns, you can mold them in the way you want. It is very important that you educate them about the real world and the real meaning of success in this world.
It is important that you tell them about the meaning of a goal. You need to understand your child’s attitudes in order to teach that. After learning your child’s interests, you can develop a sense of recognition about what he/she loves most and wants to do after he/she grows up. Children are quick learners. Once you educate them about the importance of ambition, you will find that they will automatically direct all their strengths in the fulfillment of that from a very young age.
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Creating opportunities and leaving hints
Remember that you are the first school of your child. What you can teach him/her, no one else can. So, if you want to spark that entrepreneurial mindset, you have to do the effort from a very young age. Create little opportunities for your child. It can be done by effort and reward procedure.
You can give him /her a task to accomplish just like telling a good poem, cleaning the room, and then you can reward him/her afterward. This will create a sense of responsibility within the kid from a very young age and he/she will be able to understand that how he/she can use the skills in a better way for earning certain kind of profit in any form.
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Encouraging the creativity
Children have various innovative ideas. Their mind is a hub of ideas that are strikingly effective for the real world. Even the most renowned entrepreneurs now accept that they can never beat the creativity of a child. Unfortunately, a number of parents are unable to understand this. For them, academic excellence is what means the most. Though, this is very harmful to the emotional growth of a child. It kills their creativity gradually.
Learn to encourage your children from a very young age about whatever they think. Never mind their curiosity because it will become the base of a great entrepreneurial venture in the near future. If they want to develop their idea into a minimal reality, never stop them but fully support them and suggest them your own opinions. This will leave a positive influence on their personalities and they will be able to think out of the box providing innovative solutions for real-life problems.
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Teaching the value of money
A lot of people do want to turn their children into successful entrepreneurs, yet they have spoiled the children by accepting every single demand coming from the child. This kind of behavior might appear momentarily lovely but in long run it is dangerous. It is because it leaves the child dependent and lazy. He/she begins to rely upon the parents more and the individual talents less. You need to teach him/her the importance of money by rewarding him/her occasionally upon doing something good.
Create the habit of earning your own money through personal efforts with the help of some cleanup sales, baking sales, and chores payments. When they will slowly get into the money-making process, they will realize the importance of money and the difficulty with which it is earned. Hence, they will be able to use it wisely and save for the tough times which is an ingredient to create a fine entrepreneur.
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Approving the failures
For a number of parents, failure is an absolutely unbearable thing. They have strong opinions about their children being failed in any particular area of life. They have this entire punishment system devised for the children in order to stop them from getting failed.
A bitter reality is that this mindset can bring children success in the academic world but in the entrepreneurial world, they will turn up as complete failures. An individual who has never tasted failure in life can never get to the path of success leading up a successful venture.
Teach them that failure is normal. It is an essential part of life meant to bring some useful lessons in a person’s life which success can never teach. Fill them with the spirit of standing again after they fall once. Tell them that even if they fail every time, still they learn new things all those times. This will help them understand their flaws which they will correct on their own, appearing successful at the end before you.
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Accepting their suggestions
Who is an entrepreneur without good decision-making power? As an entrepreneur, decisions are an integral part of life, you will encounter at every step. This is true for children as well who need to make some useful opinions about real-world problems. It is because, within entrepreneurship, they will tackle real-world issues.
If they are unable to understand the issues in the first place then how do you think they will stay by the tide of the business world which is ruthless and demands a lot? It is necessary to create a space for them where they are given this opportunity to prove their worth by making viewpoints about some issue. Once you will start accepting their viewpoints, you will find that their self-esteem is growing rapidly and they are able to decide their path in a more competent way.
How important are success stories for children?
Apart from all these things, it is also important that you occasionally tell them about the successful people in the field who have earned their due place because of their hard work and continuous creative power. Children take a deep impact of these things and start dreaming in the patterns of their role models.
Remember that as a parent, the decision to turn your kid into an entrepreneur largely depends on the input you invest. If you know that you are open about your children’s efforts and are supportive of creativity, then you must believe that the spirit of entrepreneurship for kids is rightly understood by you and delivered effectively to your kids.
The author is an M.Phil scholar conducting her thesis in Literature. As a sucker for literature, she swoons over Greek and South Asian fiction while reviewing books in her spare time. Her love for writing has made her expand her subject matter and now she pens her opinions frequently on business, finance, entrepreneurship, lifestyle, history, and literature. For a special connection with entrepreneurship, she opens up the details occasionally about it.