An interesting article about an entrepreneurial father who is raising his son to be an “entrepreneurial child,” and describes his goal to “demonstrate the value of entrepreneurship at home.”
He states: “In order to be successful in today’s competitive and often chaotic environment, you have to have a grit, intelligence, and a strong entrepreneurial spirit.”
He concludes that “entrepreneurship is an attitude, not an occupation.”
Worth the read!!
Agree 100%. I characterize entrepreneurship (as you all know by now) as a set of skills, and an approach to problem-solving. It’s been my observation – many times over – that once people “get it” (that is, once they look at things entrepreneurially) they never go back to their old way of thinking.
It’s also a great way to raise children to think differently about certain kinds of “failure” – that is, the kinds that come from efforts that don’t succeed (as opposed to failure that comes from not trying!) Failure becomes not something that defines you, but a way of learning and adapting – much healthier than the way kids are taught to think about “failure” ordinarily, It would tend to produce much more resilient kids – a very good thing, indeed!
I can certainly relate. My dad is an entrepreneur and how entire relationship exists on that fact. I think an important question here is whether entrepreneurship is taught or is it a talent created by genetics. I’m not certain which is the case, or if it’s even a mixture of both, but it’ll provide some insight as to whether or not every individual and child has that potential. I define myself as an entrepreneur but I’m not sure if that’s the case because I’ve tried to emulate my father or if I was born an entrepreneur. For this dad’s sake, I like to think you can actually teach your child to be an entrepreneur.
It’s interesting to recognize how many of these traits can be passed down from generation to generation. My grandmother and mother both ran a neighborhood candy store and I remember watching how they operated their businesses. There were plenty of differences between them, but I remember each of them allowing me to help out in their stores and learn some of the ways they conducted business affairs. If we’re looking at the entrepreneurial individual as a person with a particular set of skills, there would definitely be some merit to developing those skills throughout childhood.
I really like this article because it mentions and discusses the “entrepreneurial spirit” that children these days inherit from their parents. This hits close to home for me because it exactly aligns with what my parents try to integrate in my life. They attempt to cultivate this entrepreneurial spirit and thinking within me so that I can innovate and understand creative thinking in whatever I set my mind to. Especially when the author of this paper mentions how her child learns and makes business models to solve problems and negotiates, this change in parents teaching their children business skills at such a young age shows how the parenting environment is cultivated in today’s world.
This is interesting – I didn’t see this before I posted about the misconceptions of entrepreneurs. There are definitely some positives that come from a unique set of skills developed by entrepreneurs. Great article – I sent it back to the family.
I think that most of the traits and characteristics we assign to entrepreneurs comes from learned behavior. I know many young entrepreneurs, including myself, who can recall working for their parents’ business. In my case, however, I dreaded spending long hours helping my parents’ business growing up but I learned many valuable skills as my parents worked on their venture. While there may be many traits entrepreneurs might innately have, I believe that working with and learning from entrepreneurs is probably the best way to become an entrepreneur.
I really enjoyed reading this article and found it relatable. My Dad is also an entrepreneur. He has a creative mindset and always taught us, when thinking of an idea for our school projects, to picture a blank canvas and paint all over it in random directions until eventually finding the right path. In my view, parents are the main influencers in a kids life. I believe the main reason why I have an interest in entrepreneurship is because my Dad does. I think entrepreneurship can partially be taught and learned but also I think you need to have inherent skills and a significant interest to become a successful entrepreneur. For example, I appreciate everything an entrepreneur is about. However, I don’t think it’s the right path for me even though I grew up learning about all things entrepreneurial. That’s ok though because I’d rather stand on the stand lines as an entrepreneurs legal advisor – hence why I’m in law school. Even if you’re not going to make a profession of it, the skills attached to being an entrepreneur are relevant in all aspect of life and should definitely be introduced to kids at an early stage.