It is very sympathetic to know that children are born entrepreneurs, but end up living as salary earners! The education system was originally designed to provide industry with workers and not to develop entrepreneurship. The school system that was introduced in the industrialization era was intended to promote consciousness and not critical thinking to create good employees who do not think but can remember.
The school system was built during the industrial revolution to supply industry with workers, whose value was seen only as a means of production. The original design has not changed much over the years as the goal is to make graduates workers/job seekers and not entrepreneurs/solution providers.
Parents should do more to inspire entrepreneurial spirit in children early in their development process. The truth is, every child has the grades to become an entrepreneur. How a single sperm cell can compete with an ovarian target is similar to what every startup has to do to get a piece of the market.
Just watch a little boy trying to walk – fall down, get up, fall down, get up. Spotting a trend here? Entrepreneurs do that repeatedly, too. True entrepreneurs have a fire inside them – no matter what, we will keep going and try again.
Entrepreneurship is a state of controlling one’s own destiny. The education sector by omission seems to be designed to kill the entrepreneurial spirit in children. The main culprits are teachers and parents. As a parent or teacher, I will show you how guilty you are of killing the entrepreneurial spirit in children and condemning them to an age dependent on salaries and pensions. This section will also equip parents, teachers and caregivers on how to help the entrepreneurial spirit in every child.
Children are born entrepreneurs, but society’s perspectives, standards, and expectations often stifle their innate entrepreneurial abilities and condemn them to a life dependent on paychecks and pensions. I have drawn out some correlations between children and entrepreneurs and how parents, teachers and care-givers can ensure that the fire of entrepreneurship is constantly renewed and not dimmed in children.
Help and guide them for all questions:
Children are born with many questions inside. The average child asks between 100-200 questions a day. When they get to school, they are taught to listen and maybe stop asking questions. When we are fully matured, we hardly ask up to 10 questions a day because society does not see this as an indicator of maturity.
I have seen that great entrepreneurs have grown over the years to still keep this child’s goodness intact. Every business is a response to society’s questions, struggles, and problems. The real purpose of education is to train us to question everything, but it is a pity that the kind of education we have today trains us only to collect and insert facts. Albert Einstein once said, “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” Parents and teachers should create an environment where children can ask questions without fear and intimidation.
Help and guide them to challenge the status quo:
Children can be confrontational, a new term invented by society is rude or rebellious! I remember growing up with special objects attached to all letters. We grew up with ‘A’ for ‘Apple’ and ‘B’ for ‘Ball’. It is shocking to know that many years later children are still learning letters in this way without significant changes in this old and ancient order.
Why can’t children be asked to develop their own alphabet learning patterns? Why can’t I learn my own way by saying ‘A’ for ‘Ant’ and ‘B’ for ‘Bread’ and maybe another child says ‘A’ for ‘Antelope’ and ‘B’ for ‘Bucket’?
The goal of education should be to help children become independent learners. Steve Jobs significantly disrupted the technology space when he told everyone who cared that he was going to put all PCs (Personal Computers) on phones! Now, thanks to Jobs’ mischievous nature, cell phones can do what PCs do and more.
We should not kill the spirit of ‘confrontation’ in children, although we can make them more enlightened about how to be confrontational but not violent. Entrepreneurs challenge the status quo by looking for better ways to do things. Thomas Edison said, “There’s always a better way, look for it!”
Help and guide them to take a rewarding adventure:
Helen Keller once said, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” Kids love adventure! Actually the method has been connected, but it is nice to know that most parents see this virtue as hyperactivity, an action that needs to be done and reduced. When we don’t allow children to navigate the environment, we knock them into an artificial world that is just too small for them.
Parents are meant to provide guidance to help children navigate the world in a healthy way, but most parents just kill the adventurist in every child. We believe that children who stay where they are asked to remain obedient, while those who drive away from the place do not obey.
One of my mentors discussed a discussion between a child and his mother on a plane on one of his ministry trips. There was this young boy who was very agitated and almost caused mayhem on the plane when his obviously furious mother attacked him. Mother forced little John to sit or be spanked. Little John sat for almost two minutes sweating profusely in the air-conditioned plane when he finally saw his mother. John said, “Grandma, I’m sitting like you said, but inside me, I’m running”!
Practice accepting and learning from mistakes:
Children are programmed and wired to learn from mistakes. My mother once told me a story about how I was fascinated by candlelight as a child. They did everything they could to prevent my hand from burning but all to no avail. Until the day he watched me approach the candle without stopping.
It’s a hot and passionate candle that really gets me fixed. Making mistakes is an integral part of success. Tony Robbins said, “It doesn’t matter how many mistakes you make. You’re still far from the one who never tried”. In life, the one who never makes a mistake takes orders from the one who does! Anyone who never makes a mistake has never tried mistakes are an integral part of the learning process.
Any learning process that does not accommodate mistakes will always reduce the learner’s capacity for innovation. Abraham Lincoln said, “A man who cannot make a mistake can do nothing”. We need to stop being overprotective as parents. Let us allow our children to make their own mistakes and learn from them.
Guide and help them to take risks:
Wendy Mogel says: “Real protection means teaching children to manage their own risks, not protecting them from every danger.” Children are prone to risk and do not like to take risks. Risk taking is not only an important part of children’s development but also an integral part of the evolution of functional adults.
To develop functional adults, we must systematically expose children to acceptable levels of risk. Our risk-taking frequency decreases from childhood to adulthood. Entrepreneurs take risks while earning a secure salary. In today’s fast changing world, risk takers are risk takers!
When your kids change your room, don’t get too angry. They can find ways to express their curiosity and intelligence. Do not shout at your children when they are talking, you may kill their initiative and curiosity.
The main purpose of education is not only to prepare young people for work in industry. We need a more robust and holistic form of education that will be based on values and also provide space for problem solving, “multiple intelligences”, emotional literacy, self-discovery, self-awareness, consciousness, moral discipline, skill acquisition, and capacity development.