Entrepreneurship Education for Young Kids

Nowadays, it is very important to give Entrepreneurship Education for Young Kids due to increased competition.

Since my childhood, I have always loved money and I have always wanted to be an Entrepreneur. Although I didn’t have any entrepreneur influence in my early days I still wanted to go in this. Everybody in my family is either a government employee or works in Private Corporation. Business doesn’t run in our family unlike many other families (That’s what I mother used to say me every time I used to express my desire to start a business)

School days were typically tough for me, I always used to suck at history and Mathematics but still, my parents wanted me to get good grades in it, they even got me a private tutor for this but all in vain. I had no interest in those subjects. That’s the point; people always make you do things which you suck at rather than nurturing or helping with skills in which you are actually good at.

I had always aspired to be a businessman (not knowing what exactly a businessman does) and I had imagined myself to be running a successful business but my education system, family/society, and this industrial age thinking soon crushed that inspiration and replaced it with a goal of spending my hours for a company in exchange for status, comfort and security. Today’s educational system teaches kids how to be good employees. This system works when the economy is fully up and running. However, you’ll give your child an extra edge by teaching them how to build and manage a business for themselves.

I wish I had more exposure to entrepreneurship in my school days. Schools should give entrepreneurship education for young kids. Research has already shown there are benefits to teaching entrepreneurship to children at school. School nowadays focuses on “Let’s be a doctor, let’s be a lawyer”, nobody says let’s be an entrepreneur. Schools portray failures as a bad thing, they are wrong about failures and because of that I always used to fear to fail in anything. I would just quit doing if I sense I could fail in that. Even MBA programs don’t teach us to be an entrepreneur, they teach us to work for corporations.

We need to teach our kids that being an Entrepreneur is actually a cool thing.

Parents and teachers need to take steps for fostering entrepreneurship education for young kids from the very early stages of life. There are several things that can be done to nurture entrepreneurship into kids.

Encourage them:

To ask questions

Children are naturally curious. They want to know everything, encourage them to ask questions about anything even if it’s an obvious thing; it helps to build the mindset for raising doubts and asking what they need to know without fear of being judged.

To be creative

Creative thinking is building blocks upon which entrepreneurs build their empires. Let your children play, they engage all their creative energies while playing; guide them if they ask. Make sure these games not just mobile or PC games but a different variety of games.

To lead others

Let them have experience of leadership in tender age. Give them tasks and make them the captain of a team. Let them figure out the ways to accomplish their goals with team. It would also help them understand team building. It is one of the most important traits of an Entrepreneur.

To learn from mistakes

Make failures acceptable and encourage them. This needs to be clear to your kid that making a mistake is a good thing, showing them how to extract information from each case and learning important lessons.

To speak publicly

Public speaking can help build self-confidence in your child. Encourage their opinion and give them opportunities to convey their thoughts to the group of people. Eventually, teach them how to sell things and market themselves.

To make money and the importance of money

Financial literacy is a very important thing in life. Show them that they can earn money in several ways. Teach them the importance of money and how they can spend it in a better way. Teach them to keep track of their money.

To ask for help

Entrepreneurs are known to have a wide network and also mentor to help them get out of any situation they are stuck in. Encourage your kids to ask for help if they are stuck somewhere. Don’t give them solutions handy, navigate them to the solution.

To never give up and keep looking for solutions

Mostly all the kids have these skills naturally, make sure you don’t kill this skill. Encourage them to try again with different solutions and study their mistakes. They will keep looking for a solution until they are able to crack it. That’s the best skill an entrepreneur can have.

Most importantly, teach and develop their mindset!

“Entrepreneurship is an art, an understanding of how to make money, it needs to be learned, not taught.”

• Hector Quintanilla ( From Quora )