According to a recent survey I did on Education For Success, parents named lack of money as one of the biggest impediments to their children's education. These parents would be surprised to hear that an entrepreneurial education does not require a lot of money. Find out why you don't have to spend a lot of money to foster entrepreneurship in your kids, and learn 5 easy ways you can implement today to get your kids motivated and proactive towards life.
Although it seems a surprising statement:
A good entrepreneurial education does not require a lot of money!
I know this is a controversial statement, because it is automatically assumed that I am talking about institutional education.
Without a doubt, a good academic education is necessary to succeed in life and unfortunately, this education costs money. A lot of money.
That is why it is one of the biggest impediments that parents named in my last Education For Success survey, in which I asked what was the biggest obstacle they had to provide a good education for their children.
And it's true, many parents make huge sacrifices to deliver a costly education to their children.
I don't want to downplay the importance of a good academic education, but don't just focus on that option. It can deliver academic training and, in parallel, foster other skills in your children that will be just as - or more - important than a diploma on the wall as adults.
For example, a good entrepreneurial education.
The education that both parents and governments want to provide is an education that enables future generations to enter the job market successfully.
However, education to achieve this goal is very different from the education required to foster entrepreneurial skills in people.
So I still maintain that a good ENTREPRENEUR education does not require a lot of money.
Why?
The reason is very simple: an entrepreneurial education fosters the entrepreneurial spirit that is innate in every person. It enables entrepreneurial skills to emerge that are already part of the intrinsic nature of every human being.
John Taylor Gato verified this in a trial he did with 13-year-old children at a public school in Harlem, one of the worst neighborhoods in New York. He managed to train students of independent thought and entrepreneurship, when the normal performance for that school was a performance well below the national average.
Due to his outstanding achievements with his students, he was named New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991. However, he was branded as subversive and rebellious in explaining the methods he used to achieve those achievements.
(You can read more about JT Gatto at this link:
What can every parent do to foster the entrepreneurial spirit of their children, without spending a lot of money?
Among many other things are these 5 simple key steps you can implement today that will make a big immediate difference in your children's entrepreneurial attitude:
1. Organize blocks of time in which children can do projects without interruptions. For that they must leave a busy lifestyle to stay quietly at home. Many parents involve their children in extracurricular activities that are not always strictly necessary. They involve an additional expense and prevent the child from learning to deal with her own projects.
2. Turn off the TV and restrict the time on the computer. If your children spend a lot of time in front of screens of any kind, they create a passive attitude towards life that goes against an entrepreneurial spirit.
3. Create a context in which children's creativity is developed: corners of art, sewing, construction materials, enough space to create and mess up, costumes, Legos, etc.
In the case of older children, ideally they should be exposed to home business possibilities, projects to generate income on the computer, educational resources to generate passive income, workshops, etc.
4. Read good books with them, preferably from classical literature. Discuss and discuss books with your children. Enjoy the experience and teach them to love the experience of learning on their own.
5. Find good mentors for them. A good mentor does not have to be a teacher. It can be anyone who has skills or experiences that are useful to their children and who have the vision to share them with others.
For example, in the case of a child who has facilities for mechanics, he could spend an internship with a teacher in the field, working in the workshop in exchange for the education received.
