How to train your kids to be an Entrepreneur?

A story with my kids and their learning.

Way back when I started working, I never even heard of Entrepreneurship and Start-ups. The world now has changed completely different.

I have two kids and wanted them to be an Entrepreneur and contribute back to society. Let me tell you my experience on how I started with my elder one (younger one is little small to understand but I feel he would learn from his brother)

Kids have a plain mind and its easy to plant anything at an early age. It's always nice to start early and they would learn from experiences.

• Value of human life and contributing back to the society - School learning is traditional and never changed since ages. One major change I see these days is about educating kids on charity, Culture, and social responsibility.

One day there was a donation camp in their school. My kids were asked to collect donations for an orphanage. They came to me for donation and I asked them to first go and ask neighbors and remember their facial expressions. After a while, my kids came back with a little donation but they remember the facial expression of people who did not donate for the cause. I asked them why they did so? They don't have an answer but made up some answer.

Problem with this situation was kids were not even aware of what they are collecting for, how would money be used. All that they know was they would get a gift if they collect more. I assured them I would give them the amount that's required to get that gift and be first in the list of donors with a condition they would answer all my questions on this charity program.

They took three days discussing with their friends, teachers and googled around with their mom. They finally answered almost all my questions on this charity program.

They now understand what an orphan life looks like and they started caring for this cause.

They started celebrating their birthdays and other events in Orphan homes. This was the first lesson.

• Value of Money and how to earn (Also includes your sales and Marketing skills)- Kids always compare their living with their friends. They want the same gadgets or a superior one and want to show off. That's common psychology of kids.

One day they wanted a gadget which they have seen in a mall. They have no clue how much would it cost. All that they know was Dad would swipe his card the shopkeeper would give them what they want. Gadget they wanted was not really expensive but I wanted them to understand the value of money and how to earn. I bought the gadget but did not give them. I set some targets to achieve so that they would get the gadget. I also defined the timelines to achieve.

I gave them 1/2 of the money that gadget cost and ask them to do whatever they want to get me the price of the gadget. Again they started talking their friends, mom, teachers, and everyone that they know. To my surprise, they started looking at Youtube video as to how they double the money.

I started explaining them the financial instruments like Fixed deposits, about Banks, Loans, Mutual funds, and Stocks. Also said them a few stories about Warren Buffet and others about their childhood. Since they are eager to earn money and get their gadget, they quickly grabbed all the concepts I explained them.

They had a little time left and figured out they cant double the money with the financial instruments. Instead, they remember the childhood story of Warren collecting coke caps and selling them.

They wanted to do something similar and had many ideas. They floated me all the ideas and I picked one. They wanted to sell or rent their old gadgets to their friend and make money. They played all the business game to earn the target. They floated discount offers, Hourly packs what not..It was a great success and they earned more than what they want.

They grabbed the gadget from me by paying half and rest as their pocket money.

• Find your passion and be focused - After their business was a huge success they wanted to explore more opportunities. They started browsing and learned from books that I always read.

They started a YouTube channel and started uploading videos and gaming content. I did not even help them to set up a channel. They did this on their own. They read through articles and saw steps. It was really amazing to see kids exploring on their own. All that I explained them is on Piracy and make sure they don't copy any content.

They started getting videos but were unable to monetize. I really did not want them to know how to monetize as they are very young and I don't want my kids to be a school drop out. They started liking the views and started changing the content etc. They read a few books and online material and got to know about earning on their work. Finally, I set up an account for them to see their money for the hard work they did.

They are still learning but I am happy that they found their passion and are focused on doing what they want. They spend 3 hours every day after school to get all this stuff done.

• Read a lot of books and learn from experiences - Life teaches you business and books can help you to articulate or relate with your life experiences and shape this up

One day my kid picked up Rich Dad Poor Dad book and started reading. He did not know about real estate until then. That was one thing I did not teach them and want them to explore and understand. This guy completed the book and I asked him what did he understand.

He said one sentence. Its all about “Buying at a lower rate and selling at a marginal rate so that next the buyer would have a margin to make profits”

I was literally shocked when he said me the statement. I thought he would have questions on real estate but he made his summary clear.

I then explained his about the book and real estate investment so that he could relate to what he said to me.