For our kids to develop the skills and habits of an entrepreneur, they need to begin somewhere. But where? The beauty of Cathy and I having a wealth creation Mentor at our disposal, is that we could take the invaluabe information we had been learning and apply it in small pieces to developing the mindset of our kids.
This process also involved us having a good, hard look at how we operate in our own lives in regards to planning, organising and taking ation. Cathy loves to plan things out in her head and on paper before starting a task, and once satisfied, will start when all structures are in place.
I, on the other hand, like to dive in and see where it leads. So a happy compromise was met and we decided that the kids just needed to come up with an enterprise idea and just get started. We could refine the process later.
Getting the kids to kick off with an enterprise project (when they have little idea as to where to even start), was easier said than done. But I knew that some of the things that had held us back over the years was “waiting” until all conditions were right. This saw us miss many great opportunities that were out there.
So we just “started”. Admittedly it was a bit like the blind leading the blind…but we went in with an open mind and decided to see what would happen and where it would lead.
Check out our very first videos. The filming is pretty rough as we had our 15 year old daughter using her “creative” license whilst filming, but you’ll get the gist of what our project is all about if you watch them. Here they are…
For those of you who would prefer to read, I’ll give you the run down…
I presented of the kids with $100 each! (except the baby….as all she would do is try and eat it!)
Wow!!!” was their first response. An early Christmas present!
“Ohhhh” was the next response. More sedate now that there seemed to be a catch. But they listened to my proposal.
They were to use the money as start up capital for an enterprise, and (much to their disappointment), weren’t to spend it on themselves. In fact they were to pay me back once they had attained their business goal.
I was a bit soft on them though. I also said that I would take the risk and if they were unsuccessful and weren’t able to pay back the $100, then I’d accept that and absorb the loss. I did this because I wanted them to give their enterprise a go and I was conscious that if they were hung up about having to pay me back, then they may worry about their loss and as a consequence not find the courage to even start to play the game.
Loaning the $100 was the first step in our elaborate plan to give our kids a shot at being entrepreneurial with their kids enterprise project.
Check out our next blog for the subsequent steps in our entrepreneurial quest………
