raising entrepreneurial kids

5 Life Lessons From Parents Our Daughter Remembered

Enterprise For KidsTeam Family Enterprise Stories, Raising Entrepreneurial Kids , , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
Trevor with daughters Amber and Akaisha in a recent family photo

One of the interesting things about life lessons from parents is that you never really know which ones your children are going to remember.

As parents, we put plenty of thought into the things we deliberately try to teach our children — responsibility, kindness, confidence, money, work ethic and how to make good decisions.

Then, years later, they tell you about something you barely remember doing, and apparently it became a life lesson.

Our daughter Amber recently wrote a piece on her Substack, Dear Summer, called “5 Life Lessons From My Dad.” She originally wrote it for my birthday, and reading it was both funny and quite moving.

Some of what she remembered were values Cathy and I consciously tried to make part of our family life. Other things were simply what we did. Her reflections made me think about the life lessons from parents that children can carry with them long after they leave home.

Amber has grown into a wonderfully creative young woman. She writes poetry and songs, plays the ukulele and sings, knits her own jumpers, makes an excellent coffee and is currently writing a science-fiction novel. She has a strong interest in women’s health, loves sport and, with her boyfriend, has traveled around Australia in a four-wheel drive with a rooftop tent.

Amber as a young child smiling while holding her doll
Amber as a little girl, years before she would look back and write about the lessons she remembered from childhood.

Her life has taken quite a few directions already, which makes something else she wrote about me rather fitting. Apparently, I taught her to believe in “having as many life pathways as you want, even if they’re windy.”

That sounds about right.

So, with Amber’s permission, I wanted to share five of the lessons that stayed with her — although in this case she was writing specifically about Dad.

Read Amber’s original “5 Life Lessons From My Dad” on Dear Summer.

1. Life Doesn’t End When You Have Kids

Amber starts her article with one of the more unusual chapters of our family life:

“My sister was born in one of the most remote corners of northern Australia in the middle of the night.”

At the time, Cathy and I were teaching in Kalumburu, a remote Aboriginal community in the north-eastern Kimberley of Western Australia.

Cathy with baby Kaitlin on a quad bike with friends in Kalumburu, Western Australia
Cathy with baby Kaitlin and friends in Kalumburu, where we were teaching in one of the most remote Aboriginal communities in northern Australia.

Remote really did mean remote. Reaching the nearest town involved around two days of driving on dirt roads. Life there included quad bikes, tropical weather, rough roads and crocodile-inhabited waterways. It certainly wasn’t suburban teaching.

A few children later, we found ourselves owning a mandarin and plum orchard in Western Australia’s South West. The kids were recruited to help pick fruit, although I suspect the homemade 20-meter water slide running down the property left a stronger childhood impression than the finer points of orchard management.

Jai and Kaitlin as young children sitting on a trailer full of freshly picked mandarins with Collie the family dog
Jai and Kaitlin on the back of a trailer full of freshly picked mandarins, with Collie the family dog, at our orchard in Burekup.

Later, with six children, we packed up and moved to a tropical island.

Cathy sitting with young children on a palm log beside the sea on the Cocos Islands
Cathy with some of the children on the Cocos Islands, during one of the chapters of family life that became part of their education and adventure.

Then, after our seventh child came along, we took the family traveling through the United States and Canada in a 10-meter motorhome.

The Howitt children standing beside the motorhome they lived in while traveling through the USA and Canada
The kids beside the 10-meter motorhome we lived in while traveling through the United States and Canada.

Nine people living in a motorhome requires a certain amount of organization — and tolerance — but we had an incredible time.

Amber summed up what she took from all this beautifully:

“When people tell me they couldn’t possibly think of having kids until they’ve achieved every life goal they’ve ever thought of, I just shrug and say maybe they’re meant to come too.”

That was very much our approach.

Having children obviously changes life. There are more people to consider, more logistics, more expense and usually a great deal more luggage.

But we never felt becoming parents meant the adventurous part of life had to finish.

Where we could, we brought the kids with us. Looking back, some of the most important life lessons from parents came through those shared experiences rather than through anything we deliberately set out to teach.

Looking back, those experiences became part of their education as well. They lived in unusual places, met all sorts of people, traveled through different countries and saw that there wasn’t only one acceptable way to construct a life. Many of the smaller projects and experiences from those years now sit within our family enterprise stories.

2. Stick Your Dreams on Your Wall

This one has become something of a family joke.

Long before I’d heard the term vision board, I used to cut pictures out of magazines showing places I wanted to visit and things I hoped to do, then stick them onto posters where I could see them.

I’m a visual person, and seeing those pictures regularly kept those ideas alive for me.

One photograph had particular importance.

I was born in Kenya and had always wanted to return to Africa as an adult. I had found a photograph showing what I believed was the African savanna and put it prominently on my board.

I looked at that picture for years.

Trevor's vision board featuring a San Diego Zoo Safari Park image and other life goals
One of my early vision boards. The photo at left, which I thought showed the African savanna, turned out to be San Diego Zoo Safari Park. Over the years, many of the other images on this board also became part of our lives.

Then, during our motorhome trip through the United States, we visited San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

As we drove through the park, something looked strangely familiar.

It was the scene from my vision board — almost exactly.

It turned out that the photograph I had been looking at all those years wasn’t a photograph taken somewhere in Africa at all. It was a photograph of the savanna landscape at San Diego Zoo Safari Park in California.

So, technically, the vision board worked extraordinarily well. It took me to exactly the place in the photograph — just not to the continent I thought was in the photograph.

Amber still finds this particularly amusing:

“I absolutely believe in the power of vision boarding, but I fact check my photos a little harder now.”

Fair enough.

What I like about the story now isn’t really whether vision boards work, although I’ve always found them useful. It’s that our kids grew up seeing us continue to have dreams of our own.

They heard us talking about places we’d like to visit, things we’d like to build, businesses we might start and experiences we’d like to have. They knew that becoming an adult didn’t mean you had to stop imagining what might come next.

3. 2 + 2 May Not Always Equal 4

Amber describes growing up in our house as learning that “life isn’t black and white.”

That’s probably a fair description.

I regularly told our children to question what they were being told — including what they were taught at school — and to make their own minds up about things.

I wasn’t raising unusual ideas simply to provoke the kids or play devil’s advocate. Quite often I genuinely thought there might be more truth in some of those ideas than there was in the accepted version being taught at school or presented as general consensus on television.

The point I wanted the kids to understand was that they didn’t have to believe something simply because an adult, a teacher, a textbook or someone on television said it was true.

Listen, think about it, look at different perspectives and then make your own mind up.

Sometimes those conversations went in some fairly interesting directions.

Amber remembers writing a school assignment about aliens and receiving a zero from her science teacher.

Her memory of the experience isn’t that the assignment was badly written. Her teacher simply didn’t agree with the perspective she had taken.

That became a lesson of its own.

Amber wrote:

“Questioning things can only make you more curious, and curiosity makes you smarter.”

I like that she took that from her childhood.

Independent thinking doesn’t mean automatically rejecting conventional ideas any more than it means automatically accepting them. It means being willing to think for yourself.

That has a strong connection with what we are trying to encourage through Enterprise for Kids.

Enterprise isn’t just about teaching a child how to start a business.

Children who are comfortable questioning assumptions are more likely to notice problems, see opportunities other people overlook and think about different ways something might be done. Curiosity is a pretty good place for that to begin.

4. Dinner Is the Most Important Meal of the Day

Of all the things Amber wrote about, this section may have surprised me the most.

Dinner was just something we did.

There were nine people in our family, so it wasn’t usually a peaceful, elegant affair. It could be noisy, funny, argumentative and occasionally chaotic.

But we sat down together.

Everyone came to the table, screens were put away and we didn’t start until the family was there.

Before we ate, we went around the table and each person took a turn saying something they were grateful for.

Gratitude was important in our family. Cathy and I wanted the kids to develop the habit of noticing the good things in their lives, even when other things weren’t going particularly well.

It never occurred to me that this simple dinner ritual would become one of Amber’s strongest childhood memories.

She now describes those dinners as “the most cherished time in my childhood memories.”

She also wrote:

“We would come together in all moods, stresses or struggles and talk about our days and achievements. We’d joke or argue, listen and laugh.”

The Howitt family laughing and mucking around together during a lively family dinner
Family dinner was rarely quiet in a house of nine. There was plenty of talking, laughing, disagreement and the occasional bit of chaos.

That’s pretty much how I remember it too. Some life lessons from parents are built through ordinary family routines like this, without anyone realizing at the time how much they will matter later.

With nine people around the table, there was never a shortage of conversation.

Someone had done something at school. Somebody had a problem. Someone had an idea. Another person disagreed with it. We’d talk about money, travel, work, businesses, plans, mistakes and whatever happened to be going on in our lives.

The children weren’t excluded from those conversations because they were children. Their ideas counted too.

Looking back, I suspect a surprising amount of their education took place around that table. We have written more about those enterprising dinner-table conversations and the kinds of ideas that naturally came up in our family.

When people hear the phrase raising entrepreneurial kids, they often picture lemonade stands, market stalls and children’s first little businesses.

Those things can be great, but I think enterprise starts much earlier than that.

It can start around a dinner table where children are encouraged to talk, have opinions, listen to other people’s ideas and know that what they have to say matters. Those kinds of family conversations with kids can shape how confidently they contribute their ideas later in life.

5. Love Your Family Hard

Amber’s final lesson was about family.

When the children were growing up, we would make the seven-and-a-half-hour trip north to Geraldton to visit my parents two or three times most years.

With seven children, that meant nine people packed into the vehicle for a very long drive, followed some time later by another seven-and-a-half hours home.

We did it often enough that Amber estimates she made the trip more than sixty-five times during her childhood.

What stayed with her wasn’t really the drive. It was what happened when we arrived.

She remembers watching me sitting on the porch with my parents, drinking tea, talking and simply being happy to spend time with them.

Amber showing affection to her grandmother during a family visit
Amber with her Gran. Those regular trips to see the grandparents became part of the family memories she carried into adulthood.

As she got older, she also began noticing some of the quieter ways I showed an interest in what the kids were doing.

She wrote:

“He’s a quiet man but always takes the time to celebrate the wins of his children.”

One example she mentioned means a lot to me.

Amber had recorded a song with a friend. I loved it and would sometimes play it when she wasn’t around and I missed her.

She later discovered that I’d been listening to it.

There were similar things with the other kids — watching one of the boys’ latest YouTube videos, reading something one of them had written or taking an interest in whatever project had captured their attention at the time.

I never thought of those things as teaching family values. They were simply what family meant to me.

But children notice more than we realize.

The Life Lessons From Parents Children Remember

Reading Amber’s article made me think about how much parenting happens when we aren’t deliberately trying to parent.

Of course, children remember some of the advice we give them, but they also remember the ordinary things: sitting around a dinner table, long car trips to see grandparents, being asked what they were grateful for, hearing their parents talk about dreams, and being encouraged to challenge an idea rather than simply accept it.

And apparently they even remember a photograph Dad stuck on a vision board many years ago without checking where it was actually taken.

What I particularly like about Amber’s story is that she hasn’t taken those lessons and simply tried to recreate our life. She’s built her own. That is also the idea behind our Our Enterprising Kids Today section, where we look at the very different paths our children have taken as adults.

Writing, music, travel, sport, health, photography, knitting, relationships, work and now a novel all have a place in it. Some of those things will probably remain important to her for decades. Others may eventually give way to interests she hasn’t discovered yet.

Amber Summer as an adult, reflecting the creative and independent life she has built
Amber today — writing, making music, traveling and continuing to build a life with plenty of different paths.

That’s part of the point. The most lasting life lessons from parents are not always formal lessons at all.

One of the strongest messages Cathy and I have tried to give all seven of our children is that there doesn’t have to be one predetermined pathway through life.

You can change direction, have several interests at once, try something that doesn’t work and start again.

For us, that’s also what Enterprise for Kids is really about.

It isn’t simply about producing young entrepreneurs. It’s about children developing enough curiosity, confidence and initiative to explore possibilities and create opportunities for themselves.

Some will use those qualities to build businesses. Others will use them in careers, creative pursuits, family life, community projects or adventures we couldn’t possibly predict for them.

That’s their decision to make.

A Final Thought on Life Lessons From Parents

Amber finished her original article with this:

“I could probably make this post a thousand times over with different lessons every time.”

I hope she does.

There is something quite special about reaching the stage where your children are adults and getting to see parts of their childhood through their eyes.

Some moments you thought were important hardly get mentioned.

Then they remind you of a conversation you have almost forgotten, a family dinner, a long drive, a song you kept playing or a picture you stuck on a wall years ago.

And you discover that while you were busy raising them, they were quietly deciding for themselves which parts were worth carrying with them.

Editor’s Note

This article was inspired by and adapted with permission from our daughter Amber Summer’s original piece, 5 Life Lessons From My Dad, published on her Substack, Dear Summer.

Read Amber’s original article on Dear Summer.

Skills Learned from Video Games: What Jai and Chayse Took Into Business

Enterprise For KidsTeam Chayse's Stories, Jai's Stories, Raising Entrepreneurial Kids , , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
Akaisha playing a video game in the lounge room

The skills learned from video games are not always obvious to parents while their children are playing.

Akaisha using a controller while playing a video game
Like many children, Akaisha enjoys the challenge, concentration and enjoyment that can come through gaming.

All seven of our children grew up with some exposure to computer and online games. It was never completely over the top, although there were certainly times when a couple of them devoted quite a few hours to it. Gaming was only one small part of the broader family enterprise and real-world learning journey we were sharing with them.

Like many parents, we sometimes wondered whether that time could be better spent elsewhere.

Looking back, however, Jai and Chayse both believe that some of the skills learned from video games helped shape the way they later approached business. They were not intentionally learning entrepreneurship at the time. They were playing games, competing with other people, trying to improve and becoming absorbed in challenges that interested them.

It was only later that they began to recognise the connection.

The Skills Learned from Video Games Were Not Obvious at the Time

Gaming is an interesting subject for parents because it is easy to see the time being spent, but not always the learning taking place.

We can see a child sitting at a computer for several hours. What we may not see is that they are solving problems, managing resources, communicating with other players, making quick decisions or trying to understand why a particular strategy has failed.

That does not mean all gaming is beneficial. There is a big difference between playing with purpose and simply remaining glued to a screen because a game is difficult to put down.

However, I also do not think it is helpful to assume that every hour spent gaming has been wasted.

The skills learned from video games were different for each of them. Chayse’s experience was largely about Minecraft, online economies and managing people. Jai’s experience was more about competition, focused practice and learning through immersion. Both examples fit with our wider approach to raising entrepreneurial kids through everyday experiences rather than formal business lessons alone.

Both later recognised elements of those experiences in the way they worked and built businesses.

Games have also been part of our family’s money learning in a more deliberate way. In our refreshed article about Cashflow 101 and games about entrepreneurship, we explore how board games can make ideas such as assets, liabilities, risk and cash flow easier for children to discuss.

Chayse Was Running a Minecraft Business at Twelve

Chayse Howitt at 12 years old when he was playing Minecraft online
At 12, Chayse was unknowingly practising business and management skills through an online Minecraft community.

In 2019, Chayse was spending up to four hours a day playing Minecraft.

This was not the ordinary version of Minecraft where a player quietly builds a house or explores a private world. He was playing on large online servers with thousands of other people.

Many of these servers had their own economies. Players could earn in-game money, buy and sell items, trade resources, own land and negotiate with one another.

At one point, twelve-year-old Chayse owned an area of approximately 1,000 by 1,000 Minecraft blocks. He began dividing the land and renting sections to other players.

As the project grew, he recruited more than ten people to help build and expand it. Eventually, he began paying his brother to supervise the workers.

He had effectively hired a manager.

Chayse also sold property to some of the wealthiest players on the server, hosted events and minigames, and negotiated a server rank that would normally have required real money.

His username became well known among the regular players.

At the time, he did not think of it as running a business. He was simply trying to become successful within the game. Looking back, though, he can see that he was dealing with many of the same things he would later encounter in real work. It also adds another layer to his earlier childhood enterprise story, Chayse the Candy Man, where selling to real customers began building confidence long before he understood the language of business.

Skills Learned from Video Games Through Minecraft

One of the main things Minecraft taught Chayse was that a large project cannot be completed by one person.

Minecraft world used to develop creativity, teamwork and problem-solving skills
Minecraft can involve far more than building. Players may also plan, trade, collaborate, solve problems and manage shared projects.

He needed other players to help him expand the property, but simply recruiting people was not enough. He had to explain what he wanted built, provide the materials and make sure everyone understood their role.

Years later, when he began working with user-generated content creators, the connection between those early experiences and the skills learned from video games became clear.

Managing creators also involves giving people the resources and direction they need. Instead of supplying Minecraft blocks and land, he may provide a campaign strategy, information about a product, examples of useful content and feedback on what needs to change.

The setting is completely different, but the management principle is much the same.

Chayse also learned that people work more effectively when there is some sort of system in place. Paying his brother to supervise the Minecraft workers allowed him to focus on other parts of the project.

Chayse Howitt working online as a UGC campaign-management intern at age 18
At 18, Chayse is applying many of the skills he first practised through online gaming, including teamwork, delegation, communication and problem-solving.

Today, he thinks about how software, processes and delegation can make managing creators easier.

Minecraft also exposed him to ideas around buying and selling, pricing, rent, scarcity and negotiation. The money and property were virtual, but the people he was dealing with were real. They could accept an offer, reject it, misunderstand him, compete with him or decide to go elsewhere. It was a very different setting, but it connected with the same basic ideas we explore in our article on financial education for kids, assets and liabilities.

That gave him a surprisingly practical introduction to how people behave within a marketplace.

Jai’s Gaming Experience Taught Him Something Different

Jai’s strongest lesson did not come from Minecraft.

Jai Howitt as a teenager when online games became part of his learning
Jai believes gaming helped teach him the value of immersion, practice, strategy and learning from people who were better than him.

For him, one of the most influential games was Toribash, an online fighting game in which players control the individual joints of their character.

The game pauses briefly while each player decides how their character will move. The characters then act according to those instructions before the game pauses again.

It requires players to anticipate what an opponent might do and adjust their decisions as the match develops.

When Jai first began playing, he recalls being ranked somewhere in the 400,000s.

He became determined to improve, so he started studying one of his favourite players. He watched how the player approached each match, paid attention to the game mode he used and tried to understand the thinking behind his decisions.

Jai then concentrated heavily on one particular mode rather than moving between lots of different ones.

Within about four months, he says he had reached number three in the world.

What stayed with him was not the ranking itself. One of the most valuable skills learned from video games was the ability to improve quickly when he became deeply interested in something and deliberately surrounded himself with it.

Immersion Became Jai’s Bigger Lesson

Jai later had a conversation with his uncle, who had played professional online poker against some of the best players in the world.

Toribash strategy game used by Jai to practise decision-making and problem-solving
Toribash required Jai to study each move, make quick decisions and continually adjust his strategy.

His uncle explained that poker had become part of almost everything he did. He played it, watched it, studied it and spent time with people who were better than he was.

Jai recognised the same pattern in his Toribash experience.

He had not improved by occasionally playing a game when he felt like it. He improved because he became completely immersed in understanding it.

That idea later carried into his business life.

When Jai wanted to become better at creating video advertisements for brands, he joined communities, connected with agency owners, studied other businesses and created content constantly. He also co-founded a product brand, Naming This Later, which helped him understand what it was like to be the customer purchasing advertising and creative services.

His agency later grew from no revenue to approximately $1 million in eighteen months. More recently, Jai shared the same practical thinking while helping Chayse map out a million dollar business plan during their Geraldton road trip.

Jai does not claim that playing Toribash created that business. The connection is more subtle than that.

Gaming helped him recognise the way he learns best. When he finds something that genuinely interests him, he studies it closely, spends time with people who understand it and keeps working at it until he becomes capable.

As Jai wrote to his email audience:

“I just liked playing video games and they taught me a powerful lesson in life: immersion is how you succeed.”

How the Skills Learned from Video Games Appeared in Their Businesses

The skills learned from video games did not transfer neatly from a screen into a business. There was no moment where either of them simply copied what they had done in a game.

Instead, certain ways of thinking began to reappear.

Chayse had already experienced what it felt like to organise people, delegate work and develop systems. Jai had experienced the value of studying successful players, concentrating on one area and continuing through repeated losses.

Both had become comfortable with trying something, seeing what happened and adjusting their approach.

That is a very useful habit in entrepreneurship.

A business idea rarely works perfectly the first time. There are customers who say no, offers that do not sell and plans that need to be changed. People who are used to treating failure as information are often more willing to keep experimenting. This is closely connected to the way we help children move through limiting beliefs and setbacks without allowing one result to become a fixed story about who they are.

Other skills learned from video games can include collaboration and quick decision-making. Players may need to share responsibilities, communicate under pressure and respond to events they did not expect.

Again, none of this means that every gamer will become an entrepreneur. It simply shows that some gaming environments can expose children to skills that later become useful elsewhere. The willingness to act, learn and adjust also appears in our refreshed Justin Herald entrepreneur story, which has always been one of our stronger examples of attitude shaping opportunity.

What I Have Seen Through Minecraft as a Teacher

My interest in this subject also comes from being a school teacher.

As a teacher, I have also seen how the skills learned from video games can be directed into classroom learning through Minecraft. Students who may be reluctant to engage with an ordinary worksheet can become extremely motivated when they are asked to solve a similar problem through Minecraft.

They can work together to recreate historical locations, plan sustainable communities, demonstrate mathematical ideas, build working structures and explain the reasoning behind their designs.

The benefit is not just that the activity feels fun.

Students have to communicate, share decisions and solve problems together. A group may have plenty of ideas but still struggle if nobody listens, responsibilities are unclear or one person tries to control the entire project.

Those are real collaboration lessons.

Minecraft Education has been designed specifically for classroom use and provides teachers with structured lessons and tools across subjects such as coding, science, history and mathematics.

The official Minecraft Education site provides classroom resources, ready-to-use lessons and learning activities across a range of subjects.

The teacher still plays an important role. Giving students access to Minecraft does not automatically make an activity educational. There needs to be a clear purpose, some guidance and an opportunity for students to explain what they have learned. This is the same principle behind our wider focus on real-world learning that builds confidence and initiative.

The Risks of Gaming Still Matter

A balanced discussion also needs to acknowledge the negatives.

Online games can consume a great deal of time. Because many games are open-ended, there is always something else to build, improve, earn or complete.

Gaming becomes a concern when it regularly takes the place of sleep, exercise, schoolwork, family interaction or real-world friendships.

Public multiplayer servers can also expose children to toxic conversations, bullying, scams and inappropriate behaviour. Chayse’s Minecraft experience involved real people in a public environment, so there were risks alongside the valuable lessons.

Parents still need to know which games their children are playing, who they are communicating with and whether appropriate safety settings are being used.

We also need to watch for the difference between enthusiasm and unhealthy dependence.

A child can be deeply interested in a game without it becoming harmful. The warning signs usually appear when the gaming begins to negatively affect other important areas of life.

Helping Children Recognise the Skills Learned from Video Games

One of the useful things parents can do is take an interest in what is happening inside the game.

Rather than only asking how long they have been playing, we might ask what they are trying to achieve, what has gone wrong or whether they are working with anyone else. It is another practical way to encourage entrepreneurial thinking in children without turning every interest into a formal lesson.

Akaisha playing a video game at home and developing skills learned from video games
Akaisha enjoying a video game at home, a reminder that gaming continues to be part of many children’s everyday lives.

A child may explain that they are building something for other players, organising a team, collecting resources or trying to understand why a particular strategy keeps failing.

Those conversations can help us see whether genuine learning is taking place and help children name the skills learned from video games. They may also help the child recognise skills they had not previously thought about.

At twelve, Chayse did not use words such as delegation, property management or business systems. Jai did not describe his Toribash experience as deliberate practice or competitive analysis.

They understood those ideas later because they had something practical to connect them to.

Parents could also ask:

  • What is the hardest part of the game?
  • How did you work out what to do?
  • Are you helping or managing other players?
  • What did you try that did not work?
  • Is there someone in the game you are learning from?
  • Does anything you are doing remind you of something outside the game?

These questions create a discussion rather than turning gaming into another formal lesson.

Gaming Was Only One Part of Their Development

It is important not to give video games all the credit.

The skills learned from video games were only one part of our children’s development. They also played sport, travelled, went to school, tried small businesses and had many real-world experiences. Our enterprising dinner table conversations and the practical projects collected in our family enterprise stories gave them many other places to test ideas and build confidence. Gaming was only one influence among many.

What it did provide was another place where certain interests and abilities could develop.

Chayse enjoyed building systems, managing people and finding opportunities inside an economy.

Jai enjoyed analysing how people became successful and then immersing himself in improving.

Those traits may have found another outlet even if they had never played online games. Gaming simply provided an early environment in which they could practise them.

The Bigger Lesson About Skills Learned from Video Games

The skills learned from video games can extend well beyond the games themselves, but that does not happen automatically.

It depends on the game, the child, the way they play and whether they eventually recognise how those experiences might apply elsewhere.

For Chayse, Minecraft offered early lessons in buying, selling, leadership, delegation and creating systems.

For Jai, Toribash demonstrated the power of immersion, focused practice and learning from people who were already highly skilled.

Neither of them knew at the time that these experiences would later influence their approach to business. Their wider journeys are shared in our update on what happened to our seven enterprising kids, and the Our Enterprising Kids Today page connects many of those childhood experiences with the paths they are following now.

They were simply following interests that captured their attention.

As parents and teachers, perhaps the lesson is not that children should spend more time gaming. It is that we should remain curious about where their interests might be leading them.

Sometimes useful learning is taking place in places we did not think to look.

Entrepreneurial Family: What We Talk About Around the Dinner Table

Enterprise For KidsTeam Cathy and Trevor's Stories, Family Enterprise Stories, Jai's Stories, Kaitlin's (Kat) Stories, Our Enterprising Kids Today , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
Kaitlin, Jai, Flynn, Amber and Tully relaxing by the sea on Cocos Islands as part of an entrepreneurial family story

An entrepreneurial family does not always teach enterprise through formal lessons. Sometimes the most powerful learning happens around the dinner table.

In our family, dinner often began with gratitude, a few stories from the day, and a celebration of what people had achieved. But quite often, the conversation would shift into business, money, social media, investing, websites, ideas and opportunities.

Flynn developing photography and filmmaking skills as part of an entrepreneurial family story
Film making and photography helped Flynn build confidence, creativity and a social media following.

Editor’s note: This article was originally written during an earlier stage of our family’s Enterprise for Kids journey and has been refreshed with updated formatting, links and reflections. Some examples are historical, but the bigger lesson is still very relevant: children learn a great deal from the conversations, questions and opportunities they grow up around.

What Does an Entrepreneurial Family Talk About?

What do you think the Howitts talk about around the dinner table?

It always begins with each member of the family sharing a gratitude. Usually the events of the day are told, small wins are noticed, and achievements are celebrated. But what often happens next is that topics of business, enterprise, finance and investing begin to govern the conversation.

That might sound unusual, but for us it became part of family life. We were not trying to lecture the children. We were simply talking openly about ideas, opportunities, risks, mistakes and what people were learning.

This is one of the quiet strengths of an entrepreneurial family. Children begin to hear the language of possibility. They hear adults and siblings talk about ideas, value, money, creativity, customers, digital skills and problem-solving. Over time, those conversations can shape the way children see the world.

Some of the topics around our family table have included social media opportunities, digital assets, eCommerce and online business. Let’s look at how these conversations can present opportunities for kids and teens to think more entrepreneurially.

How Social Media Became a Learning Opportunity

Our older children, Kaitlin, Jai, Flynn and Amber, all discovered social media when they were in their mid-teens. It started with Facebook, then Instagram, and later platforms such as TikTok and Snapchat.

They learned how to grow a real following by posting regular, quality content about their lives, interests and adventures. It probably helped that we were living on a tropical island atoll in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Photos and videos from Cocos Islands always looked pretty fabulous, and those early creative skills helped shape things like Flynn’s photography and creative work.

Kaitlin creating inspirational workshops and enterprise opportunities through social media and connection
Creating workshops and connecting with people became part of Kaitlin’s enterprise journey.

As their following grew, so did their opportunities for enterprise. It began with simple things like shoutouts. Other people or companies would pay them to mention a product, page or service in a post. This helped those people grow their followers or promote what they were offering, and our enterprising kids were happy for the cash.

Next came real products. Companies sent clothing, watches, surf gear and jewellery for them to wear and share on their accounts. The kids were able to keep the gear, and in some cases they were also paid for the promotion.

Looking back, this was an early lesson in digital entrepreneurship. The children were learning that attention, trust, creativity and consistency could create opportunities. They were also learning that a following is not just about numbers. It is about connection, value and communication.

Turning Digital Skills Into Real Business

As time went by and their social media followings grew, their creative ideas began to grow as well. Bigger opportunities started to appear.

Jai beginning his digital enterprise journey from his bedroom as part of an entrepreneurial family
Jai building digital skills from his bedroom in the early days of his enterprise journey.

Kaitlin, along with Tully, began building multiple streams of income using social media, connection and online platforms. Their work included coaching, network marketing and online courses.

Jai took a few years to build momentum, but his early interest in social media and content creation eventually became a real business path. He began creating content for clients and using his digital skills to generate leads and opportunities.

That is one of the things I find interesting as a parent. The small things children play with, practise and explore as teenagers can become the early foundations for future work.

Jai standing in his warehouse after growing his digital content and media business
Jai’s early digital interests eventually grew into real business opportunities.

An entrepreneurial family does not need to have all the answers. What matters is creating an environment where children are allowed to explore ideas, test things, ask questions and see real examples of enterprise in action.

That connects closely with our broader reflections on how to raise entrepreneurial kids. Children do not only need theory. They need conversations, experiments, encouragement and real-world opportunities.

Talking About Crypto and Digital Assets Carefully

Another topic that entered our family conversations was crypto. You would have heard about Bitcoin, but many people still do not fully understand what it is, how it works, or why people are interested in it.

For our family, the useful part of the conversation was not “everyone should buy crypto”. It was the opportunity to talk about technology, risk, research, hype, long-term thinking and the difference between speculation and investing.

Important note: This section is not financial advice. Crypto assets are volatile and risky. This article is simply reflecting on how one family used the topic as a learning conversation about technology, money and decision-making.

In simple terms, Bitcoin is a digital asset built on blockchain technology. It was created in 2008 and has a limited supply. People are interested in it for many reasons, including decentralisation, borderless transactions, digital scarcity and the potential of blockchain technology.

But the more important family lesson was this: children and teens need to learn how to think, not just what to buy.

When topics like crypto come up, parents can ask useful questions:

  • What problem is this technology trying to solve?
  • Who benefits if people buy into it?
  • What could go wrong?
  • Is this investing, speculation, gambling or learning?
  • What would proper research look like?
  • How much risk is too much?

Those are powerful dinner table questions. They help children think about risk, evidence, emotions and decision-making. That is far more valuable than simply telling them something is good or bad.

This also links with our article on financial education for kids, where we explore how children can begin to think about assets, liabilities and wiser money choices.

eCommerce and Website Building at Home

Another topic we explored as a family was eCommerce and website building. We were learning how websites could be built, improved, monetised and sometimes bought or sold as digital assets.

Websites can be monetised in many ways. Some common methods include affiliate marketing, advertising, directory listings, services, digital products and online courses.

For enterprising kids and teens, the bigger lesson is not that every child should rush out and build a website. The lesson is that digital skills matter.

When a young person learns how websites work, they begin to understand:

  • how online businesses attract attention
  • how content can create value
  • how products and services are sold online
  • how audiences are built
  • how digital assets can be improved over time
  • how creativity, writing, design and technology can work together

At the time of the original article, some of the younger Howitt kids were building websites. Amber had started a site about sustainable period products. Chayse had bought a site called Baby Client and was working on improving it. Other projects were still a work in progress.

Some of those early projects worked. Some did not. But every one of them created learning.

That is the value of an entrepreneurial family. The goal is not to make every child successful at every idea. The goal is to build initiative, curiosity, problem-solving and the courage to keep learning.

What Parents Can Learn From an Entrepreneurial Family

Our dinner table conversations may be a little different to the average family. We gain inspiration from one another through these conversations and through mentors who support us on our entrepreneurial journeys.

We are building skills, gaining knowledge, creating assets and, most of all, strengthening a mindset for enterprise.

If you want to encourage more enterprise in your own family, you do not need to start with a big business idea. Start with better conversations.

You might ask your children:

  • What problem did you notice today?
  • What could make that easier, better or more useful?
  • What skill would you like to learn?
  • What do people already ask you for help with?
  • What could you create, sell, improve or share?
  • What does this teach us about money, value or responsibility?

Those questions help children see the world differently. They begin to notice opportunity. They begin to understand value. They begin to realise that enterprise is not just something adults do. It is a way of thinking.

Key takeaway: An entrepreneurial family can use everyday conversations about business, money, digital skills, investing and ideas to help children build confidence, curiosity and real-world enterprise. The dinner table can become one of the most powerful classrooms in the home.

Kids Mindset for Success: Planning and Goal Setting

Enterprise For KidsTeam Mindset, Confidence & Leadership, Raising Entrepreneurial Kids , , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
Young kids in suits showing a determined kids mindset for success

Kids mindset for success begins with helping children turn their dreams, ideas and intentions into a clear plan they can actually follow.

During my career-path conversation with my son Jai, he was able to visualise himself, his surroundings and the companions he wanted in his adult future. The final step was to solidify the pathway that would take him to his version of a successful life: a plan, Natalie Cook’s fifth P.

Natalie Cook with Cathy showing a kids mindset for success
Natalie Cook stood on a chair for this photo!

Kids Mindset for Success Starts With a Plan

It is always a good idea to sit down and plot out short-term and long-term goals, especially for entrepreneurial kids who are cultivating a kids mindset for success.

On an adult level, well-made plans should be a natural component of what you perceive as your life’s purpose — your “Why” in life. Of course, children who are entrepreneurial may not have solidified their life purpose to this extent yet. But they can still begin learning how to set meaningful goals, create intentions and take practical steps forward.

A plan helps children move from vague wishing into purposeful action.

Helping Kids Set Clear Intentions

Sean Rasmussen, our internet marketing mentor, taught me a trick that can be successful with kids as well.

Write an intention on a small piece of paper, but do not use the future tense.

For instance, an adult might write:

“I have attracted a healthy, motivated business person to my business this month.”

That is much stronger than writing:

“I will attract…”

A child might write:

“I have kicked two goals at this Saturday’s soccer match.”

Place the written intention under your pillow, in your wallet, or somewhere you will view it regularly. The idea is to set a specific and realistic goal, then see it, believe it and feel it.

Plan for kids mindset for success

People who practise this mindset for success technique can go on to set bigger and grander intentions over time.

For children, this is not about pressure. It is about learning to direct their thoughts, language and energy toward something positive and achievable.

Having a Defined Goal Builds a Kids Mindset for Success

My friend Michael Clouse says that not having a clearly defined plan is like an archer who aims at a target with a blindfold on.

There is no chance of hitting the bullseye if you are unable to see it.

That image is a wonderful one for children. If they cannot see what they are aiming for, how can they know which direction to move? A clearly defined goal helps children understand what they are working toward and why their daily actions matter.

This is especially important for entrepreneurial kids, because business ideas can easily remain just ideas unless they are supported by a plan.

Vision Boards and a Kids Mindset for Success

Another technique is visualising goals using a vision board.

Select the experiences, goals and things that you would like to have in your life. Then make a poster board using images, words and graphics. Place the vision board somewhere you will see it daily.

The important part is not just making the board. The important part is seeing it often, visualising the items on the board, and imagining them as if they were real and already present in your life.

Child facing fears and building a mindset for success
Facing your fears! Walking on broken glass!

A vision board can help children begin to connect their imagination with action. It gives them a visual reminder of what they care about and where they are heading.

For some kids, this might include sport, travel, family, creativity, business ideas, friendships, learning goals or ways they want to contribute to the world.

Positive Affirmations Lead to a Success Mindset in Kids

Speaking positive affirmations aloud two or three times a day is another way of setting your intention and belief. Again, these should be in the present tense.

Natalie Cook likes to declare her intentions and plans before a public audience, making herself accountable to a lot of people for achieving her aims. Her Olympic journey is a strong example of discipline, planning and follow-through. You can read more about her work and speaking through Natalie Cook’s official website.

So be bold.

Change your way of thinking.

Get rid of the negatives.

Affirm the positives.

Make sure that your plans are well aligned with your life vision. Set grand goals and follow your plan. This is a kids mindset for success.

Natalie Cook’s Five Ps Series

This article is Part 4 in our series on Natalie Cook’s Five Ps for helping entrepreneurial kids and enterprising teens develop purpose, people, passion, perseverance, planning and a mindset for success.

Where to Next?

How do you help your children set goals and follow a plan? Leave a comment and share one strategy that has helped build a mindset for success in your family.

Teaching Perseverance to Kids: Natalie Cook’s Five Ps

Enterprise For KidsTeam Mindset, Confidence & Leadership, Raising Entrepreneurial Kids , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments
Cathy Howitt with Natalie Cook in a lesson about teaching perseverance to kids

Teaching perseverance to kids is one of the most important parts of helping them develop a mindset for success, because every child will face setbacks, rejection and moments when things feel too hard.

A baby learns to walk by falling over many times. An entrepreneur learns to succeed after stumbling along the way. In this third part of Natalie Cook’s Five Ps series, we look at her fourth P: Perseverance — perseverance on our children’s part, and perseverance on ours as parents too.

Kids working together on a computer while learning perseverance and problem solving
Perseverance grows when children work through challenges, solve problems together and keep going when learning gets difficult.

Teaching Perseverance to Kids Through Real-Life Setbacks

One of the best ways to teach children perseverance is to let them see adults handle setbacks in a healthy way.

For example, Cathy and I have learned that in the business of referring people to an opportunity, many people will simply not be interested. With enterprising teens watching, how do parents set an example to persevere when people say “No”?

The mindset for success is to celebrate the “No.”

After enough “No” responses, a “Yes” will inevitably follow. One of my mentors, David Wood, says to do the Happy Dance whenever you get a “No,” because the rejection has only moved you one step closer to the “Yes.”

Perseverance for Kids Means Learning to Handle Rejection

Your kids, whether entrepreneurial or not, are going to like seeing that Happy Dance.

It becomes a practical, memorable way to help seal the behavioural pattern of success in their mindsets. Being able to overcome rejection in business, rejection from friends and even rejection from family is paramount when teaching perseverance to kids.

The lesson is simple but powerful: rejection is not the end of the road. It is part of the road.

For entrepreneurial kids and enterprising teens, this matters. A child who can hear “No” and still keep going has a much stronger foundation than a child who believes every “No” means they have failed.

Changing the Language Children Use About Perseverance

Our vocabulary also plays a huge part in our ability to persevere.

In our family, “Can’t” is a swear word and is not allowed to be used at any time. “Can” is encouraged.

Many people, including kids, are quick to give up when the going gets tough. They say, “I can’t,” rather than “I can.” The little kids in my family actually believe “can’t” is a swear word, right up there with the other big four-letter words!

This might sound funny, but it is also a powerful family rule.

When children repeatedly say “I can’t,” they begin training themselves to stop. When they learn to say “I can try,” “I can learn,” or “I can have another go,” they begin building the internal language of perseverance.

Teaching Perseverance to Kids With “That Was Easy”

Another phrase to abandon is, “It’s too hard.”

Natalie Cook showed us a little trick she used to change her perception of what is hard. She bought a toy button that calls out, “That was easy!” when you press it. Natalie would strap this toy button to her volleyball net pole.

Whenever she did something very well that was also very difficult, she would run up to press the button:

“That was easy!”

Try it for yourself. Press the button below.

Being the best in the world at your sport certainly has its challenges, and my kids would love to try out one of those buttons.

But whether or not you have the button, the point is not to keep telling yourself, “That was hard.”

A child’s brain listens carefully to repeated language. If the phrase is always “too hard,” the child begins to expect defeat. If the phrase becomes “I can try,” “I can learn,” or even “that was easy,” the child begins to rehearse a different identity.

Natalie Cook’s Example of Perseverance

Natalie Cook’s Olympic journey is a strong example of perseverance in action. Her official Olympic profile describes her as a five-time Olympian and Olympic gold and bronze medallist in beach volleyball, which makes her a powerful role model when teaching children about commitment, setbacks and long-term success. Read more about Natalie Cook’s Olympic journey here.

Children often see the medal, the success or the final moment of victory.

What they do not always see are the early mornings, the missed shots, the injuries, the disappointments, the training sessions and the moments when an athlete has to choose whether to keep going.

That is why perseverance is such an important lesson for kids. It teaches them that success is not just about talent. It is also about what they do after things become difficult.

Why Perseverance Belongs in the Mindset for Success

These tactics — celebrating the “No,” changing our language, and reframing hard things as achievable — can all increase the level of perseverance in kids and help keep them on a successful track.

But perseverance becomes easier when children also have direction.

That is where the next P comes in: Plan.

A plan gives perseverance somewhere to go. It helps children understand the next step, not just the final dream. Without a plan, perseverance can feel like pushing in the dark. With a plan, children can see that each effort is moving them forward.

Make sure you have a look at the short video above that we made of Natalie Cook giving a special message to our kids. Can you spot the blooper?

Natalie Cook’s Five Ps Series

This article is Part 3 in our series on Natalie Cook’s Five Ps for helping entrepreneurial kids and enterprising teens develop purpose, people, passion, perseverance, planning and a mindset for success.

Where to Next?

How do you help your children persevere when things get tough? Leave us a comment and share one strategy that has worked in your family.

Entrepreneurial Kids: How to Teach Purpose and Success

Enterprise For KidsTeam Mindset, Confidence & Leadership, Raising Entrepreneurial Kids , , , , , , , , , 6 Comments
Natalie Cook diving for the ball at the Sydney Olympics beach volleyball final

Entrepreneurial kids need more than a good idea or a burst of enthusiasm — they need a strong sense of purpose that helps them keep going when the path becomes difficult.

This lesson became very clear to me after hearing Olympic gold medallist Natalie Cook speak in Perth. Natalie is a five-time Olympian and one of Australia’s most inspiring beach volleyball champions. Her message about success, purpose and the mindset of high achievers was powerful not only for athletes, but also for parents raising entrepreneurial kids.

Natalie Cook gold medallist sharing lessons for entrepreneurial kids
Natalie Cook, Olympic gold medallist, shared powerful lessons about purpose and success.

Why Entrepreneurial Kids Need a Strong Purpose

Natalie Cook is a wonderful example of the connection between sport, business and personal success. She won Olympic gold with Kerri Pottharst at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and went on to become a respected speaker, leader and businesswoman. You can read more about her Olympic journey on the Australian Olympic Committee’s Natalie Cook profile.

When Natalie spoke in Perth, she explained that professional athletes and successful business owners have many things in common. Both need discipline, courage, focus and the ability to keep moving towards a goal, even when the obstacles are real.

Her message was captivating, humorous and very useful for cultivating a mindset for success in entrepreneurial kids — and, just as importantly, in their adult counterparts.

Natalie Cook’s Five Ps for Success

Natalie built her talk around what she called the Five Ps. These were principles that could apply to children, athletes, families and business owners alike.

Over a series of posts, I wanted to share these Five Ps and connect them to the way we raise enterprising, confident and purpose-driven children. I will also be adding one extra “P” of my own at the end. After hearing Natalie’s five, I wonder if you can guess what mine might be.

For this first part, we begin with one of the most important foundations of all.

Entrepreneurial Kids and the Power of Purpose

A person who truly reaches for success has a mindset that carries with it a very strong “Why,” or purpose.

Your “Why” must be stronger than your “Why not?”

If it is not, you may not have enough purpose to muster up the will to make your goals happen when barriers appear. A strong purpose gives children something deeper to hold onto. It turns a vague wish into a reason to keep trying.

Your “Why” has to be specific and close to the heart. It does not need to be complicated.

A friend of mine is driven to succeed because she desperately wants her mum to be happy and not have to work anymore. Another wants to buy a villa in Tuscany so that she can reconnect with her Italian family roots and create a sense of belonging.

These “Whys” are very different from saying, “Why not?” They are clear purposes, not poor explanations.

Teaching Purpose to Kids Through Real Conversations

Your “Why” will often come from one of two emotions: pain or pleasure. Usually, pain is the stronger of the two.

Think about the rags-to-riches stories we often hear about well-known success mentors and creators such as JK Rowling, Colonel Sanders, Sylvester Stallone, Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, Susan Boyle and Richard Branson. Their difficult experiences helped shape a strong “Why,” and that purpose became part of what carried them forward.

For entrepreneurial kids, this does not mean they need to experience hardship before they can succeed. It means they need to understand what matters to them. They need to begin asking deeper questions about contribution, growth, family, freedom, creativity and the kind of life they want to build.

Cathy and Trevor with Natalie Cook after a talk about purpose and success
Amy, Cathy, Natalie, Tracey, Kym and Trevor after Natalie Cook’s inspiring talk.

I recently carried out a “Why” exercise with my son, Jai.

We had just returned from a career pathway meeting for his upcoming senior class. Every pathway the school presented seemed to end in landing a j-o-b — just-over-broke. Whether the route was through university, technical school or straight into the average 40-year career, the end result sounded much the same.

There was nothing for an enterprising teen to really grab hold of.

Worse still, because the students were nearing the end of high school, the pressure was on to make a choice. It felt like a limited choice, based on hastily presented ideas rather than a deeply considered purpose.

The result was confusion. Jai seemed torn between going to university with his mates because it sounded like fun, or leaving school with his cousin and going to make money in the mines.

This inconsistency told me that Jai’s “Whys” for both of these career paths were too vague.

Purpose quote for entrepreneurial kids learning their why

Questions That Help Entrepreneurial Kids Find Their Why

So, we got to work.

We discussed why these two ideas sounded interesting to him. We talked about the difference between a strong “Why” and a casual “Why not?” We also explored why “Why not?” is unlikely to carry a person through the hard parts of either choice.

Then I asked Jai to ponder three questions:

  1. How do you want to contribute to this world?
  2. How do you want to grow as a person?
  3. How do you want to be remembered when you pass?

These are big questions for a teenager. In fact, they are big questions for adults too.

But they matter.

If we want to raise entrepreneurial kids who can think for themselves, create opportunities and build meaningful lives, we need to help them move beyond surface-level choices. We need to help them understand what drives them.

Purpose Comes Before the Plan

Many children are asked what job they want before they are asked what kind of life they want.

They are asked what subjects they will choose before they are asked what they care about.

They are asked which pathway they will follow before they have had time to discover the purpose behind the pathway.

This is why purpose matters so much. A plan without purpose can become a list of tasks. Purpose gives the plan energy, direction and meaning.

For entrepreneurial kids, purpose is not just about making money. It is about knowing why they want to create, serve, solve, build, lead or contribute in the first place.

Next, we continue the journey in Part 2: People and Passion, where we explore how the right people and passions can help shape entrepreneurial kids and enterprising teens.

Natalie Cook’s Five Ps Series

This article is Part 1 in our series on Natalie Cook’s Five Ps for helping entrepreneurial kids and enterprising teens develop purpose, people, passion, perseverance, planning and a mindset for success.

Where to Next?

We are always looking for feedback on our entrepreneurial kids articles. What is your “Why”? Leave a comment and share the purpose that keeps you moving forward.