This is a guest post from Jeff at Sustainable Life Blog as part of the Yakezie blog swap. Jeff writes about finances, sustainability and DIY. This week, we are discussing How to raise a millionaire – developing your child’s entrepreneurial aptitude. You can see my post on the same topic at Jeff’s site.
Basics First
Foster Creativity
The self-made millionaire is all over everyone’s favorite american success stories. Someone worked hard as a youngster at something obscure, got a gem idea and then turned it into a multi-million or multi-billion dollar business. Think Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, or Bill Gates. All of them had the creative spirit that helped foster entrepreneurship, and hit the ground running when they had a great idea. Another way you can foster creativity is expose your child to more problems. If you see a problem, point it out the child and see what they think about it – millionaires don’t just happen, they get that way because they find a problem (or figure out what we want before we know we want it) and come up with a creative solution for it. It doesn’t have to be the latest computer or tech app either, if you’ve got a way to deliver clean water more efficiently to rural communities across the globe, you can make millions. The people you’re helping may not be able to pay for it, but people who are interested in helping the people with the problem will be.
Encourage Friend Making (Networking)
There are plenty of good ideas that end up fizzling out or never even taking off because the person who thought of the idea was unable to effectively market it. As unfortunate as this is, it still happens, and there’s plenty of ways around it. If your child is good with people, odds are he or she will be able to recognize when they are not the best at something, and reach out to a friend that they think will do a better job. Guidance from the friend can help turn a dud into the next Snuggie. This doesn’t only work for marketing, either – they could be stuck with an unworkable prototype and have a friend with a way to fix it, or they’re stuck with a poor model that a friend can help refine and make easier to use for the end-user. No matter what the situation is, having outside input and being able to consider it thoughtfully, will help your child get far.
Readers: Do you have children? Do you want them to become businessmen, or do you think they’ll do better working for something else? Would you like to see them learn anything about business or have them strike out on their own?
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It would be great if we all had kids who grew up wealthy. One of the biggest fears is having a deadbeat kid!
Interesting post..
Enjoyed reading your post Jeff. Millionaires don’t point out problems, they find solutions.!
I want whatever makes them happy, as long as they’re independent and don’t end up being boomerang kids and make lots of money and buy their parents a nice comfortable house and property when they strike it rich.
Good point on the networking. Steadfast childhood friends sometime become trusted advisers or supporters later in life.