I’ve had this “chink” in my armor for years now, it took a conversation on a business forum about why so many small businesses fail to give me the motivation to put it into words.
Really, think of this as a “Call To Arms” that I believe is essential to growing as a society as well as individual growth as we enter new times as public.
My beef is about why we refuse to prepare our kids with a basic curiosity/interest/passion and knowledge about becoming entrepreneurs, starting their own businesses and giving their markets and themselves a huge shot in the arm when our society needs it the most.
What has always SHOCKED me and something that has changed very little over the decades I have been in business (offline and online) is that we are not taught the basics of small business in school. Â
I don’t mean the basics of how to work for someone else or how economics work (which is good to know but does little to prepare us for running our own businesses)
To me it is a tragic and painful omission of our education system that we are not taught:
1. Consumer psychology – what makes people buy, the fundamentals of consumer behavior (Robert Cialdini should be as required reading in high school as Shakespeare is)
2. The various phases of starting a business from idea generation, market research through bootstrapping and growth
3. The basics of conducting business online (main way to get a site up, main traffic sources, methods of monetization)Â Â I realize things change very fast, but the basics would be a good start so our kids come out with a basic understanding of online commerce and if not how to start their own online business, how they may have been influenced to buy even if they didn’t know it
4. Business Operation – the guts of how a business operates from tools and systems to processes and financing…but with a small business/sole proprietor point of view
No wonder so many people struggle and fail at business, there is no other way to learn than to either spend money on coaching or through trial and error (I prefer the combination of these myself)
Why don’t we speak up more about this given that small business is the economic engine, jobs engine, financial engine and innovation engine of our society?
Does anyone else feel the same way? Leave me a comment so I don’t feel like I am the only one that gives a crap about such an important issue.
Couldn’t agree more. I’ve written a few post on this, most popular was posted on YFS Magazine.
I’ve got 3 kids and I’m raising them to be Entrepreneurs or Intrapreneurs. Indifferent to me, as long as they learn that taking risk and failing is O.K. Our schooling is terrible and doesn’t prepare our children to feel entrepreneurship is a viable option.
Kids are taught do well in school, go to college and get a J.O.B.
I hope my kids skip the first year of college to explore, take risks and learn what it is they want. I bring my kids to meetups to learn networking and the power of communication. At 9 years old my one daughter has met Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Guillebeau, Mike Michalowicz and several amazing bloggers.
I won’t leave to learnings to our education system for my 3 kids. They’ll be prepared to feel comfortable making the best decision for them.
Awesome Mike – I have my kids helping with my business and spend regular time with them each week to brainstorm ideas, discuss strategies, etc… So right, it comes down to exposing them enough to business and entrepreneurs so that it becomes at least an equal option (if not preferred) over going out and immediately working for someone else. Pretty hard to meet guys like Gary V and not walk away with an impression 🙂
Thats awesome and because of that your kids will be that much better.
Sent you a DM, maybe you missed. What is the Plugin you’re using below that say’s Join Free Training?
Have an Amazing Weekend. Mike
Thanks Mike – the plugin is great and free, it’s called Opt In Crusher, just Google that and it will come up.
Jeff