Your dream as an entrepreneur does not end with you. After all, it's one thing to be successful on your own and quite another to witness success taking shape in your children's lives.
Related: 7 entrepreneurial traits to teach your child
We all want to pass on our entrepreneurial traits. Unfortunately, a host of recent studies agree that these characteristics are in trouble in future generations. Fighting cultural apathy and rights is not easy. And of course, there's no shortage of advice to the contrary.
Instead, what if we turned the tables and went straight to the source, the very people who know the most about increasing success ...because that's how they were raised?
To do this, I tracked down 10 teenage entrepreneurs who have already made massive gains and asked one question, "What's the best lesson you've ever had?" learned so far? »
Here are their answers.
1. Don't sweat the small stuff.
Caleb Maddix is not your typical 14 year old. As he shamelessly put it Forbes earlier this year, "I don't want to be 20 and looking for a job. I want to turn 20 and provide jobs! My goal is to be a billionaire by 30. ”
As CEO of Kids 4 Success, a membership site for aspiring entrepreneurs, he is well on his way. In fact, Caleb has worked with greats like Gary Vaynerchuk, Kevin Harrintgon, John Lee Dumas and soon to be Tony Robbins.
Surprisingly, the best lesson he's learned so far hasn't come from any of these big names. Instead, it was from a security guard he met at a hotel:
"Don't sweat the little things, because it's all little things. »
“I ended our conversation – as I always do with new people – by asking him for his best advice. He said something so simple that stuck with me:"Don't sweat the little things, because it's all little things." "Being an entrepreneur isn't easy, and I've seen many who get upset when they don't make a sale, when they're criticized, or when they're not valued because of their age. When I feel frustrated or overwhelmed, I force my mind to go back and remember, "Don't sweat the small stuff, because it's all small stuff." » »
This is good advice for any age, but given the challenges and pressures of being young, it is especially powerful for your children to hear. Of course, just hearing it is not enough, embodying this principle and modeling how to take disappointments in stride is necessary.
2. Failure is not over.
As the founder of YOUTHXCO, an independent apparel company dedicated to youth empowerment, 16-year-old Rachel Ji has already experienced the ups and downs of entrepreneurial life. His parents were first-generation immigrants to New Zealand and hearing stories about his father washing dishes for $3 an hour to support a blossoming family while in college taught him two things.
First, obstacles are no excuse:“If the odds are stacked against you, that all means you have to work harder than everyone else.” Second, it's OK to fail.
As Rachel says:
“My parents' hard work gave me the freedom to fail because I didn't have to support myself. immediately everything real world responsibilities. When you're a teenager and your business collapses — like my first one did because I was too young to sign legal contracts — you're not going to find yourself homeless and starving. Not if your family is behind you.
Giving your child the freedom to fail doesn't mean bailing them out or making them safe from mistakes. But it does mean creating a safe space in their lives to experiment, take risks and learn.
3. Mortality breeds passion.
Will Hewitt had a typical small-town upbringing:his mother was a teacher and his father a seafood seller. In late 2015, 16-year-old Will co-launched the Thnkbot robotics, committed to introducing other young people to his passion:electronics and programming.
Since then, he has been invited to Silicon Valley on several occasions to meet with leaders from all over the world from startups, dream machines for three people in the garage of someone in high-level management at Google.
What was Will's impetus?
"If there's a lesson, it's is that passion is the key to everything you do. Time is very limited, and the sum total of what you manage to create in those 80, 90, even 100 years is what you will remember.
"I was taught that you must recover in question every day, Is that why you remember? And if that answer is still no, then you also might not get up that day because something has to change. Raising your children under an awareness of their own mortality may seem strange, but this knowledge – reinforced by self-research questions – shortens the wandering paths that many young people lose on the inside. Putting life's limits first puts passion first.
4. Experience is the best teacher.
With $500 in their pocket and a 6-month-old baby, Shreyas Parab's parents moved to the United States. They were lonely and scared, but that didn't stop them from pursue their reason for coming:a better future.
Shreyas, 16, is an entrepreneur at heart. He started his first company, NovelTie, when he was 14, and after nearly $20,000 in sales, he launched a second, SpellForSuccess, which was recently acquired by an education company in Chicago.
Where did Shreyas' car come from?
“The best gift my parents gave me was not doing everything for me. My parents were upfront that if I pursued these things on my own, it would be my responsibility, not theirs.
“Some parents do all the serious work for their entrepreneurial kids, but my parents want me to learn by myself. They want me to learn by doing, by making mistakes, and through the best form of education possible:experience.
The lessons that often mean the most aren't always what parents do … But what they don’t .
5. Resist the temptation to say 'stop'.
At 17, Connor Blakley works with brands on marketing to young people, especially Gen Z; his tactics were featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc. and Huffington Post . In 2016, StartUp Grind named him “the number one high school entrepreneur to watch.”
Why all the buzz? Easy. Because Connor by GenZ-for-GenZ's advice comes straight from hard-earned experiences that his parents never got in the way of.
As Connor says:
“My parents were a big part of my young entrepreneur training. But it's what they didn't tell me that mattered most. My parents never said “Stop!” to me, whether it was selling door-to-door or strewing my room with rock collections I was selling. They didn't even go crazy when I almost got into huge trouble starting a homework selling network. I can attribute all of that to them seeing the bigger picture. »
It can be scary to let your child participate in their entrepreneurial journey. But often this fear is self-centered. It's hard to resist the temptation to bubble wrap the word 'stop', but nothing can let them make their own choices.
6. Adapt to change.
Last February, Benjamin Stern, the 17-year-old CEO and founder of Nohbo, appeared alongside his "bubbie" (his grandmother) on Shark Aquarium and struck a $100,000 deal with Mark Cuban in exchange for 25% of the company.
Although the episode highlighted Benjamin's love of innovation and the environment (Nohbo sells " the world's first eco-friendly shampoo ball"), what he didn't show was the lesson nine different schools over the past few years taught him:
"My parents seemed to have a weird addiction to moving . Even though there were moments of extreme discomfort, I think by chance, they taught me to adapt to the new —New challenges and new environment. It wasn't easy all the time, but frequent travel is a factor in character building, and it makes an individual face what they dread:change. ”
Change is an inevitable and often painful part of entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, it is also an ethereal concept for most young people. Teaching your child adaptability doesn't require moving. It's an approach, but it can also be instilled by inviting them to make the big decisions you face and not shielding them from the changes they themselves might experience.
7. Life is bigger than you.
When they were 12, twins Yashraj and Yuvraj Bhardwaj did their best outside of class. Not by choice, but because the doubts and questions they raised went beyond their assigned curriculum enough that their teacher banished them out every week.
Now 17 years old, the brothers have authored 22 research projects, own seven patent applications, presented at TEDx Delhi, and were awarded the 2016 REX Karamveer Global Fellowship in association with the United Nations. Their passion for biochemistry and electronics was fueled early on.
As Yashraj told me:
“Our parents used to tell us that life is bigger than you. True life, fulfillment, meaning and joy are found in service to others. They encouraged us to create non-traditional solutions to problems that other people ignored or let this world down. You can make yourself immortal if you help others without being selfish. »
We are all naturally selfish creatures. However, fulfillment does not come from pursuing our own ends, but from selflessness. Giving your kids a taste of that deeper fulfillment, the kind that comes from attaching themselves to a cause bigger than themselves, prepares them to pursue it throughout life.
8. Actions prove words.
James Corneille is an Irish tech entrepreneur and founder of Positivity Pack, a box subscription service with one goal:to “spread happy vibes”. At 18, he's reaped a host of awards and accolades too long to reproduce in full, but includes top honors from the European branches of Microsoft, Facebook and Google.
So what's the lesson that stands out? most on James's mind?
“It was seeing my mum and dad follow their own dreams of helping people and changing the world that inspired me to do the same. I knew I wouldn't be happy doing anything else.
“As I was growing up they would say things like 'Follow your dreams' or 'Do what you love'. Advice like this is easy to ignore as cliché because it is. However, once it becomes more than just words – actual actions you can see from your parents – they are brought home and come to life. ”
In other words, cliches are cliches for a reason:they are true. But if you want to plant these truths in the minds of your children, repetition is not enough; you have to live them.
9. Commitment before directing.
Born with a terminal illness, Marc Guberti's mother quit her job at Goldman Sachs to study food chemistry and become a medicinal nutritionist.
After his recovery, Marc, now aged 18, started a blog to express the voice he felt he had lost. That little taste of online success has snowballed into 15 books on marketing and high performance, a social network after nearly 500,000, a podcast (where he recently interviewed Seth Godin), speaking engagements, and Business Whiz Kids. , an annual summer youth program he founded with his brother.
And it all boils down to one idea:
“My mother's commitment proved to me that if you focus on something, you can achieve any goal, no matter how small. My health issues silenced my voice for so long that it created a reservoir of desire for me to uplift the lives of others with my message. This commitment to spreading my message combined with emerging social networks has created a flood of endless possibilities. »
10. Make wrestling natural.
The oldest entrepreneur on our list, Ulyses Osuna, is 19, but he's also one of the most ambitious. As the founder of Influencer Press, Ulyses has not only appeared in major publications such as Forbes, Entrepreneur andInc. , he's built a thriving business by featuring his clients on those same posts.
The PR world is notorious for its high levels of rejection, which is why Ulysses' best lesson is about reality:<“My parents didn't tell me traditional things like, 'Oh, you got that,' 'do your best,' or 'you can be anything you want. It was more things like, 'you know, very few people do in the world, right? If you want to do that, you have to commit because it's hard there. ”
“They set realistic expectations of life as an entrepreneur. And because I was taught early on that it was going to be a fight, it was easier for me to carry on. The struggle felt natural.
So what do all of these lessons have in common? Amid all the different stories, it comes down to two key ingredients. First, real what entrepreneurial life looks like :disappointments, failures and pressure. This means giving children real autonomy:the freedom to make their own choices and deal with the consequences.
As Charles Duhigg wrote in Smarter and Faster , “We need to reward initiative, praise people for self-motivation … applaud a child who exhibits defiant, self-justified stubbornness, and reward a student who finds a way to get things done by playing by the rules. »
And second, increasing success is about doing more than just Talking good advice, but put it into action. After all, it's not so much the lessons we teach with our words, but the lessons we teach with our lives that last.
Related: How to make sure your kids do better than you
