by April Taylor, Founder – Jr. Moguls
Nearly two decades ago, the World Bank issued a grim warning about the future of work. In a publication on youth development, the international organization said traditional job-for-life career paths were no longer reliable. It noted that teaching youth entrepreneurship was the way to overcome the work-related barriers youth would face in the near future.
Today, the World Bank’s warning has proven to be true. Youth are approaching a job market that is radically different from that of the past. Artificial intelligence and other tech advances are causing widespread job displacement, and economic volatility makes it challenging to reliably predict what jobs might be more profitable.
Entrepreneurship gives youth the skills they need to compete in today’s rapidly shifting job market by teaching them to be resilient and creative leaders who aren’t afraid of taking risks. And in the modern job market, these skills have never been more critical.
What kids gain as they grow in entrepreneurship
Success, with both youth and adults, is founded on mindset. Traditionally, youth have entered the work world with an employee mindset.
Employees put their trust in the organization they work for, trading their time for money and waiting for the organization to provide them with opportunities for growth. When problems appear, employees wait for the organization to provide solutions.
The entrepreneur’s mindset is radically different by comparison. Entrepreneurs create opportunities for themselves, rather than waiting for others to provide them, by finding solutions and using them as a springboard for generating income.
Entrepreneurs also perceive failure differently. Rather than seeing it as a setback, they see it as a teacher, with every lesson learned leading to greater potential for success. By embracing failure as a part of the growth process, entrepreneurs become more comfortable with taking the kind of risks that result in business success.
The entrepreneurial mindset is precisely what today’s youth needs. It provides them with a much more stable foundation than any position they’ll find in today’s job landscape. As they learn and practice entrepreneurship, they gain confidence to take risks, pivot where necessary, and ultimately look to themselves as a valuable source of solutions.
It’s also important to note that entrepreneurial skills are valuable not just for those focused on starting their own business. When employees do their jobs with the mindset of an entrepreneur, they become more valuable to their organizations. As the US Chamber of Commerce explains, entrepreneurs bring resilience and innovation into the workplace by introducing new ideas, taking failure in stride, and being adept at problem solving — all qualities that can help drive business to new levels.
How parents and educators can encourage entrepreneurship
The good news for parents and educators is that kids are natural entrepreneurs; they overflow with creativity and don’t overthink risk. From a young age, they have the fearless nature needed to see and seize opportunities. Unfortunately, parents often seek to train kids away from those qualities for the sake of safety when they should instead channel those traits into entrepreneurial opportunities, starting as early as possible.
Parents can begin by encouraging their children’s curiosity and giving them a safe place to play with ideas, judgment-free. Rather than criticizing or dismissing the things they are dreaming about, guide kids in ways to bring those things to life.
Parents should be careful, however, to stop short of providing their children with answers. The goal should be supporting them as they seek out the answers for themselves. Rather than standing in as the boss who empowers them to move forward, help them see how they can be their own boss and gain the strength to move forward on their own.
As kids enter school, teachers should start early to show how basic skills can apply in the real world. Elementary age kids can learn about saving and earning, while middle school students can be taught how a business operates. Then, in high school, they can explore how inflation, taxes, and credit play into entrepreneurial efforts.
While many states have started to make financial literacy part of the standard high school curriculum, their efforts aren’t providing the empowerment needed to encourage kids to become entrepreneurs. By the time kids hit high school, they’ve already settled into many financial habits. If they already have the employee mindset, learning financial literacy basics will do little to shift them in a direction that will help them to take control of their financial future.
The changes taking place in today’s workplace present a wide variety of challenges, but they also present opportunities. For the next generation to thrive, they need to be taught the kind of skills that will empower them to take advantage of those opportunities.
Entrepreneurial kids know how to bounce back from failure, pivot, and seek out new solutions. Nurturing entrepreneurial skills in kids positions them to become the innovators of tomorrow, bringing fresh ideas to the marketplace with the confidence needed to make them a reality.
April Taylor is a multi-faceted entrepreneur, speaker, financial coach, and the visionary founder of Jr. Moguls, a platform designed to cultivate the next generation of confident, business-minded leaders. Through her work with Jr. Moguls, she is dedicated to teaching other families the financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills needed to create sustainable wealth for future generations.