6 Ways to Encourage Kids to Be Entrepreneurs

Hong Kong has a reputation for being a city driven by money. From a parent’s perspective, you would want your child to not only survive but thrive with careers that bring financial stability, the potential for growth, and happiness so that their futures are forward-looking with minimal risk.

However, achieving these vocational roles may not be for everyone- your child may have interests that step beyond these boxes. With time, there will be growing opportunities for your child that you might not have thought would exist in your lifetime. For example, you wouldn’t have thought that we’d be eating cultivated fish fillets, seeing electric cars taking up the streets, attending school through Zoom would take part for most of 2020. Regardless of what their path may be, having an adaptable, dextrous mindset would bring benefits to whatever path they choose to take. Below are some ways that you can let your child foster their beliefs to craft meaningful yet pragmatic approaches in their future jobs.

Allow them to develop true hobbies and interests

Aside from the vast resources that can be found through online means, it is important for your child to find interests beyond the screen. While the future is geared towards technology, your child can find trends and ‘ride the wave’ on the internet — this makes conforming to the norm easier than ever. Extracting information in ways outside of a flat-screen such as educational spaces, attending talks, playing sport can build up traits of introspection, resilience, teamwork that may not be as tangible in digital spaces.

Encourage them to connect with others

Meeting more people at different age ranges, nationalities, gender orientations, aspirations, and more will not only offer a wide variety of perspectives but allow your child to be socially comfortable. Being an entrepreneur requires stepping into the shoes of others to identify what needs need to be met to satisfy different demographics. Not only can connection garner an empathetic viewpoint, but being socially comfortable can allow your child to expand their circle early. In an ever-growing connected world, often the lessons you learn from people’s true experiences are more valuable than what you learn from the books. Sometimes, the people you cross paths with can get you further than your skill sets.

Support their thought processes

Taking ideas seriously as a parent is an important form of support for your child’s confidence and creativity. As outlandish and unfeasible some suggestions might be, giving moral and verbal support, or even asking further questions to challenge their propositions can show that their ideas have potential and prompt more enthusiasm for your child to continue with their imaginative pursuits. There’s nothing worse than your child stepping out of their comfort zone and being shut down just because something might either have already been thought of already or might be too impractical for your own frame of mind.

Guide them to an entrepreneur mentor

Albeit a person close to your child, or a public figure, having someone to look up to can act as a benchmark for your child. A reference of someone else’s values or journey that your child can resonate with can conjure a sense of companionship to move onward, making the entrepreneurship path less lonely as stereotypically thought of.

Normalise failure

A large part of an entrepreneur’s identity is learning that failure is a given. Rather than conforming to cookie-cutter approaches to perfection, exposing your child to the concept that success arises from failure allows your child to see not only the benefits of taking more risks when it comes to their ideas, but also solidify a resilient attitude.

Teach them about the concept of money early

What a lot of current school curriculums do not teach in the classroom is the concept of money. While building up a foundation of general knowledge, how to learn, building friendships, building an inquisitive mindset is what an education strives to do, our current school systems do not assimilate the one thing that dominates how our capitalist society is run. Introducing basic ideas of personal finance can encourage your child to have a better monetary sense and business acumen that could lend them one step ahead as they manage their own money.

Aside from incorporating these ideas into your child’s life, there is also a chance for your child to be involved with their school. CoCoon Foundation offers interactive programmes and platforms to encourage an entrepreneurial skill set to be applied to other facets of their life. Find out more at https://foundation.hkcocoon.org/