It’s almost a year now that I teach kids entrepreneurship through KidzBusiness, www.kidzbusiness.com, and I get many questions about the meaning and importance of teaching entrepreneurship at an early age.

Today’s teens have certain paths available to them – and they get the message that it is better to be a surgeon rather than a mechanic, be a lawyer rather than a school teacher, and be a movie star rather than a bus driver. Parents may bring their kids to work to show them the daily mechanics of their jobs, thinking that it helps kids understand what it is like to make a living and to be responsible.

There is an extra element that parents should consider when they are trying to expose their kids to the professions they have chosen for themselves, and that element is the parents’ interaction with their jobs.  Are parents happy with what they do? If there are conflicting messages such as “be a movie star! but I AM ONE, and I am not happy” kids may internalize the cognitive dissonance, and will have challenges in deciding their own path for self expression.

The way most educational systems operate today, kids are offered tools but not a clear understanding what to do with them, and little insight into why one choice is better than another, except when related to making money, or a good living. Sometimes, a good living happens at the expense at one’s true calling.   In the absence of early, authentic explorations, a ‘good living’ choice may turn out to be very unsatisfactorydespite the money made. 

The exploration I am envisioning starts with a conversation: What do I like in life? What do I do well? Where is the possibility to contribute now? Where do I start? How do I start? I do similar facilitation with my business clients, and we always finish with an action plan. The plan for the entrepreneurial child is simple: create a little prototype (be it a new game, a new solo venture, selling a product, a service, writing a blog, a series of ‘how to’ for other kids)  anything that moves the kid to self expression and action.  

There are very important reasons for these facilitated explorations for kids: we want to teach them to act (often) rather than let them be stuck in some sort of paralysis (due to too much thinking, or due to need for approval); we want to teach them the ability to solve problems creatively; educate them to be flexible in terms of choosing or creating new tools for action; we want to teach them solid ways to assess the big picture (the why).

Through action, and measurement of that action’s consequences (in a safe envirnonment, of course) kids learn to do the “picking” rather than wait to be picked. And picking is a much better paradigm for work and career than waiting to be chosen (by a college, by a hiring manager, by a superior for a raise, by a critic for a show, or by the Apprentice, etc).  In the work we do together, kids can say yes or no to a number of projects or actions, and they learn to  for collaborate and brainstorm with a group of peers in a very respectful and non-bullying way.