Thursday, August 24, 2006

Teaching Kids about Biz & Success

Lessons about money are important for kids. My kids had great summer jobs and their income power really boosted their self-esteem (and gave them a bit of extra money to spend and save.)

This piece (featured below) helped me.

"Real Tips for Parents: Coaching Your Child for Entrepreneurial Success

By Farrah Gray***

"You may not be able to give your child money or connections, but you can give them the values to live by: pride, respect, hard work, preparation, inspiration, the desire to give back and the strength to never give up.

Here are some of the ideas and tactics that you can use to put your child on the path to success:

Plant the seeds of success.

Let your home be a place where ideas and inspiration are abundant. Tell your child the following: “You can become and do anything you set your heart and mind to.” Let your child grow up believing that there are no limits to what you can do and that anything – and everything- is possible.


Shower them with words of encouragement and affirmation.

Let there be plenty of “can do” conversation in your house. Eliminate any and all evidence of overwhelming hopelessness from your home. Remind your children daily that they are destined for great things.


Show them the values of hard work and love.

Get them up with a kiss as you leave for work. Kiss them as you come home after a heard day. No matter how much money you have or don’t have, be a culinary and financial genius and a super parent – and show them how to turn a bag of potatoes, a can of beans, a package of ground beef and a loaf of bread into delicious meals that last for a week. Put TLC – tender loving care into the small things you do no matter how scarce the resources are.


Engender and encourage independence and an attitude of self-reliance.

Drive home the lesson that “you always want to have a backup plan”. Teach them that there’s no one going to change it, so what’s the point of complaining?


Encourage them to work and make money.

Believe in them and help them taste the sweet smell of success. Teach your child to get out of the lottery ticket mentality and work to make money to support hobbies and the purchase of personal items.

Let them start business, work for neighbors, baby sit or mow lawns. Encourage them to be creative and make things to sell. Let them experience the thrill of creating something themselves and selling it.

Children don’t always hit a home run the first time. But they’ll never hit a home run if they don’t learn to swing. Your child may make only five dollars on their first “business”.

But it will probably be the most important five dollars they ever make.


*** About Farrah Gray

Farrah Gray is one of America’s leading teachers on American entrepreneurial growth and personal development.


Farrah Gray is the author of Reallionnaire: Nine Steps to Becoming Rich from the Inside Out.


ISBN 0-7573-0224-6 $12.95

Health Communications, Inc.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

These are great, and things I do regularly with my own kids. Although they are little young to really work for other people, yet! The most important thing I have found is just setting an example makes the biggest impact on little ones.