raising entrepreneurs

What skills do we need to nurture to help our children be entrepreneurial?

We see project-based homeschooling as being a path of control. Our children get the chance to have their own ideas and explore their own interests and talents. We help them direct and manage their own learning today, and we expect them to build strong thinking and learning habits that will serve them well as adults.

We believe that no matter what they want to do as adults, our children need to be in charge of their careers and treat themselves as a business. That’s the mindset we want to encourage — the mindset of a business owner rather than that of an employee. That’s the kernel of our entrepreneurial curriculum: control, managed risk, responsibility.

Rather than sending the message “You need to do x-y-z so you can get a good job,” we tell them “These are the skills that will help you manage your work life and do the things you want to do in life.”

Focusing on entrepreneurial skills doesn’t mean we pressure our children to work for themselves when they grow up. We simply tell them, you will be working for yourself. No one else is going to care about you or your family as much as you do. No one else is going to prioritize your goals; no one else is going to worry about your savings account. You will be in charge of you. The skills that a person needs to operate a business are the same skills you need to operate a life.

Tomorrow, I’ll start talking about the specific skills we emphasize.

why aren’t we teaching them how to own?

Speaking forcefully and with great determination, President Obama mentioned small business at least five times in his American Jobs Act speech … telling Congress: “Everyone here knows that small business is where jobs begin.”

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If entrepreneurship is this vital to the American economy, why aren’t we teaching every high school student in this country how to start and operate a small business?

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I believe many do not know how to create opportunities for themselves…

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Entrepreneurship education is a great way to teach basic subjects to children who are failing to learn through traditional academic approaches, because it provides concrete incentives. Owner-entrepreneurship education teaches young people that they can create jobs for themselves and do not have to be victims of this economic downturn but rather view it as an opportunity to start a business. It also makes them more employable because by running their own small businesses, they learn how business works and what makes an employee valuable. This shift in viewpoint can immeasurably benefit the psyche of an unemployed teenager, and also benefits companies that hire them.

Currently, our national strategy to combat poverty among low-income youth is built around improving K–12 education. That’s a good choice, yet we’re not teaching entrepreneurship, even though most Americans would probably agree with President Obama that small business is the driving engine of our economy.

Instead, most of our national education efforts seek to teach low-income youth to become better workers. Given the widening gap between rich and poor in this country, however, I’d like to raise one critical point: Why aren’t we also teaching them how to own? If entrepreneurship is the engine of the American economy, why aren’t we raising more creative owner-entrepreneurs like the Williams brothers?

On an income statement, workers are located on the “wages” line. Professional business owners, venture capitalists, and private equity firms have a distinct advantage in the creation of wealth because they can sell the profits generated by workers for a multiple of a business’s earnings. One dollar of profit can become $3, $10, or even $50.

This is how fortunes (and jobs) are created — an entrepreneur starts a business, sells some or all of its ownership, and uses the resulting capital to start and build other businesses that he or she can sell in the future, creating more capital. Workers, on the other hand, spend their lives selling only their time for hourly wages, or perhaps a salary.

Disadvantaged youth are seldom let in on this secret to wealth creation. I once asked a leading venture capitalist and philanthropist, who has donated millions to helping low-income children attend private schools, “What about teaching kids the ownership skills that made your fortune, so they can become financially independent?” He responded, only half-jokingly, “But then who would do the work?”

— Raising Owner-Entrepreneurs Would Solve Youth Unemployment, Spur Growth, and Rescue Low-Income Communities

the rise of the creative class

It's been called the Gig Economy, Freelance Nation, the Rise of the Creative Class, and the e-conomy, with the “e” standing for electronic, entrepreneurial, or perhaps eclectic. Everywhere we look, we can see the U.S. workforce undergoing a massive change. No longer do we work at the same company for 25 years, waiting for the gold watch, expecting the benefits and security that come with full-time employment. We're no longer simply lawyers, or photographers, or writers. Instead, we’re part-time lawyers-cum-amateur photographers who write on the side.

Today, careers consist of piecing together various types of work, juggling multiple clients, learning to be marketing and accounting experts, and creating offices in bedrooms/coffee shops/coworking spaces. Independent workers abound. We call them freelancers, contractors, sole proprietors, consultants, temps, and the self-employed.

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We haven’t seen a shift in the workforce this significant in almost 100 years when we transitioned from an agricultural to an industrial economy. Now, employees are leaving the traditional workplace and opting to piece together a professional life on their own. As of 2005, one-third of our workforce participated in this “freelance economy.” Data show that number has only increased over the past six years. Entrepreneurial activity in 2009 was at its highest level in 14 years, online freelance job postings skyrocketed in 2010, and companies are increasingly outsourcing work. While the economy has unwillingly pushed some people into independent work, many have chosen it because of greater flexibility that lets them skip the dreary office environment and focus on more personally fulfilling projects.

— The Freelance Surge is the Industrial Revolution of our Time

still unplugged

We are still holiday-ing. Do these count as posts for nablopomo? I have decided that they do.

happy day after thanksgiving

…or Friday. We are still unplugged and enjoying our holiday. See you tomorrow!

happy thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends, and happy day to everyone.