Talking about business is a good way for you and your children to bond. No, it doesn’t always entail diving into the specifics of marketing and profit unless they’re interested in those.
Running a business teaches you life lessons that you can share with your children and help them appreciate what you do. More importantly, it’s an excellent means to coach them in whatever career they’ll pursue, especially if they’re inclined to start their own business.
Spotting Opportunities
Every successful businessman can recognize an opportunity from far away.
It’s knowing your industry well and predicting the next trend that enables you to meet consumer demands and stay ahead. This requires critical thinking and, above all, passion for the specific industry you’re inclined to.
So if your high school student is interested in gadgets, talk to them about what tech startups to invest in if they had the money. Discuss the feasibility of this investment and start amiable debates. This develops their reasoning and problem-solving skills, which are useful not only if they’re going to be entrepreneurs. It’s essential in every job they undertake and lets them stand out in a competitive corporate scene.
You can also ask their opinion about your own business decisions. It helps them get a better understanding of your role, and it develops trust between you when you involve them in this area of your life.
Embracing Small Beginnings
Life today is so fast-paced that patience has become an unpopular virtue.
Patience, no matter how difficult it is to master, is essential to starting anything, not only a business. It’s unlikely that even overachievers at school will start their careers at the top of the hierarchy. This makes it essential for them to learn as early as now that small beginnings are okay.
Slow progress is still progress. What matters is that they’re persistent in what they do. Say, for example, your child does invest in a tech startup. Even the most brilliant idea in tech history will take time to bud, and he won’t enjoy the returns for that investment until that happens.
Let them know how your business started and how one small idea led to great things. Stories like this give them something to look back to once they encounter difficult moments in their careers.
Asking for Help
It seems that as people get older, it also gets more challenging to ask for help.
This humbling act, though, is crucial for any successful person. One of the most important things they should feel comfortable asking help about is with their emotions. Work is not always happy, and achievements can sometimes come with burdens. For them to thrive, they must know how and when to admit they can’t do it by themselves.
This opens an opportunity to talk with them about leadership. Even an excellent leader rarely has all the skillsets necessary to accomplish a task. One must learn how to delegate and trust other people to deliver the job. This isn’t a skill you learn overnight, so engraving this lesson in their minds at an early age will benefit them in their leadership journey.
Everyone needs money to survive, but your children need good parents to grow up into balanced adults. When you give them a sneak peek of your role as a business owner, it simplifies parenting and gives you plenty of chances to bond over the best inheritance that you can leave them: wisdom.