Actually,
the ability and confidence to be an entrepreneur seems to come more
naturally to children than to adults. This I believe, may have
something to do with the confidence and to some extent innocence of
youth as children are not so aware of the possibility of failure and
its results..they do not personally have to worry about paying the
mortgage or rent.
Children
can be very confident about getting some form of paid work, coming
as it does from the desire to have their own money to spend. At about
the age of eight I discovered that I could make 'perfume' ( well, in
reality it was scented water), by crushing rose petals, and before
long I had laid claim to empty glass jars from both my mother and
Grandmother ( no recycling in those days ) for my bottling
plant..next came the confidence with which a teenager would go to
local shops and ask for a Saturday job. Much of the success of this
came from peer pressure. Oddly enough, today’s peer pressure can
often appear to b e a reversal of that put on myself growing up in
the 1970's .Today's peer pressure often works in the opposite way ,
at least in how the media portrays it, compared to that of my teenage
years.
Today,
we hear so much in the media about young boys being part of gang
culture and how they have never worked, assuming that they never will
and young girls with no hope or intention of a job, ending up in a
'career 'of pregnancy, having babies and spending the day in the
local shopping centre with their mates. Some girls have had babies
because their mates do and they feel left out and boys (and girls)
join a gang because their mates are in it and so such life choices
become a 'career'.
As
a teenager in the 70's ,I remember a competitive atmosphere,
especially amongst young girls, to get a Saturday job, and who had
the best one. We had to have a work permit signed by school giving
permission to work, but this was usually given without a problem.
Wanting something different, I got on the number 19 bus, a rather
iconic route in its day, at Wandsworth Common and went to the King's
Road, where I got a job in Sidney Smith, almost next door to Peter
Jones. I was full of myself and felt so grown up when the manager had
to cut my hours in the school holidays, otherwise I would have had to
be put on the pay roll and I was under age . I was offered the chance
to train as a fashion buyer, but sadly, the college part would have
been unfunded.
I
already knew that my mother planned to leave my father as soon as I
could leave school at sixteen ( I was the first year affected by
ROSLA, the raising of the school leaving age to sixteen ), so I knew
that I would not fulfil my early teenage dream of A levels,
University and a career as a teacher. Before leaving school, I had
been enrolled by my mother, who saw it advertised at the Job centre,
where she was telephonist, on a course with the (in)famous
GLC,
based at County Hall, to train as a nursery nurse, sponsored while I
trained on a grant of approximately as I remember £3000 a year, out
of which I would be paying £40 a week for a bedsit. This makes me
think very much of the current situation of the coalition government
taking housing benefit away from young people under 25, as I was only
17 when I was away from home with no option of continuing to live
with my parents, my father was shortly to be in a nursing home....my
first weeks shopping cost £8.00 at Putney Sainsbury's and included
dusters and washing powder …
I
remember my Saturday job being a huge wake up call and reality check
when I discovered that while I was still at home my mother was to
take some of my £4 a week from my Saturday job for 'my keep' but
seen in the context that my mother had been born in 1927, and from
the time she had to go to work at 14 in London, with bombs dropping
around her, which was actually what she felt was needed in my case to
as she put it give me a backbone....my mother had been the only child
in her family to pass the eleven plus but had to give up her chance
for Grammar school as her mother, my Grandmother was unable to afford
to buy her uniform, perhaps it was not so incredible. My mother was
from an age and background where the children were to be got out to
work at the earliest opportunity to help the family income,and she
bitterly resented my increased years of education, even though it was
law and not my fault, but to her any time in school more than
absolutely necessary to teach the basics needed to get a job, was as
she in no uncertain terms expressed, producing a daughter who was a
'lily livered lizard' nothing to be proud of but hiding from the
real world behind the school gates and getting ideas above her
station. My mother went to work in London aged just 14, travelling
in the blitz and frequently having to dive in the shelter, and on
pay day on Friday, she handed over her wages to her mother, who then
gave her a small amount back for her own needs...this was the norm
for many families of the thirties and forties, my mothers early
years....
For
many generations children had a strong work ethic...after all for
many years,
they had been in the workforce since childhood and many, many
children like my mother knew that they would not be able to take up
the education they were capable of because they were needed to go to
work, and in fact many did this gladly with little or no resentment,
seeing it as duty to their mothers and the family budget.
For
many years boys in the Scout movement once a year came knocking on
the door for 'Bob a job week', this eventually stopped under concerns
for health and safety but this year was brought back,albeit in more
of a community based approach, as part of the big society and its
focus on volunteering -rather than knocking on doors the Scouts ( who
for some years have included girls who wish to join) took part in
community activities. I am sure that many of us can tell stories of
the most unlikely young
entrepreneur
, usually reluctant to get out of bed but who one day has an idea
like something out of the apprentice, for making money....washing
cars, cleaning windows and gardening being examples.
Children
as entrepreneurs produces some interesting results on Google, hardly
surprising considering that it would be hard to find a parent who
would not have hopes of passing on a family business to the next
generation.
When
we think of young people who even with a university degree do not get
jobs, perhaps there is something to be said for encouraging the
entrepreneur spirit in children who have it. After all, if housing
benefit is to be denied to young people under the age of 25, and it
is as good as impossible for many people under 35 to see any chance
of buying their own first home, the chance to get on the employment
ladder and put some money in the bank can only be a good thing.
Many
children are not academic at all, but might well show an early
entrepreneur spirit..being competitive, creative, enjoying a
challenge, good at setting and meeting own goals, vital for future
success,and showing signs of being able to manage their money, saving
up for something they want, selling stuff that they don't. Early
entrepreneurship is to be encouraged and gives opportunities for
children to learn about such things as team building, leadership,
cooperation with friends...finding a product and a market..even
failure....
Learning
how to spot an opportunity is a great lesson for children, teaching
them to see a solution rather than the problem encourages a budding
business man /woman, so discussing with children how to solve a
problem is great and will encourage them to develop ideas.
Buying
and selling is something that goes on every day seen and unseen, the
economy depends on it, and starting with things such as selling old
toys and books..or selling something that a child has learned how to
make such as friendship bracelets, while donating the toys and books
to charity teaches lessons in income and expenditure, profit and
loss, as indeed does managing a pocket money allowance, with some set
aside for spending and some for saving...and hopefully learning that
all good businesses give to charity and the community...
Encouraging
children to think up ways that they can earn the money they want for
toys encourages independence and entrepreneurship..it would be great
to set young children off on a path where they never have to think
about going to the job centre...or at least that they can think of
ways to earn a living to fall back on in times of unemployment....and
are confident people able to spot and utilise their talents and
opportunity....
Valerie
Hedges
photo credit: jwinfred via photo pin cc
<a href="http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2011/11/08/think-different-teaching-kids-to-be-entrepreneurs/">http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2011/11/08/think-different-teaching-kids-to-be-entrepreneurs/</a>
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