I want you to think back. How does your formal education apply to what you're doing now? Are the school lessons a big influence on the person you are today? Yes, some skills and technical knowledge may be from your education.
But let's face it.
School has little to no influence on a person's character. The truth is, what a person becomes is not due to formal education, but a product of numerous interactions. Who you became today may be due to:
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The tactical skills you learned through your own research
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Social interactions you had throughout your life
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Values and characteristics that your parents imparted to you
If you want your kids to be successful, then it falls in your hand to instill values that set them up for success. We present here 12 entrepreneurial traits that pave the way for a life of achievement. Whether your child pursues to become a kid entrepreneur or not, everyone can benefit from the traits listed here.
12 Traits of Entrepreneurs You Must Nurture in Your Kids
1. Openness to New Experiences
Every child is born to explore. Kids are naturally curious about everything, especially nature. As parents, you must never nail kids down to keep them from following their instincts to discover the world.
Curiosity is one of the most important entrepreneurial traits. It encourages people to seek out solutions and explore all possible angles to overcome challenges. Cultivate their curiosity by reinforcing their knack for exploration.
Tips on how to do it:
Encourage kids to engage in free-form playful learning. You may use tools for this like the STEMscope Pocket Microscope to guide them as they uncover the micro mysteries around them.
2. Innovativeness and Creativity
Next in the list of entrepreneurial traits are innovativeness and creativity. In this ever-progressing society, adapting to new technologies is a crucial factor to succeed.
But innovation is not always about introducing new methods, ideas, or products to the world. Being innovative and creative may mean developing the skills in taking unconventional approaches to solve problems. Successful entrepreneurs do not stop until they get challenges over with. Kids might learn a thing or two from this entrepreneur trait.
Tips to instill these entrepreneurial traits:
Encourage the kids to be creative with their ideas and let them come up with their answers. Allow them to experiment on possible solutions to problems. Establish an environment that tolerates failure.
3. Optimism
A common characteristic of entrepreneurs is that they are optimistic. If that's not true then there shouldn't be any existing enterprise today.
Optimism is the hope that pushes people to power through every struggle. This is not one of those qualities of an entrepreneur that kids learn in school. Optimism is a value that kids absorb from what they see in their parents.
Tips to learn the entrepreneur trait:
Remember that your unspoken values rub off on your kids. If you want them to imbibe this entrepreneurial personality, practice it yourselves. Express a positive outlook in the face of challenges. This way, kids can learn to be optimistic despite problems.
4. Diligence and Industriousness
Diligence and industriousness may be the most challenging among the entrepreneurial traits. Successful people understand that grunt work is often necessary to achieve greatness.
Train your kids to not be afraid of getting their hands dirty if they want to succeed. This attitude helps them develop a strong work ethic and gives them a clear understanding of the rewards awaiting those who work hard.
Tips to learn these qualities of an entrepreneur:
One way to enforce industriousness and diligence is through household chores. Develop early on their sense of responsibility using this tactic. Give them a chore that only they should perform like making their beds or cleaning up their toys after playing.
5. Confidence
Successful entrepreneurs don't only have the confidence of people in their abilities, but the confidence in their own skills as well. Confidence is a quality interrelates with other entrepreneurial traits. The only way kids can be confident is if you aid them in nurturing the skills that build their rapport.
Tips on how to instill this:
Letting them make decisions and take the lead builds this entrepreneurial personality in them. Motivate the kids by assuring them, instead of making them feel guilty, whenever they encounter failures.
Help them understand their strengths and weaknesses. This way, you may assess what other entrepreneurial traits they need to work on. This results in a well-rounded skillset that, ultimately, builds their confidence.
6. Hunger for Opportunities
Children feel more comfortable in seeking out opportunities when they are confident and curious. That's why you have to cultivate entrepreneurial traits like confidence and curiosity first. The probability of success increases when kids learn to seek out opportunities without fear of negative consequences.
Tips on how to do this:
Help your kids feel more secure and supported by trusting their judgment. Help them assess situations but let them make the final call whether to embrace an opportunity or not. Aside from learning this entrepreneur trait, they also learn to judge which opportunity to pursue and which to forgo.
7. Responsibility
Responsibility goes hand-in-hand with other entrepreneurial traits like diligence and hard work. Working hard is one thing, but being responsible is another. When kid entrepreneurs are responsible, they have a clear understanding of the impacts of their actions. This then steers them away from distractions that may jeopardize their goals. While reckless behavior and irresponsibility push success further back from achievement.
But always remember that kids are kids, and they can be callous at times. Nonetheless, help them understand the consequences of their actions so they can learn from their mistakes.
Tips to develop this entrepreneurial trait:
Teaching responsibility doesn't mean letting them take charge of a business from the get-go. Sometimes, this entrepreneurial trait can be learned through more natural means. We recommend that you let them grow and take care of a plant. This can visually exhibit the impacts of their actions when they take care of the plant or not.
8. "I Can Do Better" Attitude
When kids express the drive to achieve their ambitions, they are most likely to succeed as well. The "I can do better" attitude impacts their lives in essential ways to achieve success:
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It motivates them to do better than they did before
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It encourages them to stay on top of the competition
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It enables them to handle pressure better
These are qualities of an entrepreneur that sets them up for success. Because they strive to be better and not remain confident in what they already know. These ambitious entrepreneurial traits push kids to pursue higher levels of education and establish prestigious careers, in the future.
Tips to develop this:
Always set an atmosphere of encouragement and commendation. Praise the commendable things kids do and encourage them when they encounter failures.
9. Leadership
Leadership is one of the entrepreneurial traits that are often overlooked. Remember that success is not a one-man thing. Success is a product of teamwork, whatever aspect of your life you may be in. Being an effective delegator, motivator, and communicator are attributes of a good leader.
If you lead people and steer their actions towards the end goal, then you can ensure success.
Leadership tips:
Kids have peers and playmates, encourage your child to propose a game where they can take the lead. When a child exhibits command to playmates, then it trains them to be a leader even outside of the playground.
10. Likeability
Likeability is not the same as popularity. Kids do not necessarily need the public's attention to be successful. What they need is to be likable. Likeability is about getting along with people and building lasting connections.
When kids are likable, they can resolve conflicts without being disagreeable. Kids can collaborate more effectively and influence their peers better. These traits of entrepreneurs are prerequisites of leadership.
Tips to be likable:
Develop their social proficiency through communication. Talk to your kids with openness and honesty. Allow them to interact with peers often so they may practice this trait.
11. Adaptable and Resilient
The path to success is not an easy one to tread. Learning this early on can keep kids from unrealistic expectations and detrimental heartbreaks. Teaching kids these entrepreneurial traits allow them to withstand the challenges in achieving success.
Rudy Francisco once said:
"Muscle is created by repeatedly lifting things that have been designed to weigh us down."
That said, the only way kids can develop resilience is through failures. Your role is to motivate them despite their failures. To encourage them that it's not the end of the world and that failing is a reality of life. This is how they learn these entrepreneurial traits, adaptability, and resilience.
12. Empathy
Empathy balances all other entrepreneurial traits kids have. Even if they grow up having loaded resumes, the sense of entitlement and lack of empathy may hinder them from success. No one wants to work with selfish people.
Developing empathy will help kids understand that other people's feelings matter just as must as theirs do. This empowers and positively affects others leading to effective collaborations. After all, the success of their peers is their success too.
Tips to train empathy:
Successful entrepreneurs are the ones that value others and their feelings. You may cultivate empathy for your child by talking about their emotions and sharing yours as well. Discussing these emotional triggers helps you understand them better and vice versa. This aids in adjusting the way you act around them and how kids act around you too.
The Journey Begins with Curiosity
Learning the 12 entrepreneurial traits begin with their openness to new experiences. Practicing curiosity may come from all angles. But knowing children, there is no better way than to start with toys.
Toys should promote kids' propensity to engage their inquisitive nature. When kids act on their curiosity, they become receptive to new ideas. This makes instilling these characteristics of entrepreneurs, smoother.
Our STEMscope Portable Microscope can foster your kid’s curiosity. Help them discover the hidden wonders of this world with one peek through our lenses.
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