Raising Entrepreneurs – Non Traditional Routes to True Wealth

I’m just leaving Dallas this afternoon after a great meeting with over 2000 home school parents and young people. This morning I presented ideas to help people develop entrepreneurial thinking and leadership – to be less risk averse and more innovative. A few points are worth noting here:

Most of our schooling prepared us for corporate America, not high risk/ high reward positions like sales and small business entrepreneurship. Think about it – when was the last time you received high grades for being creative? Most of my instructors requested the work be done a certain way…where is innovation in all of this. Imagine if the teachers told us computers had to stay in data centers. Where would iPads and Smartphones be?
Creativity is the key to success. Coming up with new ways to do things and solving problems no one else can solve. What are you doing to build creativity. I listed several things that are known destroyers of creativity…Late night television and not enough sleep are low hanging fruit, but there are many things all of do that simply keep us from thinking outside of the box.
Wanting the safety of high bases and lower commissions is another lie – no position is safe, and those who aim to be high producers, and work at it, will be. Be great and take the higher leveraged pay plan.

I also spoke to young people on starting businesses in the afternoon. It’s easy to start one, hard to keep one. One factor is learning the four things buyers buy – learning to discover critical needs within the companies you serve and then developing lasting answers for these companies. If you can make a company more profitable, you’ll have customers. Become a problem solver and stop selling commodity products at commodity discounts. We explored areas of need, examples of young people producing, selling, and profiting in their teen years, and talked about the need to learn while you’re young. Learning the hard lessons of business while supporting a family is not the best way…most of us know that. Imagine if your kids could know what you know about business before they hit age 18?