Entrepreneurialism, Personal Responsibility and Kids
When our sons were very young, we set a goal for them to have some sort of part-time business to operate during their teenage years. The opportunity presented itself earlier than we’d expected. When Zachary and Jacob were just 7 and 9 years old, we bought a golf driving range in Custer, WI. They ended up working at and eventually fully managing the driving range for the next 13 years, until they moved away for college. The principles we’d hoped they would learn did come forth, and then some. Here are just a few examples.
Upon inception of the business, we adopted an 80/20 rule. 80% of the boys’ earnings were invested in ROTH IRAs, and they were allowed to spend the remaining 20% as they wished. They’d become accustomed to aggressively saving money and do so to this day. We involved them in the investment process, which they had become interested in as they’ve seen their hard-earned money in turn earn money through growth of investments. When they were quite young, the boys enjoyed spending the 20% of their earnings on things like a Nintendo DS or a dirt bike. From there, they’d learned to think bigger about their goals and by doing so, became more frugal. They realized that they would rather save money toward larger future purchases than spend it on consumables like soda or snacks. Visualize for a moment what our country could look like if we were able to get more people saving aggressively at early ages. We as a country could actually avoid financial problems instead of spending our resources figuring out how to solve the myriad of them! When Jacob and Zachary each reached age18 and were entering college, they had been working for their own spending money and managing it for around a decade each. By the time their first credit card solicitation hit them, they had 10 – 12 years of discipline ingrained in their systems of spending only the money they have. Unsecured debt was not an option. In fact, even now they would never fathom the idea of spending all of what they have and not seeing a positive balance of short-term savings and long-term investments.
The level of personal responsibility the boys had developed by the time they went to college had surpassed many people nearly double their ages. The boys felt a deep sense of gratification when their work was done and the range looked beautiful. When they had a good day of sales, their customers would tell them with their wallets that the business was appreciated. These positive experiences reinforced why they worked so hard. Real growth, however, happened especially in difficult times. Jacob and Zac personally knew what it felt like to be stolen from. They handled customer complaints and turned the experiences positive. They also knew that their responsibility did not end with a “shift”, just like the greatest commitments in life: marriage, parenting and careers.
Personally, I believe that kids can be more responsible than we often give them credit for, or an opportunity to be. Certainly, they need to be guided and assisted. Just like all other aspects of parenting, inspiring your kids to be entrepreneurs is a commitment. But if we don’t do it, who will? Government? Big Business? Schools? Our great country was built by entrepreneurs and those who sought out to be independent. It still is the country that people immigrate to who dream of owning a business. Who will our future innovators be? Who will our future employers be?
For years, I volunteered as a classroom instructor for a national program designed to teach financial and business skills to youth. While there are good classroom lessons learned, it truly is like the difference between playing monopoly and actually owning the real properties. Introducing concepts is important but the real lessons learned are only through real life experience. Give your kids that opportunity. They’ll get out what you and they put in. You CAN start small. There are many success stories of people who began with a single idea and never gave up. Ask my sons or any student I’ve taught…. Quitters never win. Winners never quit. That’s the key to inspiring entrepreneurialism and personal responsibility in kids
LouAnn Schulfer of Schulfer & Associates, LLC Wealth Management can be reached at (715) 343-9600 or louann.schulfer@lpl.com TheWealthInformationLady.com SchulferAndAssociates.com
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