How to grow a CEO - training children: includes sources - Career Mannnagement

Black Enterprise, Dec, 1997 by Eleanor D. Branch

WHEN CHILDREN PROM HARLEM'S

Institute for Youth Entrepreneurship (IYE) had trouble selling the greeting cards that were a product of New York Colors, their own company, one youngster simply refused to take "no" for an answer. If he couldn't sell the box of 10 cards for $10, he would try selling them individually at $1 a piece. His innovative thinking paid off. The cards that wouldn't sell, did.

Steve Lawrence, executive director of IYE, calls this kind of ingenuity "thinking outside the box," and says it's one of several identifiable characteristics that distinguish a child with entrepreneurial potential. Other qualities that are equally important are high achievement, motivation and the ability to take risks. Vision, self-confidence and perseverance are also high on the list.

Where do these characteristics come from? Is a child born with them, or can they be learned? Science is still puzzling over the answers to these and other questions such as why first-born children are overrepresented in the population agree that while certain traits evident in entrepreneurs may be dispositional, entrepreneurship, as both a goal and a skill, can be learned.

Indeed, whether they're running a lemonade stand or a lawn mowing business, children today are gaining in entrepreneurial savvy. And for good reason.

With the future of affirmative action in doubt, the pervasiveness of the glass ceiling and the continued downsizing of corporate America, job security is no longer the sure thing it used to be.

START WITH EXPOSURE AND ENCOURAGEMENT

"We have to give our kids a realistic option," says Pamela Foster-Grear, president and CEO of the Foster Corp., a 12-year-old uniform and safety supply company located in Columbus, Ohio. "Some of our kids will not get jobs," she continues. "They will not fit in. So we have to show them that sometimes you have to make a path of your own." For children to see the benefit of that world view, however, parents must be willing to work with their youngsters, providing both exposure to and encouragement of entrepreneurial endeavors. They have to want to educate their children about business.

That process, according to experts, can begin as early as age four by introducing children to money in its various forms, including coinage, and allowing them to make small purchases. As they grow older, the level of exposure should get increasingly more sophisticated, with the introduction of business newspapers and magazines and participation in activities that mix business education with entertainment. Examples include board games like Monopoly or software programs like Theme Hospital (Electronic Arts/Bullfrog Productions), SimPark (Maxis) and Zapitalism Deluxe (Ionos Software) and computer programs that help develop the child's financial acumen, such as Money Making 101 (Digital Impact).

"Require that your child read the business section of the newspaper at least once a week," Lawrence advises. "Have them look for articles on products that they actually consume." Doing this, says Lawrence, helps children understand the relationship between the real world and the marketplace, and to recognize that their own buying habits make them a force in the marketplace.

"Talk about business and business ownership," he continues. "Take your child on a walk through the neighborhood, explain the difference between goods and services, look at who owns businesses and why, and help your child identify the skills it takes to run a business. Take them to seminars and expos, any place where economic development is the focus."

Finally, Lawrence advises using the Internet to search for famous inventions and their inventors as well as biographies and autobiographies that will pique your child's interest.

ENLIST THE HELP OF ROLE MODELS

According to Paul Roitman Bardack, vice president of One to One: The National Mentoring Partnership, based in Washington, D.C., entrepreneurial role models who can "engender personal self-confidence in the child and afford the youngster the opportunity to see what the business world is actually like" are also important. Foster-Grear agrees, believing that "children become what they see."

She and her husband, Lance, who is the general manager of Foster Corp., expose their six-year-old daughter Noni not only to the operation of their business, but also to friends who are business owners as well as to other vendors. Often the little girl travels with her parents on business trips and to trade shows and networking events such as the Entrepreneurs Conference sponsored each year by Black Enterprise Unlimited and NationsBank.

This year, for instance, Noni was enrolled in B.E. Unlimited's Kidpreneurs Konference, a three-day program that teaches the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. Because it parallels the Entrepreneurs Conference, children can engage in meaningful activities similar to, but separate from, what their folks are doing.

The Kidpreneurs Konference is broken into four sectors: Weepreneurs, for children ages four to six; Futurepreneurs, for ages seven to 10; Junior Executives, for ages 11-13; and Future CEOs, for 14-17-year-olds. "Each group learns the basics of starting and running a business, but in age-appropriate ways," says Pat Crocker, B.E. Unlimited's director of project development and strategic planning. In addition to hands-on activities, attendees get firsthand pep talks from successful role models such as Earl G. Graves, chairman and CEO of Earl G. Graves Publishing Co.; Karl Kani, president and CEO of Infinity; and Les Brown, motivational speaker and consultant.