A little encouragement just what young entrepreneurs need to find their way
The seeds of entrepreneurship are often planted early in life.
With an inquiring mind as sunshine, opportunity as soil, and rain as determination, the tender roots emerge as knowledge and skills, which can produce fruit. The budding entrepreneur combines these essential components creating the stems and buds for new businesses, challenging projects and energizing endeavors.
As sprouting plants pop in the spring, so do the hopes, dreams and ideas of kids, youth and young adults. Over the years, I have witnessed this exciting process time after time. Here are a few stories to understand how these basics fit together and produce something enticing to consume.
A high schooler who collects comic books is told that his overabundance must fit under his bed. He begins to sell his surplus and eventually builds a business with 30 employees in five cities. How about a Scout who collects used computers, acquires software and uses his troop to produce usable tools for a school. He acquires the resources and exports them to an impoverished country.
There’s the student who sells candy from his locker to his sweet-seeking friends. When the school shuts him down and starts their own store, he discovers new ways to distribute the treats to a loyal following.
We must not forget another who sells the most cookies for a fundraiser, the kid who digs through the trash finding items for repair and repurpose, and the hard worker who turns lawnmowing into landscape care.
Then we have the fifth-grader who loves to use the oven and is asked to supply tasty baked goods to family friends who reward with cash. Think about the kid who collects and stocks backpacks for families who can’t afford them, the teen who manages the school’s concession stand, the babysitter who hands off surplus jobs to friends, or the producer and organizer of costumes and props for theatre productions.
As sprouting plants pop in the spring, so do the hopes, dreams and ideas of kids, youth and young adults.”
The sunshine of curiosity is wondering how people find babysitters, what happens to old computers, where stores get their candy. It’s asking: “How can I fix a broken game system? How do I ship to Haiti? Who would donate so I can buy backpacks?”
The soil of opportunity is recognizing that someone will pay for my baked goods, my comics are valuable, or everyone needs school supplies. It is realizing that all my friends buy candy, parents need babysitters on the weekends, and my aunt has a closet full of fabric for costumes.
The rain of determination includes a confidence that states “I am good at mowing, people think I’m great with kids, or my friends like to help me out.” It’s an understanding of your passion for a cause, a belief that what you are doing is important, or the motivation to save money to purchase something you badly want.
The roots that erupt from the seed are the ability to organize people, manage your cash, keep track of what you have purchased for inventory. It’s finding solutions, asking for help, following recipes, outlining processes, assigning work, saying “thank you.”
There is one more important ingredient to this paradigm. A seed sprouts healthier and grows more productively when there is fertilizer, and this is where you come in. The adults in the life of young people play a very important role. They can be nutrition for the growth and nurture of tender buds.
You can encourage, compliment, support and appreciate. You can coach, explain, teach and inform. Introduce them to people, connect them to resources, provide a little cash as an investor or customer. You are a vital ingredient who can help the newborn plant thrive or survive in a difficult climate or poor conditions.
One caution — refrain from being the raw manure that can damage or even kill a new seedling. I am sure you understand the simple implication.
There are lots of young people out there with a few seeds in their hands. We can play an essential role in the planting and growth of an enormous and highly productive garden. Let us carefully and positively nurture the tender roots
of budding entrepreneurs; they are
our future. •
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