What makes an entrepreneur tick? Why are they always thinking about new ways to solve problems? In my last blog, I shared a bit of my entrepreneurial story and how I believe all humans are born with 9 Entrepreneurial Instincts that become consistent behavioral traits when nurtured and developed.
Fostering these traits in your employees can take your business to new levels (and partnerships). Developing these instincts in your children can spark something truly amazing!
The 9 Entrepreneurial Instincts
When all humans, but kids especially, look within and identify their entrepreneurial instincts, they find personal ambitions and goals rapidly progress, improve, and materialize. Curiosity, confidence, and conviction are what turn sparks into fireworks. Understanding what drives kids and makes them think and act differently might make them "weird," but it means they are part of an extraordinary universe of others that think like them and create entirely new worlds of thought, play, and progress during their time on this planet. When humans understand why they do what they do, they feel included, not as isolated.
I can prove it to you!
Humans That Sparked Early
Bill Gates might be one of the best-known young entrepreneurs we can point to, but it’s happening more and more often.
A Gallup Poll showed that 50% of minority students and 37% of white students in grades 5-12 in late 2013 were planning to someday start a business of their own. Here are just a few examples of young entrepreneurs changing the world:
In 2013, Brandon, 13, and Sebastian Martinez, 11, started Are You Kidding. They help the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund and Autism Speaks by selling funky looking socks to schools for fundraisers.
In 2014, Alina Morse invested $7,500 that her grandparents gave her for college into her own candy business called ZOLLIPOPS. Since 2014, her candies are available at SuperValu and Whole Foods along with Amazon. She has been tagged as the Dentist’s Best Friend for her sugar-free treats.
In 2015, Bella Tipping started Kidzcationz.com after identifying a child-sized gap in the travel market, so she created a travel review website specifically for kids.
In 2016, Evan Moana started EvanTubeHD and was named YouTube's youngest millionaire. He was in fourth grade at the time. His channel reviews kids' toys and has more than 6 million subscribers. All the money Evan raises through sponsorships and advertisements and his earnings are invested in college funds and investments for Evan and his sister, Jillian, who is also a YouTuber.
In 2017, 10-year-old Hannah Grace started BeYOUtiful. You can find her products on her website. Hannah donates 20% of every purchase to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund, as she was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was an infant.
In 2018, Jelani Jones, CEO of Lani Boo Bath, visited farmer’s markets and tested as many products as she could find. One of those vendors became her mentor, and Jelani turned her bath product hobby into a lucrative career. She was 9.
In 2019, David Holston launched his first entrepreneurial initiative when he made $35,000 in 4-days by posting an ad on Craigslist offering his truck for snowplowing during an unprecedented storm in Seattle. See a need, fill a need.
In 2020, Miracle Olatunji, author of Purpose: How to Live and Lead with Impact (at age 19), continues to work with OpportuniMe, a company she started when she was in high school. She is also the Director of Innovation at Thrive.
Helping your kids start a business—regardless of their school situation—is an amazing experience that will stimulate the development of their Entrepreneurial Instincts and help them develop curiosity, confidence, and conviction.
Now, imagine helping your business team hyper-develop the three Big C’s[c2] —how would they change the scale and profit of your business? What if an employee came to you with an idea that transformed your company OR with a new business idea that you could partner on?
The first step in getting the 9 Entrepreneurial Instincts to grow and become behaviors starts with having a Growth Mindset. I’ll share more about that in my next blog.
Humans are humans—no matter what age—and we’re capable of incredible things. By understanding the 9 Entrepreneurial Instincts we all possess, how to encourage their development into behavioral traits, and how to fuel a Growth Mindset in the people around us, we are helping ignite firework humans at every age.
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