Virtual Entrepreneur

Is Your Child A Born Entrepreneur?

May 5th, 2008 | Author: MrsMoney

I am now divorced with 3 adolescent sons. I’ve worked hard and been fortunate to provide a good income running a business I started 20 years ago. As I look around at layoffs and disappearing jobs, and vanishing pensions and age discrimination issues, I worry about my sons’ future. I hope they will grow up to become entrepreneurs, responsible for their own success, and plan to devote time guiding them in that direction. Their dad, a lawyer in a small practice, isn’t convinced that entrepreneurship is the answer. Your viewpoint? – G.H.

I start with, ‘Yes, entrepreneurship is an attractive goal.’ But then I have to move on to the ‘maybes’ and the definite need for hard-core information.

Born or made? Although entrepreneurship as a dynamic economic force has been ballyhooed over the last several decades, inspiring an explosion of college courses, another issue has been debated for much longer: Is entrepreneurship an innate ability or an acquired skill? Unless your sons are obviously showing themselves to be mercantile kings of the neighborhood, avoid a risk of square pegs in round holes: Sign them up with a career counselor – not a career coach or consultant but an academically educated testing professional.

For as long as I can remember, experts have held varying opinions on whether entrepreneurship can be taught when the raw entrepreneurial acumen is missing.

Young millionaires. The stories of young entrepreneurs who become multimillionaires before they turn 40 are popular fare – all- natural-granola manufacturers, T-shirt designers and downloadable – game makers get cheerleader recognition in business media, including the popular site Entrepreneur.com.