Me and my husband were driving to our weekly swimming session with our boys this morning and reflecting on our respective entrepreneurial journeys.
You could call our discussion "Entrepreneurial-ism - Nature or Nurture?"
In the 10 minutes we had in our car we reflected on our backgrounds and our journey into the self employed state. For my part, my first foray into self employment was when I sold tickets to a cartoon film showing (in my bedroom which was 5 foot 10 inches square) to all my friends. As no more than two people standing could fit into my bedroom, my parents had to turn every one around, give them their money back, and reflect on why I'd done this.
My next idea, a few months later involved my brother and I setting up a garage sale and selling pretty much all of our toys to the neighbouring kids. We sold the lot. It took my parents a long time to get all our toys back and refund everyone their money.
My brother and I were surrounded by job-for-life family. Get a job and hang on to it for dear life, until retirement. We've both gone into self employment. Not a job between us.
My husband had a somewhat different childhood. Home educated from high school, he was surrounded by positive entrepreneurial role models. He's had some good jobs but given his loyalty to none until finally starting a business which, at 14 years old, is successful.
So what makes a person crave self employment?
It's not for everyone that's for sure. The trials of trying to get a mortgage to buy a home (in Britain anyway) have to be seen to be believed. A definite tick in the box for having a regular salary rather than the erratic self employed income! In this house we have Aldi months (not good on the billable hours this month!) and Waitrose months (we've invoiced more this month, sweetheart!).
So whether entrepreneurial-ism is down to genetics or learned from our families - a sample size of myself, my husband and brother tells us nothing.
But I do think one thing is for sure. If we raise a child to be an innovative, creative problem solver, whether they become an entrepreneur of the future, or an intrepreneur of an organisation, we are setting them up with skills for a great future.
In future posts, I'm going to be exploring how to raise a child to be entrepreneurial. How we can encourage them to take educated risks, learn about finance, develop their creativity and solve problems. What tools do we need and how can we foster their natural curiosity?
Please join us and we can explore the concept together!