Think the odds are stacked too high against them? Consider the advantage today’s children have over the first generations of tech entrepreneurs: They’re growing up immersed in technology. It’s second nature to them. They grow up expecting that there will be a next big thing, and wondering what it will look like.
The answer is to stop treading warily around tech, and dive right in. Have them embrace computers and social media as early as possible. Ramp it up constantly so by the time they hit their teens, they aren’t just navigating tech like Silicon Valley pros—they’re bumping up against its limits and thinking about how to improve it. And start instilling the entrepreneurial mind set, learning to see everyday problems not as obstacles but as possible business opportunities—and encouraging them to set up ventures to solve them.
Of course, this is going to mean a lot of time staring at a screen. But children already spend an extraordinary amount of time on computers and phones, whether it’s playing Minecraft or texting their friends. So think of this entrepreneurial training as a way to make that computer time more constructive. Instead of playing games somebody else made, they can design and build their own. Instead of paging through someone else’s YouTube videos, they can create their own movies or blog.
Even the children who aren’t allowed much screen time will eventually end up in a work world in which technology will be a huge part of their daily lives. When they get there, do you want them to hammer away on software someone else wrote, as a wage slave for somebody else’s business? Or do you want them to be the person who wrote the software—or even the person who owns the business?
With that in mind, here are strategies you can take to raise children with a shot at the next rags-to-tech-riches story.
Raise problem solvers
Most great startups address an unsolved problem—but half the art lies in recognizing that there’s a problem to solve. Teach your children to spot those opportunities by treating every complaint as a learning opportunity: Whenever your child complains about a game, site or app (or a real-world toy or experience), ask them how they would make it better. Yes, it’s annoying that you can’t play this videogame with a friend. What features would you have to add to make it a great collaborative game? I agree, this restaurant isn’t great for young people. What would your dream restaurant look like?
You can also teach them to identify the kinds of serendipitous opportunities that led to success stories like Flickr, Twitter and Second Life, all of which started as the side projects of companies that were initially trying to do something different. If your child pulls all the marshmallows out of the box of Lucky Charms, point out that she’s just invented what could be packaged as a separate product! If she writes her homework assignment as a choose-your-own-adventure story, maybe that is something other children would like to do, too: Could you turn that into a storytelling game for children?
But problem solving isn’t just about recognizing opportunity. It’s also about developing a can-do, must-fix attitude. Start by assigning tech chores: Just as you expect the children to clear the table or take out the garbage, ask them to keep the family computer up-to-date or to scan all the business cards you collected at your last conference. When they run into trouble, don’t fix your children’s tech problems for them—teach them how to fix their own, and they’ll develop the problem-solving mentality that drives a lot of great tech innovations.
Get them social-media savvy—before they turn 13
But that advantage only kicks in if they’re truly growing up inside the social-networking universe. If you worry about the superficiality or cruelty of the social-media world, recognize that an early introduction to that world means you can shape your children’s approach to it while they’re still young enough to listen to you (in other words, before the rocky shoals of adolescence).
Ask your seven-year-old for permission before posting photos of her to your Facebook wall, and she’s more likely to respect your (and her friends’) privacy when she gets her own account; talk with your 10-year-old about why you’re responding politely to a rude tweet, and you can model the kind of anti-trolling behavior you want your children to practice, too.
That won’t happen if you keep social media at bay until your children reach the age the age of 13, which is when they can (legally) have their own Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat account. Help them grow up inside social-media culture by showing them your online discoveries and talking explicitly about what you are sharing from your own family life.
Just like it’s easiest to speak a second language flawlessly if you grow up speaking it, your children will be savvier social-media users if you’ve already offered them your older-and-wiser perspective on what is and isn’t appropriate to share online.
While social media may no longer be the online arena that offers the greatest business opportunities by the time your child is ready to start a business—by then it could be virtual reality, nanotech or cybernetic implants—social-media fluency will still give them the foundation that they need for any tech-business success.
Precisely because it’s user-driven, social media helps children see the way that businesses and organizations need to be responsive to their customers and users. When our daughter was upset that the local library had removed its French-language books, I tweeted about the change—and the library reinstated its collection. When PBS launched its “Martha Speaks” TV show, I tweeted a picture she’d drawn of the show’s title character—and she received a box full of swag, including her own stuffed Martha. Believe me when I tell you that these two experiences have done more to inculcate a belief in customer responsiveness than any social-media book or class she could ever encounter.
Help children discover their tech talents
While it’s true that many marquee stories about teen entrepreneurs feature coding whizzes, running a tech startup isn’t all about being able to program. Maybe your child will find success as a YouTube star, as a sought-after blogger or as the designer behind a winning app. Give your children a taste of different kinds of content creation and technical skills—from video editing to Photoshop to coding—so they can figure out what appeals to them, and then invest in deepening those skills.
Enroll your child in a summer camp that teaches video editing or graphic design, or in an after-school program that teaches robotics or Photoshop. Or encourage them to teach themselves by showing them Adobe’s YouTube channel full of design tutorials or by setting them up on a site like Khan Academy or Codecademy, both of which teach a range of coding and Web skills. That’s especially important for girls, who often need a little extra encouragement to engage a tech world that’s still dominated by male role models and boy-oriented advertisements. Programs like Girls Who Code, DIY Girls and Ladies Learning Code offer tech training that covers skills like graphic design and 3-D printing, as well as teaching girls to program.
The most important thing is to help your children develop a sense of agency and involvement with the world of tech: Once they see that working with technology can take a lot of different forms, they’re more likely to find a role that appeals to them.
Teach children to work like a startup
There are very few tech entrepreneurs who manage their schedules or task lists with the spiral-bound calendars that are so often supplied by schools. If you want to prepare your children for entrepreneurship, teach them to work the way entrepreneurs do: online. Show them how to take notes in Evernote or Google Docs; how to set up and share their schedule in Google Calendar; how to manage their tasks in Wunderlist or Todoist; and how to track and cite their essay sources with Zotero.
In addition to helping them stay on top of their schoolwork, learning to find and adopt the right tool for the job will teach your children the critical skills of evaluating and mastering new software. It will also expand their vocabulary of possibility so that they can get ideas for what is missing from the software world and how the tools they use could be combined.
While you’re introducing your children to tools software companies use, teach them to work like a startup team, too. Adopt startup practices like using project-management software to track family tasks and homework deadlines; run a kanban board for family chores by using Post-it Notes to track forthcoming, under-way and complete tasks; organize daily stand-up meetings for homework. Most important, teach your child collaboration skills by taking the time to talk about any group projects at school, and introducing them to best practices around assigning work and ensuring accountability. The more your children learn the work habits of a tech startup, the easier it is to start one.
Set up a practice venture
You’re much more likely to produce the next Mark Zuckerberg if you get your children to start their own ventures at a young age. They don’t have to begin with a full-fledged business. They might start by creating their own blog, game or even a game level, just to get a sense of what it means to build and launch something that other people will actually use. You can get them started in Minecraft, Super Mario Maker or LittleBigPlanet, all of which allow children to create their own game levels or maps, and then share their work with the community.
And it’s never too soon to start an actual business, and learn the ins and outs of managing sales, marketing and cash flow.
My daughter started her own Etsy store (selling shrink-art jewelry) at age 7. An aspiring graphic designer could sell images on Creative Market, and a clever collector could set up a shop on eBay. These are all great starter business experiences, and they help teach children some basic tech skills alongside entrepreneurship.
If it seems like I’m advocating rushing children into the workforce—and not letting them enjoy being young—let’s remember that there’s a proud tradition of young people experimenting with work and entrepreneurship as a form of learning and play. Starting a blog or creating an app is the modern equivalent of running a lemonade stand or a baby-sitting business. It’s a chance for children to experience some of the challenges and satisfactions at playing in the world of work that they see their parents inhabiting. For children who are growing up within—or into—an online world, it’s only natural that some of that experimentation will happen digitally.
Yes, it’s nice to imagine that cultivating a combination of technical skills, work habits and business know-how will allow your child to become the next teen tech entrepreneur. But remember that even if your child doesn’t have an IPO in time to pay for college, this investment really will pay for itself: In supporting academic excellence, in preparing for the world of work, and in learning to be an independent and empowered technology user.
NOTE CREDIT: http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-raise-the-next-mark-zuckerberg-1462155391?mod=WSJ_TechWSJD_moreTopStories