eBusiness Weekly
Joseline Sithole
My late mother, (God rest her beautiful soul), made a simple career decision for me way back in the 90s. I had applied for a teaching and hotel management tertiary qualification.
My strong mother gently hid the hotel industry interview invitation, and gave me the teaching one. Later when I graduated from teaching, she confessed this misdeed with a straight unrepentant face.
In her own words: “I hid your invitation because I thought teaching was more dignified than that hotel one”.
Though not my career of choice, I successfully taught in high school for 10 years and credit my teaching career for making me the exceptional trainer I am today.
However, the entrepreneurship bug caught up with me 10 years ago when I decided to register my own consultancy company and what a journey it has been. My only regret, I could have done it sooner.
In preparation for this article, I had an interesting conversation with an elderly gentleman, who preferred not to be named but has been a successful entrepreneur for 40 years.
He confirmed that, way back, being a businessman was frowned upon in favour of the socially acceptable careers such as teaching, nursing or clerical jobs.
He noted that if your child became a doctor, “a parent would have hit the jackpot”. Though he eventually became the breadwinner of the family, he has always felt that his parents preferred a more academic career.
However, this overemphasis on careers in Zimbabwe, is in contrast to the Western and Middle Eastern cultures where children are taught entrepreneurship skills at an early age.
As a former teacher, I observed that, there were some children who really were not academically gifted, but they showed serious “hustling” skills.
These were the pupils who brought sweets and other wares to sell at school. The billionaire school dropout club (Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs) were B rated kids who did not come tops in their classes. I have since gone back to schools, this time preaching a different type of gospel.
In my opinion academic subjects should be paired with strong entrepreneurship instruction.
Sadly, a majority of the parents who were interviewed for this article (88 percent) are still positively predisposed over their children excelling in academics only despite the lack of employment opportunities.
Their perception with regards to entrepreneurship, is that their children will “catch up on that journey” later on in life. It is also worrisome to note that 76 percent of those parents had no idea what their children wanted to do.
One parent confidently pointed out that introducing entrepreneurship ideas would distract her daughter from successfully completing her university studies, “Munhu ngaazive zvaakafambira kuchikoro.” (People should focus on school) she declared.
In the years since I left the formal classroom, I have met a lot of these “not-so gifted in academics kids” running successful businesses. According to Clive Chifamba, marketing executive for Kukura Business Accelerator (KBA) an innovative entrepreneurship platform for kids: “It is important for our children to have the mindset of being employers not employees” especially in these highly volatile times.
On the other hand, the young ones who were interviewed had interesting viewpoints to say about entrepreneurship. Just the pronouncement of the word left me in tears of laughter. (We will not go there.) My nephew, could not pronounce the word but declared that an entrepreneur is a person who simply “liked money very very much”.
He continued that he would like that a lot. Tendekayi simply said “I think aunty, it has to do with a lot of money somehow”.
Themba Makoni, pointed out that an entrepreneur, started building businesses over time. Either way I was glad at least our children understood and appreciated this concept.
Some kids have made money, Kylie Jenner at 20 years old (If you watch that Reality show, “Keeping up with the Kardashians”) is the youngest self-made billionaire with an estimated worth of US$1 billion. She runs a cosmetic empire.
Asia Newson from Detroit Michigan was taught by her father how to make candles at the age of five. At 11, Asia’s company Super Business Girl sells candles through her online store. She is now recognised as Detroit’s youngest entrepreneur.
In Zimbabwe, we also have serious child entrepreneurs who are being groomed by the Kids Entrepreneurship Programme. Tawananyasha Murinda started a business called Tawana Organic Produce and is in serious talks with retail chains.
Natania Munzwa has her own brand of eggs called Natania Eggs. Tinashe Mugari is into dog breeding. They are all at primary school.
Why should we teach our
children entrepreneurship?
Firstly, children are very impressionable and at a young age. They normally hold on to any key lessons and values that they are taught. (I am not a violent person but when my daughter came from crèche and banned me from speaking in Shona, I was horrified and gave the preschool owner a mouthful about the beauty of language and culture).
According to Chris Mahakata, founder of MawazoBD a leading design company with a footprint in Southern Africa, East Africa and the Middle East, “Kids learn faster and are not clouded by doubt and conceptions formed over years”.
Secondly, teaching children entrepreneurship, contextualises and gives relevance to what they are learning at school.
For example, Mathematics and English would be more interesting if children were taught its relevance in calculating profit and business communication respectively. Subjects such as Science should be taught in the context of creativity and innovation.
In addition, entrepreneurial skills instils crucial life skills. Chris Mahakata, knew that he needed to make money to have the things his parents could not give him. His game of choice, playing marbles. He observed other kids, mastered his art, and never had to borrow pocket money from his parents.
A crucial lesson in this early period was to get up early to play before school begun thus teaching him critical time management and multitasking skills.
Another crucial lesson kids learn at this very critical time is learning the “beauty of failure” at a very young age and understanding the real definition of No. (Not those “Nos” that this generation of parents give that are accompanied by hugs and kisses and lots of teary “I love yous”.) I mean the real emphatic “Nos” that our old school parents passed on to us, when you were seen lurking around the lounge full of visitors.
If a child is selling something and they are met with customers who say No, to their products, they learn to understand that rejection is not final but an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
The story of Jack Ma and Sir Colonel Sanders founders of Alibaba and Kentucky Fried Chicken respectively, is a poignant reminder that one should never give up amid a multitude of failures. In Silicon Valley the number of times your start up fails, makes you a better candidate to access Venture Capital.
Entrepreneurship also teaches our children good people skills. A future entrepreneur is forced to be really nice (good customer care). That means to gain customers one has to have networking skills and speak nicely to other children. (Possibly minimising bullying in our classrooms). Entrepreneurship also builds confidence both inside and outside the classroom.
How should parents navigate this journey? Parents should encourage their children to identify chores in the home and then ask them to negotiate their wages to do those tasks. A simple act of grocery shopping might teach children product choice.
Encourage them to choose products in the supermarket shelf and then let them justify their choices. If you own a business teach them the whole value chain for your business. If you are good at crafts, also teach your children how to do your crafts and encourage them to sell their wares.
Those parents with land should encourage their children to plant crops then sell those crops for household use. I would like to challenge all newspaper houses to give a portion of their newspapers to underprivileged children for some extra earnings. Many great entrepreneurs such as Warren Buffet started off as newspaper boys.
I shall conclude by exhorting parents to start training their children entrepreneurship. Proverbs, 22 verse 6 says;“Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it”.
Joseline Sithole is founder of Southern Africa Development Consultants an SME Research and Consulting Company Contact [email protected]
