Entrepreneurship has many benefits for children, so they would be a responsible, self-reliant people who, hopefully, would benefit the society. Among countless of entrepreneurial skills to teach, these are the top five basic skills you can teach your children. For starters, at least. 

1. Initiative

Naturally, when people are given an order, they only give only as much as needed. In this competitive world, one needs to be different (in a good way) to step up. When everyone else is doing as they are told to, teach your children to do more. More, as in being genuine about the work and do their best in everything (sometimes people misunderstood “doing more” as in doing unnecessary things that looks like doing more). 

In addition, children need to learn to be proactive from an early age. When they are in the train and there’s a pregnant lady in front of them, they don’t need to be asked or told to give up their seats. They would automatically give it out of initiative. Entrepreneurs don’t wait for the next order to work on something, they have the initiative to create one from observation and creativity. 

2. Teamwork

No one is purely self-sufficient. Humans basically survive with the help of their fellows. Same as work and career. Successful entrepreneurs don’t do everything on their own; they delegate their tasks and manage the work of others. Besides, when there are people around to help and are willing to reach the same goal, there will be more eyes to notice gaps that potentially lead to failure. So, chances of failure will somewhat decrease.

In order to maintain a good team work, communication is the key. But, it is not easy as it is said. It is not a skill that can be learnt from books or tutorials. The only way for your children to hone their communication skills is to socialize. The more variety of people your child interact with, the better their communication skills would be. This is due to more factors are played during the interaction: tolerance, understanding, respect. 

3. Curiosity

Urge your child to be forever curious. Don’t let them get too comfortable with one point of view. Curiosity will lead your child to critical thinking, as they will not simply accept things wholly and as it is. They will question it. Therefore, the child will be more careful and wise, as to not make rush decisions. Also, curiosity will lead to creativity, as the varied point of view will give them more room for inspiration to come. 

4. Financial Literacy 

You may not want your children to worry about money until they come of age (whenever that is). But eventually, they will have to learn how to manage their own money and how to earn them. If you’re afraid that your child will grow up to become a materialistic or stingy person, well, financial literacy actually prevents that. By giving them a solid ground on understanding material value, they will have a healthy relationship with finance in the future. 

You can teach them all about how to earn money, but you have to balance that with education about saving, investing and see the real worth of items before they buy it. They will not be financially stable, let alone successful, if they don’t have a good financial management and be responsible about their earnings and obligation. Without solid principles on money, they could easily fall into marketing tricks of discounts and promotions or mounting debts. Also, show them that money is important, but it is not the most important.  

5. Failure

As parents or guardians, it is only natural to protect our children from any harm or failure that leads to trauma or disappointment. However, we need to differentiate between real threats and part of growing up. Failure is just part of growing up.

Fact is, keeping our children from failure could make them vulnerable to anxiety, meltdowns and depression. Tolerance to failure will increase their self-reliability because they will also learn how to adjust with the situation, solve the problem and wiggle themselves out to get back on track. That’s why the great athlete Michael Jordan spent years spreading the importance of losing. He had spoken extensively on how perseverance and resilience over challenges and failures had made him a winner.