Do you have kids who want to own businesses? We as parents can have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, raising a mogul or two can be something of which we can be proud. On the other hand, the undertaking poses challenges of its own.
And these challenges multiply, especially for families that are already in business. Whether you have one child prodigy or two, your parental duties can increase. Raising a mogul can force us parents to wear the hats of negotiators, conflict mediators, and facilitators.
If you want tips on how to create a supportive family environment for your young business owners, keep reading!
Managing Competitiveness
We as humans have an innate drive towards competition. We manifest our competitiveness in life, at work, and in business. With that said, why should we expect our young mogul or moguls to be any different?
Children, for the most part, tend to be quite competitive with their siblings. We may not see this if our kids are separated by years. For our children with not much of an age gap, competitiveness can be something we have to manage day in and day out.
Be that as it may, at the root of competitiveness is a desire to be the best at something. As parents, we need to nurture this drive to get the best out of our children.
In other words, managing a mogul means harnessing this drive to be better. How do we do this? We can by providing opportunities to show individual assets, and there are two ways we can achieve this.
Option A: Encourage Our Children to Manage Different Businesses
Competition and fierce rivalry may be driving forces for more seasoned business owners. For children, the effect is not familiar. Encouraging competition is like adding a mystery ingredient to a familiar dish. You will get a reaction or change, but it may not be the one you desire.
Some children will react positively. Others will be rendered discouraged. To prevent the negative backlash, a good strategy can be encouraging the pursuit of different businesses. For example, if Sally wants a lemonade stand, we can encourage Tom to be at the helm of a dog walking business. This will remove the extra competition that comes with being in the same industry.
Option B: Involving a Young Mogul in the Family Business
For families in business, competitiveness can create feelings of resentment when one child prodigy is excluded. To prevent this from occurring, we can involve our young child prodigies in the family business. Does it mean they need to balance accounts and manage our portfolios for clients? No.
Instead, we can start simple, as with anything we teach our young mogul or moguls. Whenever we make changes to the family business, we can ask for their feedback. And since we are managing egos and competitiveness, we need to show that we accept their feedback and contributions. Recognizing our children equally for their sentiments can also go a long way.
Final Thoughts: Raising a Mogul or Two Means Harnessing Competitiveness, Not Subverting It
As the parents of a child prodigy in business, we can anticipate feelings of competitiveness. These feelings are not negative in themselves. They are present in us as well as in our young moguls.
By helping them manage these feelings, we can provide a supportive environment that harnesses competitiveness. We can achieve this through the encouragement of different pursuits, or we can involve our children in the family business.
Either way, we can provide an environment that encourages our children not to outdo the other but to be the best they can be.
