I would be willing to bet that I'm
the dumbest guy in the world because I couldn't get through school. I struggled
with school. But what I knew at a very early age was that I loved money and I
loved business and I loved this entrepreneurial thing. I was raised to be an entrepreneur, and
that’s what I've been really passionate
about ever since -- and I've never spoken about this ever, until now -- so this
is the first time anyone's ever heard it.
What I’m here to discuss is that I think we miss an opportunity to find
these kids who have the entrepreneurial traits, and to groom them or show them
that being an entrepreneur is actually a cool thing. It's not something that is
a bad thing and is vilified, which is what happens in a lot of society ( raising children).
Kids, when we grow up, we have
dreams, passions, and visions, and somehow we get those things crushed. We get
told that we need to study harder or be more focused or get a tutor. My parents
got me a tutor in French, and I still suck in French. Two years ago, I was the
highest-rated lecturer at MIT's entrepreneurial master's program. And it was a
speaking event in front of groups of entrepreneurs from around the world. When
I was in grade two, I won a city-wide speaking competition, but nobody had ever
said, "Hey, this kid's a good speaker. He can't focus, but he loves
walking around and getting people energized." No one said, "Get him a
coach in speaking." They said, get me a tutor in what I suck at.
So as kids show these traits -- and
we need to start looking for them -- I think we should be raising kids to be
entrepreneurs instead of lawyers. Unfortunately the school system is grooming
this world to say, "Hey, let's be a lawyer or let's be a doctor," and
we're missing that opportunity because no one ever says, "Hey, be an
entrepreneur." Entrepreneurs are people -- because we have a lot of them
in this room -- who have these ideas and these passions or see these needs in
the world and we decide to stand up and do it. And we put everything on the
line to make that stuff happen. We have the ability to get those groups of
people around us that want to kind of build that dream with us, and I think if
we could get kids to embrace the idea at a young age of being entrepreneurial,
we could change everything in the world that is a problem today ( raising children).
This is Adam Norman, a 30-year-old father and a journalist. I consider being a father as my full-time duty, which comes before my actual job of journalism. As a father, there will always be new challenges for me to face everyday while raising my kids. This is where the idea of this website came from. I wanted to give out my experience, along with the experience of others, to all parents out there who need an advice with raising their kids.
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