5 Parenting Tips To Raise Entrepreneurial Kids

Deepak Bhatt
2 min readJun 14, 2024

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Entrepreneurs often raise their kids with an entrepreneurial spirit, aiming to shape today’s young minds into tomorrow’s startup founders and business leaders. As a parent, you can inspire entrepreneurship by encouraging the emotional skills your child will need, such as a positive attitude towards problems, comfort with risk, and decision-making ability. Developing these skills is crucial, and the earlier you start, the better.

Here are five parenting tips to help you foster entrepreneurial traits in your child:

1. Brainstorming Ideas

Encouraging innovative business ideas starts with nurturing problem-solving skills. Engage your child in discussions about identifying problems and brainstorming possible solutions. Guide them through evaluating alternatives by considering pros and cons, and finally, choosing the best option. Frequent problem-solving tasks will enhance your child’s ability to think creatively and critically.

2. Learning from Failure

Learning from failure is a key to success. Encourage your child’s eagerness to try, fail, learn, and try again — an essential trait for any successful entrepreneur. Teach them to view criticism as a learning opportunity. By helping your child understand how to improve based on feedback, they can develop resilience and a growth mindset.

3. Right to Take Decisions

Granting children the right to make their own decisions fosters independence and decision-making skills. Allow them to make choices, such as selecting their outfit for a party or choosing between spinach or broccoli for dinner. Initially, limit their options to avoid overwhelming them, and as they grow older, gradually trust them with bigger decisions. This early independence builds a strong foundation for entrepreneurial decision-making.

4. Developing a Sense of Mastery

Entrepreneurs are comfortable with uncertainties and take calculated risks. To develop this trait, allow your child to test their boundaries and overcome fears from a young age. When they face challenging situations, offer initial help but gradually encourage independence. This approach instills a sense of mastery and confidence, essential for risk-taking.

5. Encouraging Constructive Challenges

Rather than following rules blindly, teach your children to challenge norms constructively. Encourage them to think about what they believe is right and why, and to consider what needs to change and why. This habit of questioning and challenging the status quo is a common trait among entrepreneurs. By modeling this behavior, you help your child understand when and how to adjust rules tactfully.

As a parent, your behavior and guidance play a crucial role in shaping your child’s entrepreneurial spirit. By leading by example and fostering these essential skills, you can help your child develop the traits necessary to become a successful entrepreneur in the future.

Image Credit: Getty Images/Vetta

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Deepak Bhatt

Founder & CEO, Global Management Consultancy, Ex. Head, Communication, PR & Digital Marketing IIM Ahmedabad, 🎓 Alumnus IIM Calcutta & Stanford GSB