Kid Entrepreneur Creates Board Game
in a world where we’re all expected to be entrepreneurs and reinvent ourselves to stay competitive in the workplace, it’s never too soon to encourage kids to develop and follow through on their own ideas. Perhaps the example of a project initiated two summers ago by Amanda Wilcox, now 10, and facilitated by her mother, Melynda (a former Kiplinger’s colleague), will provide the inspiration.
Amanda has a passion for pandas. So to mark the first birthday of Tai Shan, the panda cub at the National Zoo, Amanda had the idea to create a board game with a panda theme. Players make a circuit of the board (hand-drawn by Amanda), landing on black or white squares, drawing cards with facts about pandas and following directions to move forward or back.
She christened the game Pandarama, and guided by Mom, spent about 20 to 25 hours refining the drawing and poring over panda fact books with her twin sister, Laura, to choose trivia questions. Mom also paid $45 for a copyright but resisted spending $325 for a trademark registration.”We didn’t know where she was going with this,” says Melynda. “It might have been just a fun summer project.”
Image via BusinessArticle
danakeith on June 11th, 2008 4:28 pm
much better to know more information about the business you’re going to franchise, coz you might not able to handle it well.
Melanie D. on June 13th, 2008 6:57 am
Kids need this kind of encouragement. Not the kind of encouragement wherein folks buy them techy stuff like video games and wii.
cassy on June 29th, 2008 7:54 pm
Melanie is right, buying toys which dont give any good information to kids is not a good idea. We should encourage them to do things that can help them show their talents and interest and be a better kids in the future..
Jason on December 21st, 2008 3:52 pm
Kids must be mentored. I love this story because of the proactive role Melynda took with her children.
The important thing is to take what they learn and make it better with each attempt. If you take a moment to analize what went wrong and how it could be improved, then try again.
“Success once, is the result of a thousand failures.”
With a little guidance from her mom, Amanda will have a better chance to grow into a very successful woman!
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