Not every adult is made to be an entrepreneur, and the same can be said about our children. So how do you know if your child will be the next Bill Gates or Richard Branson?
The Bulletin has asked Asher Epstein, managing director of the University of Maryland’s Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the Robert Smith School of Business, and Robert Baum, associate professor of entrepreneurship, a couple questions to find out.
Q: How can you spot entrepreneurial characteristics in young children?
Epstein: I have young children, and I look for a solution-oriented approach to problem-solving. The world is full of problems and full of obstacles. The entrepreneurs are going to figure out how to get around them and how to get through them. If your child is creative, likes solving problems, and if he or she is focused and determined to get things done, they are showing the early signs of an entrepreneur.
Q: How can you foster entrepreneurial tendencies in children?
Epstein: If they show interest, get your kids out there selling stuff and solving problems. Running lemonade stands, dog-walking services, things like that. Entrepreneurship is a full-contact sport. You’ve got to be out there in the lab experimenting every day, not just in a classroom talking about it.
Baum: A lot of entrepreneurs who end up in our classes had some sort of exposure to entrepreneurship growing up — whether in a parent, someone they ran into or someone they worked for — and they were impressed with characteristics of that type of career. Having summer camps revolving around entrepreneurship is another way of exposing that type of career choice to folks, no matter how young they are.
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