Raising Young Entrepreneurs

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October 4, 2011 by Angela Shupe | 1 Comment

Looking for advice to help you raise a young entrepreneur? USA Today has pulled together advice from kids who have already experienced that success.

When you hear about kids like Abbey Fleck, who helped her parents achieve their dream home, adopt a few more kids and put all five through college on her Makin’ Bacon money, it makes you wonder, how did she do it?

The good news is you don’t have to give up your TV.

Sure, some of the kids are home-schooled and watch ZERO hours of television per week, like Oink-a-saurus inventor Fabian Fernandez-Han, but Cassidy Goldstein, inventor of the crayon holder, said TV is where she gets some of her best ideas. Admittedly, she’s usually making jewelry or doing something else while watching TV, but still, it’s OK — even helpful.

Some kids had a way in — their parents were inventors, like Fleck, or CEOs, like Sarah Bucknel, who invented Magnetic Locker Wallpaper. Others competed in contests through organizations like By Kids for Kids or FIRST Robotics — like Fernandez-Han, Nicholas Fornario, who invented the Tic-Tag-Tac vest, and the Inventioneers, who invented the Smart Wheel.

Still, Fernandez-Han’s dad said he thinks it’s important to teach kids not just to solve problems — but to find them.