Remember the “When I Grow Up” Monster.com commercial from a few years back? It featured kids talking about how they want to do things like “work their way up to middle management,” “be a ‘yes’ man,” and “file all day” when they grow up.
It’s a great commercial, though I think the kids in it are too old to be dispensing any sort of career advice. Just listen to them. At 11 or 12 years old the entrepreneurial spirit has already been beaten out of them and they’re content settling for the Dilbert Cube!
If you really want to get some sound lessons in business, you should be looking to the infant and toddler set. Seriously!
I became a father for the first time and started my first business within a 14 month stretch. These are two enormous undertakings by themselves. Taking them on at about the same time was quite an overwhelming task. One thing that helped me however, is that I found I could learn a lot about business by observing and interacting with my daughter. In fact, I think babies can teach you more about the critical skills needed to start and run a successful business than most business courses at prestigious universities.
Now that I’m home for about 6 weeks playing Mr. Mom to our second child, I’ve got baby on the brain again. It seems like the ideal time to share some of the business lessons my kids have taught me (and continue to teach me) because . . . you really can learn a lot about business from a baby.
Join me later this week (baby permitting) to learn the essential business lessons you can learn from trying to get a fussy baby to stop crying.
Related posts:
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I heavily agree with your main thought: kids not only say the darndest things but they really DO have unique ideas. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of the term “coffee thought” but it seems to me like that’s what you need. People get ideas and advice from the craziest places sometimes and wonder where they came from. Whereas you seem to derive inspiration from your child (we all should) lots of people get inspired by just taking a step back and looking at life holistically. You might want to check out this link:
http://onecoffeethought.com/blog
Good luck!
{ 1 trackback }