Yes, of course, first and foremost, they are the lights of our lives. But you should not live from day to day. Rather you should also think about the future.
Generation Z will move into independent adult life in a couple of years, and they will be responsible for shaping that life. So, let’s get back to investments. Investing in children is similar to investing in any other assets: first, you invest, and then you get return on investment.
This is why it would be a good idea to encourage children to study or to develop their business acumen, as both can produce good results. A good example is Michael Bloomberg, one of fintech pioneers. Back in 1984, he launched an exchange terminal automatically processing huge volumes of information by then contemporary standards, which eliminated manual data processing from the exchange business. He started trying his hand at business as a child. Another example is Richard Branson who owns the Virgin Group, which includes around 60 companies from diverse segments. Branson started as a newspaper boy and lemonade seller. And the number of great start-ups founded in family garages is countless.
Today, launching a start-up has become even easier, as there is infrastructure offering ready-made solutions that you can adopt in a quick and simple way. In particular, the VEPAY processing company offers a solution for accepting payments on a website, in a mobile app or at a store. Payments can be made wherever you want: at an online store, in a chat or in an app. Any payment methods – a bank card, a smartphone or a loan – can be used. The solution is available 24/7.
The future lies in the internet and remote communication channels. It is not someone’s will – whether good or not. This is just how the economy works today, gradually moving to digital technologies. This means that today we should teach our children everything that can take place in the tech world of the not so far away future, which we will have a chance to witness. And a real prophet of this world is Elon Musk with both Tesla and private space flights that have brought opportunities for private capital and technology to space, driving the business to the interplanetary medium. How can you know what goods and services people will need in space and who will provide them?
Most likely, high tech clusters like the Silicon Valley will disappear in the near future having become obsolete and needless, as it will be possible to do business and get the required investments from any backwoods once you have connection to the internet, which incredibly expands the consumer audience and provides opportunities for servicing local communities.
This is why business technologies and finance should be taught as early as possible. You can do it in a game format at first, gradually increasing the complexity of the form and content, so that a 14–15-year-old teen, irrespective of the gender, feels at ease in the business world. It would be good if the parents were related to business themselves. In this case, they can tell their children what their father and mother do at work or even show them their workplaces. If you can’t afford it, you can encourage the younger generation to read the right books, whether printed or electronic ones, master business skills at online training courses, watch TV shows such as Billions (it is up to you to decide how you should explain complicated sexual scenes to them), and then apply the knowledge in the real life. Do not forget to introduce the concept of risks and their mitigation to children. It will be a real helping hand for them throughout their lives, even if they do not choose to become businessmen.
You’d better not hide the difficulties that children will have to face. In particular, it may take much more than one attempt to achieve the result, and they need persistence and diligence to hit the target. Be careful while choosing the right words, avoid negative statements about ways and methods of doing business, personnel and other unfavourable factors. You just let off steam, but your children will perceive it as objective reality and remember it forever, which may turn them off entrepreneurship.
If you have managed to implement just a part of these recommendations, congratulations: your family is raising a new Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs or Elon Musk.
