Indonesia
Creating An Entrepreneurial Kids
Firda, the second grade student from Bina Insani Elementary School Bogor, is a smart and creative girl. Her friends like her because she is friendly and sociable. Punch line is, she is good at selling, and she won’t hesitate to if situation calls. Sometimes, she sells cakes in animal shape that she buys from the store next door. It sells well. There is this one time, knowing her friends begin to develop the need of pulse for cell phone, Firda starts to offer electric pulse, coordinating with her brother. As the result, many friends and even their parents order from her. Another time when fashion online is on the rise, Firda keeps up. She opens an online shop via BBM. She has many customers purchasing from her. And now, Firda’s recent activity is participating in Bogor street dance shuffle, and Firda becomes the “barker”. Firda will make sure everyone knows whenever the team has an event by promoting it in social media to gather audience.
Amazing, isn’t it? Kids like Firda are known as kids with entrepreneurial skills. Such kids usually have high sense of curiosity, fearless and up for challenges. They are also quite popular within the community because of the communicative behavior and their self confidence. Is it a talent? Not quite, because such skill like the one Frida has can be learned. Plus there’s no such “too young” to learn it.
According to Meg Seitz, the author of Bea for Busines, improving the entrepreneur in kids since early is not always to make them future businessmen. Better yet, the skills can be applied and will come in handy no matter what the kids will become, be it in education, science, technology, art and any other field of work. Educating in entrepreneur way involving raising the ability to contribute, recognizing opportunity, making decision, and also how to be theirselves, while getting into others thought, understanding what is in their mind and able to see and take advantage of what they have.
How to plant, explore and bring out the entrepreneur from within the kids? Here are five ways you can apply through games.
1. Creativity. Support the creativity, invite them to create and get them involved in the process, start from the brainstorm product, developing all the way to the presentation. It can be anything they like such as handicraft, short story or script for drama, songs or even clips or short documenter. Give space for them to create within the boundary of their age and capability.
2. Create a game. Let the kids set up the game and the rules and play it. This way will develop the leadership, cooperation, coordination and reaching agreement.
3. Play outdoor. Kids play in the house more than outside nowadays. Hence playing outdoor, especially in fresh air will stimulate kids’ brain so that they will come up with new ideas. Playing outdoor once a while also put the kids in situation when they will get use to see the reality and look for solution.
4. Playing with Barrier Beams. Ask the kids to play with barrier from beams for certain challenges. For example to jump to the other side, create the level of barrier that involves the balancing skill, jumping or any other physical challenges. There are two advantages for this game: taking advantage of pre existing resource rather than purchasing new gear or equipment, with obstacle that match them. Other advantages would gain spontaneously as evaluation and feedback: why this one works and that one does not? Is it dangerous, what will it takes to make it easier? What makes it easy to remember or how to enhance the fun?
5. Presentation. Invite the kids to talk about the games they created. Or better yet, ask to have a presentation before their parents. Take a record so they can also watch it afterward. Taking record is an attitude that is also conducted by professionals and a very positive way to reveal any weakness, from costume to how to present and what to prepare beforehand to win a new pitch or project. Did you know that the key to win the battle in entrepreneurship is the power of presentation? So, there’s no harm in making it a habit from the get go.
MAHARANI INDRI
