5 Things Ethical Entrepreneurship has to offer Educators

If a young person starts a business, they can monitor the growth and see that there is return from their initiative.

Many of you know that I recently moved away from technology leadership in public education to start a video business called Rosa Media Productions. It was about seven years ago that the idea of free enterprise and entrepreneurship was introduced to me in a new and inviting way.

So this post is from an educator turned entrepreneur.

I believe that ethical entrepreneurship has something to offer the education world. Below I’m going to talk about 5 ways that ethical entrepreneurship can be a positive framework for educating children.

1. Ethical entrepreneurship encourages creativity

A lot of innovation in this great country of ours has happened because of the opportunity to benefit from bringing a useful product or service to the marketplace. To setup a situation where children can profit from their hard work and creativity will encourage… more hard work and creativity.

2. Ethical entrepreneurship teaches fiscal responsibility

One of the most common ways businesses fail is by getting leveraged into a debt situation. People borrow money and don’t necessarily have the business growth to support the loan payments. Those payments become a weight pulling down the ability for a small company to move on opportunities. Boot strapping your business is a better way. You start small and cash flow all your growth. Young people can learn a lot about what it means to stay on a budget and run a business if they have the opportunity to try an entrepreneurial venture.

3. Ethical entrepreneurship gives lots of opportunity for taking initiative

In running my own business it has become very clear that the buck stops with me. If I don’t pick up the ball and run, the ball doesn’t move. When I was a small part of a much larger organization, I did not have that understanding. If a young person starts a business, they can monitor the growth and see that there is return from their initiative. They can learn to recognize what works, what works better, and what doesn’t work at all. They have opportunities to make real decisions that affect their business and experience the consequences of their actions good or bad.

4. Ethical entrepreneurship requires attention to right and wrong

Business often gets a bad rap. It is as if there is something inherently wrong with making a profit. In recent years we have seen and experienced businesses with no soul. No accountability. I have to pin that on the people involved in those businesses. It is people who initiated or went along with deception. Commerce itself is not to blame. It is the business man or woman who made the decisions to cheat that are at fault. As a man of faith, doing business in an ethical manner is not optional. We are all faced with opportunities to cheat on a daily basis and have to consistently choose to do the honest, upright thing. In the long run, this is what is best for our business and for those who do business with us. We tell our children that integrity, reputation, and trust are the kinds of things that take time to build and don’t recover quickly when lost.

5. Ethical entrepreneurship encourages a serving attitude

Ethical entrepreneurship encourages people to think “What is a need that I can meet?” This is an inherently selfless position. In other words, if we start with someone else’s need, that helps us to think beyond ourselves.
Ethical entrepreneurship ties into real human motivations. An entrepreneur tries to help other people by giving them what they want or need, so that they can then enjoy the rewards that come from helping other people. If entrepreneurs help enough people in a valued way, they reap the rewards in the form of little, green certificates of appreciation that have pictures of America’s founding fathers on them. Rabbi Daniel Lapin says that giving money is a powerful way to demonstrate appreciation to someone for what they bring to the table. Bringing value to another person is an ethical way to get money from them. The other way people get money from others is by forcing them. Examples of this would be taxes and armed robbery. Entrepreneurs don’t demand money. They offer a service or product in return for that money.

This is an exciting time to be educating children in America. There are many models to choose from. There are so many more options now than when I was a kid. Public education, private schools, home schools, online learning, and many hybridized versions of these are available to help parents educate their children. Lets keep in mind that the ultimate goal is getting them off to a strong start for becoming adults who build their own successful lives, families, and businesses. Entrepreneurship can be a great way to grow muscles of creativity, responsibility, initiative, integrity, and service in our children.

Does any of this resonate with you? Have you had any experiences with entrepreneurship and learning? Please share your experiences in a comment.