Peruse the business section of any bookshop and you’ll notice the sheer number of books dealing with the same theme: keys to success. From New York to London to Tokyo and seemingly everywhere in between, there are business experts publishing their views on what makes a successful manager, CEO or entrepreneur. None of us has the time to read every one of these books, but fortunately there is a recurring theme to be found in each one – the role of discipline in the lives of successful business owners.
To those strict disciplinarians who may be reading this and rubbing their hands in delight, there is good news and bad. While discipline is a key to success in business, most successful entrepreneurs are not only disciplined people but free thinkers too.
The question many parents of entrepreneurial teens will ask is – how do I instil discipline in my son or daughter in a constructive way? If there were a clear answer to this question, parents around the world would be celebrating as we speak! However, there are ways of keeping an entrepreneurial teen focussed and responsible while allowing him or her space to dream those big dreams that are typical of a teenager!
The best form of discipline, so the saying goes, is self-discipline. With an entrepreneurial teen that is probably quite free-spirited, this approach may be worth exploring. After all, the key to running a successful business is discipline – meeting commitments, providing high quality service to customers and the like. Making it very clear to your son or daughter that the final responsibility for his or her business does not rest with you is an important step.
Once your budding entrepreneur takes responsibility for running their own affairs, you can keep an eye on things without feeling burdened by an additional responsibility. Of course, your input will always be welcome and you may find your teen more receptive to mom or dad’s advice once he or she has shouldered some responsibilities for a while!
