Creativity, personal branding, and learning from failure

Widely-available, high-quality public schooling is one of the many hallmarks of a successful country. Without public schools, literacy rates would plummet, countries’ gross domestic product would drop, and life would generally be harder for everyone. When each generation is adequately educated, it leads to success for everyone.

One of the subjects that isn’t often taught in public schools is entrepreneurship. Considering that the United States is home to the world’s most active economy and roughly 99.7 percent of all businesses are small businesses, not being taught about entrepreneurship cuts potential students short and makes it more difficult for them to find possible careers they can pursue in the future.

It’s safe to say that entrepreneurship should be taught in schools from a young age. If you need more convincing, here are a handful of lessons about entrepreneurship all school kids should learn that can be applicable later in life.

1. Being creative

Creativity doesn’t just apply to entrepreneurship; it applies to just about everything in life. Creativity is especially important to thriving in an entrepreneurial capacity. A survey of over 100 failed startups conducted by CB Insights found that the most common reason why they failed was that owners simply didn’t provide customers with products they actually wanted to use. If you want to succeed as an entrepreneur, you need to embrace creativity and create something the consumer actually wants.

Telling someone that businesses should create goods and services customers want to buy sounds overly simple, but it’s really not. To work in business, you need to cultivate your creativity.

Also read: Innovation will win, not a trade war

2. Making a brand

Young people struggle to find themselves and accept who they truly are. Schools should help students locate their own “brand”. Focusing on the type of professional persona you want to present to the rest of the world can be helpful to students of any age, especially those beginning to look for colleges and jobs. Understanding how to create a personal brand and market that brand is a skill that can be applied to any business venture.

3. Accepting failure and moving on

Allowing children the chance to fail at a task or project, but avoiding being too harsh on them, shows them that failure sometimes happens and it’s okay. However, it’s also important to help them work toward a new goal and focus on success. Just like in business, it’s important for kids to understand that failure is okay and shouldn’t discourage you from trying again.

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This article was first published on e27, on August 29, 2018.

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Photo by Raj Eiamworakul on Unsplash

The post Children deserve to be taught these 3 essential entrepreneurial skills appeared first on e27.