Monthly Archives: July 2012

5 Empowering Young Entrepreneurs to Face Their Fear

Empowering young entrepreneurs means to provide them with the tools they need to be successful.  It is essential that we teach them how to jump the hurdles that stand in the way of their moving forward toward something they want.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post there are three basic hurdles that many people have in common.  The first of those hurdles is Lack of Belief: “I don’t believe I can do this.”  There are many fear-based limiting beliefs that get in our way.  They include fear of failing, of succeeding, of not being good enough or worthy enough, fear of what others will think of us and so on.

There are two keys to facing these fears.  The first is to develop a positive attitude by making the decision to be in a positive mindset, believing that you will succeed.  It’s a choice for your teens and all they have to do is make it.  Attitude is one of the only things we actually have control over in our lives, we get to choose what kind of attitude we’re going to move through life with.  One quote I like a lot and have as my tag line is, “Attitude is the difference between ordeal and adventure.”  Another quote I like a lot is “A bad attitude is like a flat tire, you can’t go anywhere until you change it.”

The second key is to have a game plan.  Having a plan helps us stay on track and interested.  A plan is like a road map that helps us find our way from point A to each point along the way.

There are three steps to take to jumping this first hurdle.  They are:

1. Focus on your desires.  Focus on what you want and get into the feeling of what it would be like to have that desire fulfilled.  Seeing your desire and feeling what it would be like are essential to believing you can make it happen.  Help your teens create a vision board depicting the things they desire so they can focus on the pictures and use their imaginations to feel what it would be like to have what they desire, whether it’s a lavish lifestyle with a sports car and lots of bling and a mansion, good grades or good health.
2. Focus on who you are being.  Concentrate on raising the energy level.  High energy equals higher and more positive thoughts which equal no fear.  Gotta love those endorphins.  Don’t worry, be happy and you won’t be afraid.
3. Take action.  If your teen is a person that requires structure, then have her create a routine that gets her up and moving everyday so she can get that endorphin rush and be happy rather than be fearful.  Stick to her routine as much as possible so that she isn’t leaving room for doubt and fear to creep in.  And encourage her to get stuff done so she can see progress and feel happy about her accomplishments along the way.

Tomorrow we’ll take steps to jump the second hurdle, “I don’t have the time or the money.”  See you then.

By the way, have you ENTERED TO WIN the Calm Parenting Program?  Take a look at that opportunity on http://www.julianeiman.com/the-contest page.  Just enter your name and email for a chance to be the winner.  The drawing will close on July 15 at midnight and the winner will be notified by email on the 16^th.

12 Empowering Youth Entrepreneurs – three hurdles to jump

In my work with teens in foster care, I learned that the one thing they all had in common was that they wanted a good life, something many of them had never experienced.  The other thing they shared was the same three common hurdles a lot of people have:

1.  I don’t believe in myself
2.  I don’t have any money or time
3.  I don’t know how.

It broke my heart to see how they struggled to try to find jobs and to try to hold on to it once they had one and how difficult it was to see what little self-esteem they established dissolve when they weren’t able to maintain the job.  This wasn’t okay with me.  I knew they could have success if they had an opportunity and support.  I believed in them and provided that opportunity.

I offered to help them start a summer business so they could learn what it was like to have your own business.  I was met with comments like we don’t believe we can do it, don’t have money and don’t know how.

We talked about what things they loved to do, what some of their favorite summer things were.  One young woman said she liked to eat at vendor booths at festivals and fairs and the others jumped on that.  We contacted Island Smoothies to see how much it would cost to buy the ingredients to make smoothies at the fair.  The price was good and the sales representative said they would provide the professional smoothie maker as long as we paid for the product.

A local festival told us they were expecting 5000 people to come that summer so we paid for a booth, purchased the product and learned how to make smoothies.  There were so many valuable lessons from that experience.  In reality, only about 300 people came to the event.  In spite of the low numbers we sold more than 225 smoothies which percentage wise, was an enormous success.  The kids worked hard bringing customers to our table and our product was top quality.  Even though each team member only made a small share to take home, they did make profit, they learned that percentage of sales was more significant than the dollar amount and that they had to be cost effective in order to make a profit.  All in all, it was a great experience.

They learned that you can learn to believe in yourself if you give yourself a chance to prove you can whatever you set out to; they learned that you can reach out for help to finance your efforts, and they experienced that you can learn how with some research and a good support system.

These kids then went out into the community with more self-esteem, a great credit for their resume and a better attitude.  They not only found jobs, but hope for the future by learning to jump these hurdles.

In the next few posts this month, I’ll be writing more about how to help teens jump these hurdles.