6. Find a Mentor
Howard Pennington was my first mentor, and I remain indebted to the role he played in my life. I cannot stress enough the importance of connecting with professional, black role models. I know a lot of young people who are too shy or too proud to seek out a mentor, which is foolish. Mentors are typically honored to assist, and they can open doors–including job opportunities and internships, which are also great places to find other mentors.
7. Teach Money Management
Often, kids don’t understand the value of money. They go to the grocery store and say, “I want that,†but have no concept of how much things cost. I love the idea of letting kids earn money through chores. Give them choices; they can either have the money to spend, or they can invest it, and for each week they don’t spend the money, their sum total grows. Compound interest is a beautiful thing, and you don’t need to be an adult to understand that, if you don’t spend your money, it will multiply. Kids need to learn these lessons early, and one of the best ways to do that is by opening a savings account in their name and letting them experience firsthand how to save money.
8. Learn to Code
I learned to code at 13. The program I created wasn’t fancy–a simple calculator that translated Fahrenheit into Celsius–but it taught me fundamentals that I continue to use today for problem solving and, on a broader scale, building my business. For today’s kids, learning basic programming is as important as learning typing or cursive was to past generations, and it’s critical that coding is taught as part of the core curriculum. Also, there is nothing stopping you from having your kids learn simple CSS or Javascript. Heck, there are courses for adults as well.
9. Seek Out Diverse, Successful Peers
It’s common sense that kids who associate with smart and successful peers tend to be smart and successful themselves. Yet, kids who hang out with the wrong crowd often end up failing at school and life. We African Americans have an additional challenge; not only do we need to find intelligent and inspiring friends, we also need to find ones who don’t all look like us. Finding diversity can certainly be a challenge when so many of our neighborhoods remain segregated. Still, it’s worth the effort to find a diverse peer group for your kids, and many of the extracurricular activities can provide this.
10. Read!
One is never too young to read books on wealth management and on skills needed to launch and maintain a successful business. Some of my favorites–none of which are difficult reads and I read before graduating high school–include:Â Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, Good to Great by Jim Collins, The Complete Guide of Executive Manners by Leticia Baldridge, and The Art of War by Sun Tzu.
Let’s leave behind the notion that a young black man or woman can only achieve success on a field or a court. Let’s instead focus on STEM, embracing technology, and reading about leadership or wealth management.
Here’s to hoping there’s a 15-year-old African American out there who’s the Mark Zuckerberg of tomorrow.
This post was written by Dave Scott, a serial entrepreneur, founder, and CEO of Laugh.ly, author of the New Rules of Lead Generation, and the host of the nationally syndicated radio show Marketing Superstars Show.Â