Success Or Failure, Where Will Your Children End Up?

By: Sandi Krakowski

When I was growing up in the 60's and 70's the plan for success was always the same. Go to college, get a good job and you'll be set for life. Ironically, I lasted in college for 4 weeks and quit….. I wanted to make money, not sit in a room with a bunch of adults who looked bored sick and didn't care. Of course there are many adults who did go to college who ended up with a great job in my class, but it became very clear to me that this was not the path I wanted to take.

As I went into serious bodybuilding as a career when I was 20, managing a gym and a health food store was my path to wealth. Eventually I was charging an hourly rate for coaching and workout planning. People came to me to find the supplements that would help their workout, what would hinder them, how to gain weight and how to lose weight. Eventually a third job was added in the evenings, where I became a high paid, smiling waitress. Being fit, making a lot of money and getting ahead was my constant goal.

In the 90's I met my husband and when we got married, the decision was made to stay home with my children. I'm still home with them! 🙂 A few years later my first online business was started and the rest is history. Well kind of. Big success, millions of dollars, massive hours, full on massive action, eventually a serious life threatening condition and a promise to never EVER go into business again.

During this time through the high's lows and everything in between I was homeschooling my kids as well. (We're entering our 21st year this September!) Because nothing 'traditional' ever put me on a path to extraordinary, my approach to their education was also far from traditional. Saturation of topics, training them in life skills, how to have a living, breathing relationship with God, find their passion and chase it, this was the "core" of all that I taught. My intense desire was to prepare them and mentor them for business.

Before you send me hate mail like some of the other people who have seen my approach to mentoring children, raging about their college debt, unemployment and how the system owes them, please know that I don't believe homeschooling is for everyone, I also don't believe college or even entrepreneurship is for everyone. The key to success is KNOW thyself and live true to you.

Far too many children (and adults) have no idea who they are, what they are gifted in and how to find a profitable business market they can tap into. Many, if not most, are surviving on a daily basis, hoping for something like 'The Wizard Of Oz' to drop on top of them and open up a whole new life in technicolor. My friends, that is not how success is found.

Many parents have been asking me to help their children and young adults find a path in business. Several of the new graduates in my local area have asked me for some input on what colleges classes to choose, what to omit and how to get a great education without much debt. It's become very apparent to me that making A Real Change in the future and lives of young people should now be a part of our business plan.

This past weekend I flew into Tampa, FL to a very special VIP appointment that many of you read about on Saturday morning. The beautiful girl you see above is 16 year old Bethany Looi. Please follow her on Twitter and watch her grow and prosper before your very eyes. http://www.twitter.com/bethanylooi  Bethany has been homeschooled for the last three years of her life and is a very confident young woman who knows she doesn't want to waste time on the road to success. She's also a hard worker, driven, focused and very serious. One qualification we've put into place for our VIP Student Sessions is if the student has no desire to pursue an entrepreneurial path, even if the parents are 'certain' they should, we won't do an appointment. My goal is to work with those who KNOW what they want to do and are READY to do it…… and we hold to that policy with our youth as well.

Bethany's VIP appointment started out with me reviewing what she is currently doing in school, work and for fun. She currently serves clients as a Virtual Assistant helping with blogging, WordPress, email, Aweber and other CRM database programs. She's a great writer, communicator and implements things she's taught INSTANTLY. (If you know me, that makes me VERY happy!) One time during our session I asked her if I could trade in some adults who were still trying "find their way and get past their crap" for 5 more students like her! 

Our day was an enormous success and as you may have read on my update that was sent out on Saturday, Bethany is already expanding her business. Her newly updated website will be live by Tuesday morning. Good news is, due to her hard work, business ethic and because she IS an implementer, at the end of our VIP meeting she was already receiving inquiries for her services. She is ready to go with email templates to send out to new prospective clients, her pricing structure, how to manage more than 10 clients and how to get help from another brilliant girl when she needs an assistant to serve her! By the morning, as we drove to the airport, Bethany had 14 inquires for her services. From the looks of it, she'll be earning roughly $ 938.00 per month with regular VA work, not including editing and side tasks. That's an $ 11,000 per year income starting out.

With one year left in high school her parents have decided to allow her to work 15 hours per week while finishing up her final 3 credits for school. As we assessed her results, this startling example came to my mind with another young adult I know who made a choice to go the traditional path-

Student #1– 23 years old after several years of college, is $ 58,000 in debt and was hired at a job making $12,500 per year.

Student #2– Bethany, is 16 years old, has no debt and started her career out making $ 11,000.

All I can say is, if you are going to send your children to college you had BETTER check all options open for them.

Certainly not all jobs or careers can be performed without a degree. You'd be hard pressed to become a nurse or an accountant without some form of degree. My urgent message to all parents however is this: WHAT are you doing to set your children up for success?  I have no problems with college, degrees and positioning ourselves for the best future we can have, but LYING to our kids, telling them a degree will help them get a better job and then forcing them to go to college so we feel like "we did our job" while they end up incurring massive amounts of debt is child abuse.

If you are going to encourage your children to go to college, prepare a plan that can help them stay out of debt, be CERTAIN they want to go to college ( NO manipulating. coercing or bribing!) and set them up for success while they are children. Don't shelter them from reality– paying bills, buying food, doing their laundry, getting along with people they don't like are mandatory life skills. If you don't equip your children with these skills before they leave home you have literally set them up for failure. 

When your children are young, give them chores. Teach them to have an excellent work ethic, for example… if you work hard, you can earn more; if you are lazy and whine, you don't deserve to earn anything. Inspire them and challenge them to get masterful at the things they love and are good at. WARN them about the misinformation of a 'well rounded education' and teach them to strengthen their weaknesses, but don't lead them to believe that what they are naturally weak in could be a pursuit for a career path.

Teach them the truth, Mommy and Daddy.

Quit trying to pretend like life is easy, everything is fine and you can go get a general degree in college and score high. NO you cannot. A general degree is ridiculous… it's worth nothing in today's marketplace!  Specialization can even be worthless if it's a specialty that the marketplace is not demanding!  We want to train our kids to SERVE the marketplace through their work…. to be excellent at what they do, get people skills that help them to go far and we need to train them to do what the marketplace is asking for, not just what they think is a 'great idea'. 

This article will be an eye opener for some and a kick in the booty for others. 

No matter where you are, please start with yourself. Don't expect your kids to go farther than you did if you are not willing to work hard. Don't push your children to go down a path they don't WANT to go down. Train them to be responsible, to provide for themselves and please, ask for their forgiveness if you've made mistakes. We all make mistakes as parents, and the power of forgiveness heals so much. 

Parents, let's set our kids up for success. I love you and believe in you …. and I'm here to help in anyway that I can!  Please comment below what your next step will be. 

UPDATE:  Check this out!!!  Most teens don't have 'issues' with perfection, is this gonna work, can I do this? They just DO it. I have to brag!!! LOOK AT BETHANY GO!! In just 48 hours she got her site done, her Opt In Offer DONE & all her pages done ready for business! She's already taking payments!!! She's 16?! http://ontaskva.com/

Schedule a Private VIP with Sandi today!