Ten (10) Things that every CHILD should be TAUGHT before AGE 16

By: Kmar Henry

CEO │ BIZcare Consultation & Accounting Firm

Edited by: Anthonio James

Let’s take a trip back to the younger part of our lives, when we were far more receptacle and soaked up all things from the environment that we were in. Let’s take a mental picture and envision all those things that got us enthused, excited and bursting with flames. Let’s look at the aspects of creativity, morals, values and consistency for a while, and try to intertwine them with our present character, with the goal of envisioning where or how all of these attributes that we seem to adopt so consciously came from.

Now…..without stumbling or being too emotional, envision all of those things that you had to learn within the late teens or early twenties of your life that seemed so new and I mean brand NEW, to the point where you questioned, blamed or fought inwardly with your upbringing or our beloved school systems. Now let me state clearly that I am in no way, shape or form trying a belittle or take a stance against our educational system or the way how most parents see it logical to grow their children. But trying to open your minds toward some of the more intricate things that can be implemented to push the mental frame of our children further.

Our journeys throughout life has taught us many things; some of which if we take the time to analyse them tediously, I am sure that we will question the ‘what ifs’ or ‘what if I had known this earlier, how far or how more successful would I be?’ Hence, let’s highlight some of these things that if we had known them earlier would have made a great impact in our lives.

1. Teach your Child the true value of FAILURE: Yes, I had to start with this one as I myself have fallen victim to the shortcomings of this. We have to ensure that our children do not become victims of having low esteem because they value themselves right at the very foot of these mistakes that they are inevitable to make on their journeys. We have to ensure that we teach them to see the value behind these mistakes in order to ensure that they take every sort of lessens from them.

2. The impact of having DRIVE & PASSION: Hmmm…if we should all look at our careers and jobs, we should or will certainly understand the magnitude behind these aspects. Have we ever once looked back on how bursting with fire we were as kids whilst we were in our imaginary worlds? So….where did it all go? Is it that we are so busy ‘adulting’ that we have placed these things under the busy schedule of our lives? Let’s ensure that we implement all factors necessary to ensure that our kids remain within their creative nature to find their true passion and calling. This also exposes us to the reasons why extra-curricular activities are so important, as attributes garnered within their early years mainly between 12 - 14 are extremely important.

3. Things DON’T come as EASY it may seem: This is another important factor that has even more substance and essentiality based on the epidemic rise of the influence and significance of social media. We have to ensure that our children know and understand that all this glamour and glory that they are seeing daily on these influential platforms come with a price, and that price comes with consistency and hard work. 

4. True Self-VALUE is built from WITHIN: A lot of us may not be able to wrap our minds around this one mainly because of our enthused attitude to work harder on our physical appearance rather than our inner character. Yes, most of us have fell short within this nature because we have unconsciously accepted and absorbed this from a young age because of what society has taught us. We have to ensure that our kids understand how important it is to continuously work on themselves from an inner level. We have to let them know from early that self-growth is something that’s never ending and our true aim is to continue to grow for the rest of our lives.

5. There’s no Value behind doing what’s POPULAR: A lot of us should be able to relate to this, as I myself can still remember how enthused I was to be in that latest shoes, bag or clothes. But do these things really matter? Should our child see it okay to wrap their self-confidence around the trends that come and go each year among-st their friends, school or society at large? Yes, we might tell them that there’s no money to buy these things, but how many of us ever really sat down with them and explain thoroughly that these things don’t do much towards building their character? This I believe is another important aspect as we cannot continue to let it seem okay for our kids to put so much effort within these materialistic things onto the point where they even become envious and jealous of what their friends may have.

6. Formal Education vs Self Education: Daily we see or hear of people who were high school or college dropouts that are now highly successful to the point where they have been able to build multinational and fortune businesses to employ high school and college graduates that they left behind. So this raises eyebrows for us to think deeply about the broad aspects of the effectiveness and efficiency of our school systems to build well rounded people of society that can make the change that we really and truly need. I am in no way eluding anyone from the fact that schools are unnecessary, however the value that can be gained from when one is so driven to grasped and learn all that’s necessary to reach his or her goal on their own is just far greater. This is where we sit down with our children from and early age to ensure that we place and implement as much as possible to make them understand that nothing is greater than when one is dedicated towards learning every and anything possible to succeed in life on his or her own whether they have the privilege of going to school or NOT.

7. Teach them the Value behind SAVING and INVESTING: How many of us can relate to this? Have you ever thought about how much you would have in the bank now to invest if you were ultimately dedicated towards putting away 1/3 or a ¼ of your money from you were a kid growing up? Or even that golden 50/20/30 rule? Although, we can attest to the fact that some of this was done to some retrospect, as I can still remember the funds that I had save in that VMBS smarter account in my early days. However, not much was done in terms of explaining the value behind investing. We have to get to that point when we find fun in explaining to our kids the fortunes that can be gained from investing in stocks, bonds, insurance and even mutual funds from a young age. Furthermore, doing these things from early will not only place you or your kids ahead, but also your whole generation and family.

8. Enlighten them on Loans and Mortgages: Oh yes. Hmmm….and the funny thing is that not

many of us even realise or understand the magnitude behind fully grasping the concept and idea behind these terms. How much do we even know about bank interest and why it is so important to pay off this amount first? How much of us can or could live easy with knowing that they took two million or so dollars from the bank to invest in a business idea that they had all their lives? Yes, we want that piece of land or house to start our lives, but do we have to take a mortgage from the bank that will let us be slaves to them for the rest of our lives?  Okay, let us admit the fact that we have fell trap to this system and we are now dedicated towards shattering this concept of financial slavery by enlightening our kids from early of these concepts. Empower them early, and if we can’t fully explain this to them, then at least send them to someone that can, or introduce them to read books that can teach them to. We can only get our family more financially stable from understanding these concepts or aspects from early.

9. Make them aware of TAXES: I can still remember the day when I got my first pay cheque and became enthralled by how these taxes worked. I sat soundly questioning myself and researching on the internet to find answers behind where these monies of mine went and what they were or are used for. And what made me more interested was the fact these common life tools weren’t being taught in high school. Like how can such things of high magnitude that helps to run our country not be taught in high school? I simply cannot come to grips. Hence, just imagine the high emotional and financial intelligence that our kids can garner from understanding these terms at an early age before they sit around a desk for the rest of their lives without much benefits of such.

10. Entrepreneurship is just as valuable as getting a Job: We would think that a lot more would be done to make this barrier of not implementing enough in school to encourage and tease our kids to see the increase essentiality of having more entrepreneurs within our society. But somehow the main interest of our kids are only career oriented. Hence, you’d be surprised by the shock on their faces if that one kid in their class looked at their teacher and told them that they ‘wanted to become an entrepreneur of some sort’. So what is it that cultivates our society at large to not see the light within having an infinite salary that is tightly related to the potential that one has inside to push his or herself towards fulfilling their fullest capabilities? Especially when we share this dimming light to our kids from a tender age to not seek and try to discover their greatest abilities and passion/s, but more so we dress them up only as doctors, lawyers, polices and firemen/women on career days. We have to find the urge to enlighten their minds from early of the real movers and shakers within our society, the ones that risk their capital daily to ensure that we stay lit at nights or have a steady flow or supply to buy foods or groceries. I strongly think that this should be an enacted goal for us all to ensure that we implement some type of game, class or even sport to ensure that our kids see the need to find fun in developing skills and the empowered mind-set that will push them to create some form of change within their society.

Ultimately it comes down to two crucial factors. The first is to empowering ourselves; before we can introduce these concepts to our children we must first understand them ourselves. Therefore, we must be willing to read widely on these concepts and more importantly, we must be able to do some amount introspection in order to relay to our children the mistakes we have made as well as what has worked for us.

Additionally, we MUST have open lines of communication with our children from an early stage, our children must be able to come to us freely in order to have these conversations. We cannot depend on the school system to teach them these concepts in the formal education system. If we are to truly create stronger minded and empowered children, stronger families and the strongest possible Jamaica we have start with this foundation.  

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BIZcare Consultation & Accounting Firm is a consulting agency that operates within the small parish of Clarendon in the beautiful land of Jamaica. We are geared towards educating the minds of upcoming entrepreneurs of the important aspects that must be considered before starting their businesses. Hence why we operate under the slogan 'Your Business is OUR Priority' and tagline 'Helping Small Businesses & Individuals to better Organise their Business Functions.'

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