Why Teaching Children about Purpose is More Important than Money

Now before we get into the topic, here’s a today’s trivia quesntion: “What is Snapchat’s purpose or mission?” Stay with me til the very end of the article to get the answer!

Earlier on in the week we were interviewing for a COO or chief operating officer for our social enterprise, Ultra Education. One of the candidates told us that there was a time he had a 6 figure salary, flash car and apartment with all the trimmings. However, he quickly realised that making the rich richer in the job he did lacked the purpose he needed to wake up every morning and be fulfilled.

So, he started supporting young people with circumstances of extreme disadvantage or poverty and swapped his material possessions for a more humble lifestyle but rich in meaning and purpose.

I explained to him that I had come to the realisation a few months back that the reason why many adults adopt the idea of purpose, often later in life is because they’re still figuring out the money part. For some people to earn an amount of money which means they no longer have to worry about bills and day to day financial issues can take decades. And for those who make good money earlier on in their life, many of them get stuck in the hamster wheel of earning more and spending more trying to keep up with the Joneses and thinking that a bigger house, car, better holidays will help them to become content.

And for those who do find contentment in these things, they quickly realise its fleeting and not at all meaningful and can take years before they get bored of that type of existence. They usually throw themselves into a hobby or activity outside of work to find purpose and make life bearable while they bounce back between that and a meaningless job. Now there’s nothing wrong with material gain but I think we all agree it doesn’t give you purpose or meaning.

I had also explained that teaching kids about entrepreneurship at a young age was also driven by an ambition I have to reduce the failure rate in entrepreneurship. Simply put I believe that one of the reasons 9 out of 10 entrepreneurs fail is because the subject is introduced too late on in life. And if we start them young then maybe the next generation of entrepreneurs would have a higher success rate.

You see for most young people between 16 and 30 they’re trying to find their economic feet usually without much help, or maybe through the experience of parents, family members or mentors which they may or may not onboard or be relevant to them. And in that time they’re under the pressures of bills and lifestyle, young families perhaps and the idea of finding purpose just isn’t on their radar. And unfortunately for those young people whose purpose is a priority, many simply can’t find a commercial wrapper for that purpose to enable them to live that day in day out.

But imagine a world, as I do, where people are empowered to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset and skills at an earlier age. By the time they are in the twenties or even teens the problem of making money is solved. That they’ve found a way before the burden of bills and life to create an income or have the skills to get the job they love.

What this means is that there is now space for purpose to play a meaningful part in their lives — if they want to and are ready to. Further to that i believe that kids express purpose naturally and it isn’t and doesn’t have to be an inauthentic bolt on.

As an example we currently have on our weekend bootcamp and 11 year old girl who has allergies to almost everything. But, she’s in the process of setting up a food business for people like her, with multiple allergies that can still enjoy fun things like desserts without having a reaction to them and so on.

For anyone suffering from allergies you know how big a problem this is and for this little girl her idea nails both purpose and profit at the same time. This isn’t uncommon in fact it’s the norm with kidpreneurs because we ask them to solve a problem which they can relate to.

Finding a solution, one they can make money from is a great prospect but even greater because they know that if the solution has meaning to them it has meaning to others which gives them purpose — and that purpose we find really drives them to see that idea through to the end.

The greatest thing we can do as humans is to help others, but having to choose between passion and profit has been the struggle of old and I believe the next generation won’t have to wrestle with that.

Now just like our 11 year old food entrepreneur, purpose doesn’t have to be about social impact as we know it. Purpose could be being really passionate about any problem that causes some time of friction in daily life. When placed in creative or competitive maker type environments, kids are always coming up with gadgets and gizmos to make people’s lives easier, more fun, more productive or entertaining — and there’s a purpose in that.

I’m saying this to say that you’ll find purpose isn’t a business model or idea we have to force onto the next generation, they do it naturally, it’s society in its current form which either drives out the availability of purpose or lacks the commercial vehicle to sustain it.

And for those who are sucked into the old profit first model we know that this over commercialisation and focus has caused physical and mental health problems, over work and burnout it strains relationships with friends and family and can even cause loss of identity and self.

I believe and I think you probably do too that as parents and educators we should encourage our children and students to build the characteristics they already have (purpose in many cases being one of them) and give them the tools to sustain and develop that so later on in life they can live a happier more purpose filled life.

Now, as promised the answer to the trivia question which was “What is Snapchat’s purpose or mission?” If you look up their mission statement which articulates their purpose it says “Snap Inc. is a camera company. We believe that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate.

We contribute to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world and have fun together.”

Who would believe that snapchat had such a deep and meaningful purpose? Nope, me neither! But it goes to show that the product or service that kidpreneurs come up with can be almost anything, but those ideas will have a greater chance of success if they’re fueled by P-U-R-P-O-S-E.

Now, thank you for reading until the end of today’s article and if you’ve enjoyed this piece please share it with a parent or teacher who wants to support the next generation of entrepreneurs. See you next time — ultra and out!

This article was brought to you by Ask Ultra, the Entrepreneurship tuition app for kids. Available on both app stores, try it here!