One evening, while walking the dog with my son Henry.
He was pressing me hard about earning money this summer.
He can build spreadsheets for me, he suggested.
He can do chores around the house.
He talks about working 8 hours a day, earning $10/hour.
But I’m thinking to myself, I don’t have many chores for him to do in the house.
Honestly, I don’t want him to learn to get paid passively for doing tasks.
That doesn’t teach him anything other than the value of his labor per hour.
So then I recalled… early that day, (which was last week) I attended "World on the Brink: How America can beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century", a book by Dmitri Alperovitch, who is also co-founder of CrowdStrike, one of the world's largest cybersecurity firm.
(A big thank you to Edge Capital and Tech Operators, Curtis Krause, CFA, and Patrick J D Taylor for inviting me.)
Dmitri lays out in the book the case for why China's Xi Jinping is aiming to conquer Taiwan and the consequences if he isn't deterred.
As I talk to my 11-year-old son about the discussion,
Henry immediately knew the geographic and strategic reasons why China wants Taiwan.
I was shocked and impressed.
He loved that he was more of an expert on the subject than I was.
So I suggested to him,
why don’t you write a short historical fiction story about something in history you think others will enjoy learning?
He loved the idea.
I somehow tapped into what motivates my 11-year-old son.
As I was writing this, I read the interview Tom Morgan did with Jim O'Shaughnessy "Adventure Capital: An Interview with Jim O'Shaughnessy." A win-win model for generational wealth.
In the interview, Jim talks about how important it is to be creative.
This is turning knowledge into action - what every great investor should do.
In the book, Dmitri, with his father, started a small business when he was in high school, and this turned out to be an important foundation for Dmitri later.
Now Henry is all excited about working on graphical novels ideas this summer.
And as his mom, I'm excited he is learning an important lesson - just take action - it doesn't matter if it is good or bad.
It was Leo Tolstoy who once wrote, “There is nothing more important than an example.” An example, he says, leads “us to do good deeds which would be impossible without this example.”
I discovered how important it is to talk to our kids, learn about real-world events, and see what they find interesting. This is what helps our kids discover their creativity and therefore develop a sense of uniqueness, just as Dmitri did when working with his Dad in high school.
Check out the book; it's fascinating!
Thank you for reading!
Tiffany Kent
Your Friendly Wealth Engagement Guide,
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