This Is How My Parents Taught Me Entrepreneurship When I Was A Kid
By: Sylvia Silvers, Aka Sylvia Astuti Gunawan
Tags: Confidence, Parenting, Entrepreneurship, Experience, Childhood Memories

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

~Benjamin Franklin~

“Papa! It’s 5 pm! It’s Justice Pao’s time!”

Justice Pao was our Taiwanese favorite TV Series. After the movie, we usually talked about the problem, and how justice Pao solved it.

Sometimes my father asked me to talk about the story using my point of view.

I didn’t understand that time that my father was teaching me the art of problem-solving and storytelling.

There is always a way to solve a problem if we are willing to open our minds.

When I was in my first grade of junior high school, one insurance agency came to our house and offered the investment program to my father. He then told my father that he will use his commission to buy his dream car.

I heard about it and asked him to teach me how to sell the insurance.

Because I was too young, he told me how to become a freelance insurance agent and shared his commission with me when I get someone to join the program.

My father encouraged me with my idea of selling insurance. He warned me it won’t be easy. “People will reject you but you will learn a lot from the rejections; You have nothing to lose but You will gain a lot of knowledge.”

My first, second, and third rejections came from our family members. My first sales came from a stranger aunty in the Bank’s waiting room!

From that first sales, I gained my confidence and kept learning how to close the deal. I did pretty well, I remember the first year, I got 36 million rupiah equals USD$14,400 (by that time USD $1 was around 2,500rupiah.)

From that experience, I joined several multi-level marketing systems that gave me free trips to Malaysia, Australia, and China.

Doing business when you do it for fun is totally different from when you do it for living.

There was no real deal if someone rejected your offer because I always had my parents to back me up. The result that I got was all for learning; the money or the trips was just a bonus.

“I think that the best thing we can do for our children is to allow them to do things for themselves, allow them to be strong, allow them to experience life on their own terms, allow them to take the subway… let them be better people, let them believe more in themselves.”

~C. JoyBell C.~

Whenever I asked my father and my mother about the camping program, or a retreat trip, they said “yes, of course.” I packed my own stuff. They prepared things I asked for, and that was it. If I forgot something, it was my responsibility.

They didn’t come to visit me in the camp like other parents if they were not told by the school to do so. Sometimes I thought that they didn’t love me as much as my friend’s parents loved their kids.

When I told them the story that I slept on top of a stone in the camp, ate my burned food that I cooked myself at the camp, they were laughing.

I could peel the fruits with a knife since I was 9 years old. I ate what was on the table. If I didn’t want to eat, they never forced me to; but they let me know the consequences when I got hungry after mealtime - there will be no food left on the table!

I grew up as an independent person.

One thing for sure, I thank my parents for loving me that way. They taught me how to survive, they taught me about responsibility and to never give up.

Now it’s my turn to pass the knowledge to my kids. Sometimes it may look unfair and they question whether we love them or not. Why their friend could have this or that, do this or that while they have to do something else.

I wish one day they’ll share their story and they’ll thank me for the hard times that I gave them.