Lets raise kids to be entrepreneurs Cameron Herold

I would be willing to bet that I’m the

dumbest guy in the room because I

couldn’t get through school I started a

little school but what I knew at a very

early age was that I loved money and I

loved business and I loved this

entrepreneurial thing and I was raised

to be an entrepreneur and what I’ve been

really passionate about ever since and

I’ve never spoken about this ever until

now so this is the first time anyone’s

ever heard it except my wife three days

ago because she said what are you

talking about

and I told her is that I think we miss

an opportunity to find these kids who

have the entrepreneurial traits and to

groom them or show them that being an

entrepreneur is actually a cool thing

it’s not something that is a bad thing

and is vilified which is what happens in

a lot of society kids when we grow up

have dreams and we have passions and we

have visions and somehow we get those

things crushed and we get told that we

need to study harder or be more focused

or get a tutor and my parents got me a

tutor in French and I still suck in

French two years ago I was the highest

rated lecturer at MIT s entrepreneurial

master’s program and it was a speaking

event in front of groups of

entrepreneurs from around the world when

I was in grade two I won a citywide

speaking competition but nobody had ever

said hey this kids a good speaker he

can’t focus but he loves walking around

and getting people energized no one it

said get him a coach and speaking they

said get me a tutor and what I suck out

so his kids show these traits and we

need to start looking for them I think

we should be raising kids to be

entrepreneurs

instead of lawyers and unfortunately the

school system is grooming this world to

say hey let’s be a lawyer let’s be a

doctor and we’re missing that

opportunity because no one ever says hey

be an entrepreneur entrepreneurs are

people because we a lot of them in this

room who have these ideas and these

passions or see these needs in the world

and we decide to stand up and do it and

we put everything on the line to make

that stuff happen and we have the

ability to get those groups of people

around us and want to kind of build that

dream with us and I think if we could

get kids to to embrace the idea at a

young age of being entrepreneurial we

could change everything in the world

that is a problem today every problem

that’s out there somebody has the idea

for and as a young kid nobody can say it

can’t happen because you’re too dumb to

realize that you

figure it out I think we have an

obligation as parents in a society to

start teaching our kids to fish instead

of giving them the fish no parable if

you give a man a fish you feed them for

a day if you teach a man a fish you feed

him for a lifetime if we can teach our

kids to become entrepreneurial the ones

that show those traits to be like we

teach the ones who have science gifts to

go on in science what if we saw the ones

with entrepreneurial traits and talked

them to be entrepreneurs we could

actually have all these kids sprouting

businesses instead of waiting for

government handouts what we do is we sit

and we teach our kids all the things

they shouldn’t do don’t hit don’t bite

don’t swear right now we teach our kids

to go after really good jobs you know

the school system teaches them to go

after things like being a doctor and

being a lawyer and being an accountant

and a dentist and a teacher and a pilot

and the media says that it’s really cool

if we could go out and be a model or a

singer

sports hero like Luongo crosby our mba

programs do not teach kids to be

entrepreneurs the reason that I avoided

an MBA program other than the fact that

I couldn’t get into any excited a 61%

average out of high school and then 61%

average at the only school in Canada

that accepted me Carlton but our MBA

programs don’t teach kids to be

entrepreneurs they teach them to go work

in corporations so who’s starting these

companies it’s these random few people

even in popular literature the only book

I’ve ever found and this should be on

all of your reading lists the only book

I’ve ever found that makes the

entrepreneur into the hero is Atlas

Shrugged everything else in the world

tends to look at entrepreneurs and say

that we’re bad people I look at even my

family my both my grandfather’s were

entrepreneurs my dad was an entrepreneur

both my brother and sister and I all

three of us own companies as well and

and we all decided to start these things

because it’s really the only place we

fit we didn’t fit in the normal work we

couldn’t work for somebody else because

we’re too stubborn and we have all these

other traits but kids could be

entrepreneurs as well I’m a big part of

a couple organizations globally called

the entrepreneurs organization and young

presidents organization I just came back

from speaking in Barcelona at the YPO

Global Conference and everyone that I

met over there who was an entrepreneur

struggled with school

I have 18 of the 19 signs of attention

deficit disorder diagnosed so this thing

right here is freaking me out

it’s probably why I’m a little bit

panicked right now as other than all the

caffeine that I’ve had in the sugar but

like this is like really creepy for an

entrepreneur attention deficit disorder

bipolar disorders you know that bipolar

disorder is nicknamed the CEO disease

Ted Turner’s got it Steve Jobs has it

all three of the founders of Netscape

had it like I go on and on the kids you

can see these signs in kids and what

we’re doing is we’re giving them ritalin

and saying don’t be an entrepreneurial

type fit into this other system and try

to become a student sorry entrepreneurs

aren’t students we fast track we figure

out the game I stole essays I cheated on

exams I hired kids to do my accounting

assignments in university for 13

consecutive assignments but like as an

entrepreneur you don’t do accounting you

hire accountants so I just figured that

out earlier at least I can admit I

cheated in university most of you won’t

I’m also quoted weird and I told the

person who wrote the textbook I’m now

quoted in that exact same University

textbook in every Canadian University

and college studies in managerial

accounting I’m chapter eight I open up

chapter eight talking about budgeting

and and I told the author after they did

my interview that I cheated in that same

course and she thought it was too funny

to not include it anyway

but kids you can see these signs in them

the definition of an entrepreneur is a

person who organizes operates and

assumes the risk of a business venture

that doesn’t mean you have to go to an

MBA program it doesn’t mean you have to

get through school it just means that

those few things have to feel right in

your gut and we’ve heard those things

about is it nurture or is it nature

right is it thing one or thing to what

is it well I don’t think it’s either I

think it can be both I was groomed as an

entrepreneur when I was growing up as a

young kid I had no choice because I was

taught at a very early young age when my

dad realized I wasn’t going to fit into

everything else it was being taught to

me in school that he could teach me to

figure out business at an early age he

groomed us the three of us to hate the

thought of having a job and to love the

fact of creating companies that we could

employ other people my first little

business venture I was seven years old I

was in Winnipeg and I was lying in my

bedroom with one of the long extension

cords and I was calling all of the

drycleaners Winnipeg to find out how

much wood the dry cleaners pay me for

coat hangers my mom came into the room

and she said where are you going to get

the coat hangers to sell to the dry

cleaners and I said let’s go and look in

the basement and we went

the basement and I opened up this

cupboard and there’s about a thousand

coat hangers that I’d collected because

when I told her I was going out to play

with the kids I was going door-to-door

in the neighborhood to coat hangers to

put in the basement to sell because I

saw her a few weeks ago a few weeks

before that taking you could get paid

they used to pay you two cents per coat

hanger so I was just like well there’s

all kinds of coat hangers and so I’ll

just go get them and I knew she wouldn’t

want me to go get them so I just did it

anyway but and I learned that you could

actually negotiate with people this one

person offered me three cents and I got

him up to three and a half I even knew

at a seven-year old age that I could

actually get a fractional percent of a

cent and people would pay that because

it multiplied up at 7 years old I

figured out I got three and a half cents

for a thousand coat hangers

I sold license plate protectors

door-to-door my dad actually made me go

find someone who would sell me these

things at wholesale and at nine years

old I walked around in the city of

Sudbury selling license protectors

door-to-door to houses and I remember

this one customer who so vividly because

I could never sue did some other stuff

with these clients I sold newspapers and

he wouldn’t buy a newspaper from me ever

but I was convinced I was going to him

to buy a license plate protector and

he’s like well we don’t need one I said

but you’ve got two cars I’m nine years

old like but you have two cars and they

don’t have license plate protectors and

I said I know and I said and this car

here’s got one license plate that’s all

crumpled up and he said yes that’s my

wife’s car and I said why don’t we just

test one on the front of your wife’s car

and see if it lasts longer so I knew

there were two cars with two license

plates on each if I couldn’t sell all

four I can at least get one I learned

that at a young age I did comic book

arbitrage when I was about 10 years old

I sold comic books our cottage on

Georgian Bay and I would go biking up to

the end of the beach and buy all the

comics from the poor kids and then I

would go back to the other end of the

beach and sell them to the rich kids but

it was obvious to me right buy low sell

high

you got this demand over here that has

money don’t try to sell to the poor kids

they don’t have cash the rich people do

go get some so that’s obvious right it’s

like a recession so there’s a recession

there’s still 13 trillion dollars

circulating in the US economy go get

some of that and I learned that at a

young age I also learned don’t reveal

your source because I got beat up after

about four weeks of doing this because

one of the rich kids found it where I

was buying my comics from and he didn’t

like the fact he was paying a lot more I

was forced to get a paper route at ten

years old I didn’t really want a paper

route but at ten my dad said that’s

going to be your next business so not

only would he get me one but I had to

get two and then he wanted me

hire someone to deliver half the papers

which I did and then I realized that

collecting tips was where you made all

the money so I would collect the tips

and get payment so I would go and

collect for all the papers he could just

deliver them because then I realized I

could make the money by this point I was

definitely not going to be an employee

my dad owned an automotive and

industrial repair shop and he had all

these old automotive parts lying around

and they had this old brass and copper

and so I asked him what he did with it

and he said he just throws it out and I

said but wouldn’t somebody pay you for

that and he goes maybe remember at 10

years old 234 years ago I saw

opportunity in this stuff I saw there

was money in garbage and I was actually

collecting it from all the automotive

shops in the area on my bicycle and my

dad would drive me on Saturdays to a

scrap metal recycler where I got paid

and I thought that was kind of cool

strangely enough like 30 years later

we’re building one 800 got junk and make

money off that - I built these little

pin cushions I was 11 years old and Cubs

and we made these pin cushions for our

moms for Mother’s Day and you made these

pin cushions out of wooden post pins we

used to hang clothes on clotheslines

outside can you’d make these chairs and

I had these little pillows that I would

sew up and you could stuff pins in them

and because people used to sew and they

needed a pin cushion so but what I

realized was that he had to have options

so I actually spray-painted a whole

bunch of them brown and then when I went

to the door it wasn’t do you want to buy

one it was like which color would you

like like I’m 10 years old you’re not

going to say no to me and especially if

you have two options you have the brown

one of the clear one so I learned that

lesson at a young age I learned that

manual labor really sucks right like

cutting lawns is brutal but because I

had to cut lawns all summer for our all

of our neighbors and get paid to do that

I realized that recurring revenue from

one client is amazing that if I’m

cutting if I land this client once and

every week I get paid by that person

that’s way better than trying to sell

one clothes pin thing to one person

because you can’t sell them more so I

love that recurring revenue model I

started to learn at a young age remember

I was being groomed to do this I was not

allowed to have jobs

I would caddy I’d go to the golf course

and caddy for people but I realized

there was this one heel on our golf

course the 13th hole that had this huge

hill and people could never get their

bags up it so I would sit there with a

lawn chair and just carry up all the

people who didn’t have caddies I would

carry their golf bags up to the top and

they’d pay me a dollar meanwhile my

friends were working for

hours to haul some guys bag around and

get paid ten bucks I’m like that’s

stupid because you have to work for five

hours that doesn’t make any sense you

just figure out a way to make more money

faster every week I would go to the

corner store and buy all these pops and

I would go up and deliver them to these

70 year old women playing bridge and

they’d give me their orders for the

following week and then I just deliver

pop and I just charged twice and I had

this captured market you didn’t need

contracts you just needed to have a

supply and demand and this audience who

bought into you these these women

weren’t going to go to anybody else

because they liked me and I I kind of

figured it out I went and got golf balls

from golf courses but everybody else was

like lucky looking in the bush and

looking in the ditches for golf balls

I’m like screw that they’re all in the

pond and nobody’s going into the pond so

I would go into the ponds and crawl

around and pick them up with my toes you

just pick them up both feet and you

can’t do it on stage and and you get the

golf balls and you just throw in your

bathing suit trunks and when you’re done

you got a couple hundred of them but the

problem is that people didn’t all want

all the golf balls so I just packaged

them I’m like twelve right i packaged

them up three ways I had the pinnacles

and D DHS and the really cool ones back

then those sold for $2 each and then I

had all the good ones that didn’t look

crappie they were $0.50 each and then

I’d sell 50 at a time of all the crappy

ones and they could use those for

practice balls and I sold sunglasses

when I was in school to all the kids in

high school this is what really kind of

gets everybody hating you is because

you’re trying to extract money from all

your friends all the time but it paid

the bills so I sold lots and lots of

sunglasses and then when the school shut

me down the school actually called me

into the office and told me I couldn’t

do it so I went to the gas stations and

I sold lots of them to the gas stations

and had the gas stations sell them to

their customers that was cool because

then I had retail outlets and I was I

think I was 14 and then I paid my entire

way through first year university at

Carleton by selling wine skins

door-to-door you know that you can hold

a 40 ounce bottle of rum and two bottles

of coke and a wineskin so what right

yeah but you know what you stuff that

down your shorts when you go in to a

football game you can get booze in for

free everybody bought them supply-demand

big opportunity I also branded it so I

sold them for five times the normal cost

I had our University logo on it you know

we teach our kids and we buy them games

but why don’t we get them games if

they’re entrepreneurial kids that kind

of nurture the traits that you need to

be entrepreneurs why don’t you teach

them not to waste money I remember

being told to walk out into the middle

of a street in Banff Alberta because I’d

throw in a penny out on the street my

dad said go pick it up said I worked too

damn hard for my money I’m not going to

see you ever waste a penny and I

remember that lesson to this day

allowances teach kids the wrong habits

allowances by nature teaching kids to

think about a job an entrepreneur

doesn’t expect a regular paycheck

allowance is breeding kids at a young

age to expect a regular paycheck that’s

wrong for me if you want to raise

entrepreneurs what I do with my kids now

I’ve got 2 9 and 7 as I teach them to

walk around the house in the yard

looking for stuff that needs to get done

come to me and tell me what it is or

I’ll come to them and say here’s what I

need done and then you know what we do

we negotiate they go around looking for

what it is but then we negotiate on what

they’re going to get paid and then they

don’t have a regular check but they have

more opportunities to find more stuff

and they learn the skill of negotiating

and they learn the skill of finding

opportunities as well you breed that

kind of stuff each of my kids has two

piggy banks 50% of all the money that

they earn or get gifted 50% goes in

their house account 50% goes in their

toy account anything in the toy account

they can spend on whatever they want the

50% that goes in their house account

every six months goes to the bank they

walk up with me every year all the money

in the bank goes to their broker both by

nine and seven year olds have a stock

broker already um but I’m teaching them

to force that savings habit it drives me

crazy that 30 year olds are saying maybe

I’ll start contributing to my RSP no

you’ve missed 25 years like you can

teach those habits to young kids when

they don’t even feel the pain yet don’t

read them bedtime stories every night

maybe four nights out of the week read

them bedtime stories and three nights of

the week have them tell stories why

don’t you sit down with kids and give

them four items a red shirt a blue tie a

kangaroo and a laptop and have them tell

a story about those four things my kids

do that all the time it teaches them to

sell it teaches them creativity it

teaches them to think on their feet just

do that kind of stuff and have fun with

it

get kids to stand up in front of groups

and talk even if it’s just stand up in

front of the friends and do plays and

have speeches those are entrepreneurial

traits that you want to be nurturing

show the kids what bad customers or bad

employees look like show them the grumpy

employees when you see grumpy customer

service point that out to them say by

the way that guy’s a crappy employee and

say these ones are good ones

if you go into a restaurant you have bad

customer service show them what bad

customer service looks like right we

have all these lessons in front of us

that we don’t take those opportunities

we teach kids to go get a tutor imagine

if you actually took all the kids junk

that’s in the house right now all the

toys that they’re outgrown two years ago

and said why don’t we start selling some

of this on Craigslist and Kijiji and

they can actually sell it and learn how

to find scammers when they get email

offers come in they can come into your

account or sub-account or whatever but

teach them how to fix the price guess

the price pull up the logos like are the

photos teach them how to do that kind of

stuff and make money then the money they

get fifty percent goes in their house

account fifty percent goes in their toy

account my kids love this stuff some of

the entrepreneurial traits you go to

nurturing kids attainment tenacity

leadership introspection interdependence

values all these traits you can find in

young kids and you can help nurture them

look for that kind of stuff there’s two

traits that I want you to also look out

for that we don’t kind of get out of

their system don’t medicate kids for

attention deficit disorder unless it is

really really freakin bad the same with

the whole things on mania and stress and

depression like unless it is so

clinically brutal man bipolar disorder

is nicknamed the CEO disease when Steve

Jurvetson Jim Clark and Jim Barksdale

have all got it and they built in that

scape imagine if they were given ritalin

we wouldn’t have that stuff right Al

Gore would have really had to have

invented the internet these skills are

the skills that we should be teaching in

the classroom as well as everything else

I’m not saying don’t get kids to want to

be lawyers but how about getting

entrepreneurship to be ranked right up

there with the rest of them as well

because there’s huge opportunities in

that I want to close with a quick little

video it’s the video that was done by

one of the companies that I mentor these

guys grasshopper it’s about kids

it’s about entrepreneurship hopefully

this inspires you to take what you’ve

heard from me and do something with it

to change the world

you

thank you very much for having me

you