I’ll call him Con for the purpose of this story. Con: short for Cornelius, no, short for ‘Conman In Training’ - considering his young age.
Con is fourteen years old and knows too much about life, thanks to living with his grandfather from the age of five. He has a grown-up’s assurance and the direct gaze many adults never achieve. How much he ‘knows’ I wasn’t aware of until I started an experiment in the neighbourhood in November last year.
I wanted to try and solve several problems. First, create an affordable holiday activity for children in the area I live in. Many teens and pre-teens spend their days bored and loitering around unaccompanied by adults. Secondly, I wanted to inspire the birth of future entrepreneurs. There’s a serious lack of jobs and having children think about starting their own businesses while young could be part of the solution. Third, I wanted the children to learn by doing and to gain the confidence that comes from making decisions and learning from their own mistakes.
So I decided to start a children’s entrepreneurship club. I chose to start it small. I asked two children if they were interested. They said “yes”. I told each of them to look for six friends who had to be their age-mates, decide who was going to be the CEO (the teams would also be known as 'companies'), get their parents’ permission, and then come and look for me.
I had my first team – sans parental permission - in two hours. And yes, Con was the CEO. And no, he wasn’t one of the two children I had spoken to earlier. The second team registered a week later.
I wanted the children to learn the value of money by working for it. Parents gave each child 20 shillings, which would just cover the cost of three exercise books for the various records each company was supposed to keep. This was the only money the children would be given. It was a loan, meaning it had to be recorded and repaid. They had to earn everything else that they needed. This was part of a code they signed.
I gave each team identical hand-outs to read and digest. Each 'company' was supposed to plan and hold its own meetings. The first thing was to read the club’s code of conduct together. The second, to decide what business the companies wanted to do.
The next thing I heard was that the two teams were meeting in Con’s house. Who’s idea was it? Con’s.
My first reaction was, what had I done?
A little backstory. After his parents split up when he was five, Con came to live with his grandfather, who happens to be the village lecher. One holiday – he was eight at the time – he had a girl friend who was five years older. The two used to spend their days at a mall five kilometres away thanks to Con’s deep pockets, courtesy of his doting grandfather and parents who were too busy with work and new families to see him often. If there was any house I didn’t want the children to enter it had to be this one. A little digging and to my great relief, I discovered that the teams had only been going through the handouts together.
I shouldn’t have worried. One week later, the CEO of the other team told me that one of her team members, a ten year old, had shown his team’s book to Con who had then written the ideas down. When I asked her why they were having joint meetings in the first place, she said Con had invited them. I told her, in my opinion, it was better for each team to work and forge its own identity first. Each team was also trying to figure out how to earn the money it needed and not everybody plays fair.
An important club value is environmental protection. Each company is supposed to create any promotional items it needs from recycled materials. One day, Con tells me that his father, who runs a branding business, has offered to donate branded t-shirts “as a way of supporting his team”. He had told his father he had to confirm with me first whether they could accept the gift. I wanted to say no but I also thought, what a wonderful way to support the boys. It wasn’t money, which was forbidden. However, later that day I changed my mind and called Con’s father - I had the contacts of every parent - to let him know.
His reaction? “What are you talking about?”
He decides to deal with his son himself. Whatever is said or done, Con’s unable to look me straight in the eye the next time we meet.
A little while later, the CEOs of the other teams – there are three companies now – inform me that Con has offered to buy business cards for them. He was also willing to lend them his own money to start their businesses. Both girls wanted to take his offer. I reminded them it was against the club rules. I asked them whether they thought the offer was made in good faith, considering the theft of one team’s ideas and that Con was CEO of a competing company. They said no.
This time, I deliberately speak to Con in front of his own team and I tell him to stop offering money to the other teams.
The club is offering the kind of practical lesson I can never inflict on children. However, it is extremely valuable and necessary training – for everyone involved. Con definitely has an important function in this club.
I hope to have more ideas in my arsenal by the time the club resumes activity in November this year.
If you have any thoughts that could help, please feel free to pass them on. I’m going to need a lot of help in this unforeseen struggle to uninspire this young conman-in-training.
This is my entry for the Steemit Writing Competition organized by @bycoleman.
