I wasn’t raised an entrepreneur. I was raised with hopes of going to Law School and being an attorney (I think that’s still the wish, that I’ll go to Law School someday). But me, I’ve always been an entrepreneur. I sold Beanie Babies back when those were a hot item (I was 14). Today, I run a small company and speak at events. Both things I love! Some days it’s an emotional roller coaster (as I’m sure you know). But then there’s those golden moments (the adrenaline on-stage or when a client connects with what you’re teaching them). Those moments are simply put, awesome!

I was raised to be an entrepreneur as well. Creativity and negotiating skills were encouraged and valued by my parents. Lot’s of animated discussions took place in my house around the dinner table growing up. Ideas were not just merely presented, but they were thought through and discussed with the entire family. Mom and Dad were ultimately the decision makers, but my brother and I felt empowered, and we certainly influenced the direction of the family.

I agree with your statement in your “Featured Dad” interview at http://www.dadsworld.com, “teach kids to negotiate for their allowance,” that way they will learn critical thinking and argument supporting skills. Excellent advice.

Good job, Cameron.

Cameron, your perspective was refreshingly bang on in terms of the state of today’s education system. It resonated for me because it is how we operate at Guru. Education is woefully behind the times and getting people to think like an entrepreneur is so vital to surviving in the knowledge economy. We have the joy of detoxing our students from their years of “cog in the machine” learning, and in 6 months we get them on track to managing their career, whatever form that may take.

The last two months of our program is devoted to bidding, negotiation, client relationship management, implementation, and invoicing. Our students must earn $5,000 GuruBucks in their two months. It has been a huge success in the classroom.

The closest I have ever been, or ever want to be I think, to an MBA was a book called the “Pocket MBA.” I read it and learned all I really needed to. I realized I already had most of the skills and some of the experience.

Now I am the Executive Director of a school that is determined to become one of the more innovative education centres in Canada. Our teachers are mentors and our programs are more about changing lives than about data regurgitation.

I had to catch your TEDx talk via internet as I was not able to attend due to my son and daughters’ birthday (sorry, family first!).

I could not agree more with what you were saying. Raised in a very conservative farming family (I did enjoy it though!) and then attending the ultra-conservative U of A engineering program, I was destined for a life in oil & gas filling a chair that any other engineer could fill. Everything inside of me was against this path even though everyone around me saw it as a great career and the only option.

I kept telling myself that there was more to life out there somewhere and set out to find the most incredibly ambitious people I could. This led me to graduate school at Stanford. Within a couple of weeks in the Silicon Valley I finally “found” what I was looking for my whole life. People who understood the value of human capital, companies and organizations built on ideas and amazing vision, and most importantly, endless challenge and opportunity. I was 27 when I left Stanford and made a promise to myself that I would never take a normal “job”. Although some would see me as foolish to take my very expensive (both time and money) education and put it on the sidelines, I have never had one regret with that decision.

The sad part is that I spent the first 25 years of my life without having anyone foster any kind of entrepreneurial spirit in me, and I was looking for it. Being back in Edmonton, not many of my friends nor family understand what I do or why I don’t get a “normal” job, but that doesn’t matter. I hope that I can find those young people that were in my shoes and let them know that there are people out there taking risks, following their dreams and changing the world.

Really appreciated what you had to say. Thanks for sharing it with us at TEDx.

Cameron,
I am going to share your blog post on Facebook and Twitter because I think this message is so important.

I have a 15 year step daughter who has no idea of what she wants to do but I have been encouraging her in an entrepreneurial direction but I think she feels from school she has to choose a profession.

I was definitely raised to be an entrepreneur and started selling in 3rd grade to neighbors and by 5th grade I was selling my products b2b.

Not only am I passionate about entrepreneurship but about entrepreneurs not sacrificing their family life for the business as a result of the impact I saw it had on family life with my dad.

I am enjoying your blog. Congrats on speaking at Tedx!!
Stacey

Agreed 100% Cameron.

I felt the same level of confusion in our school system when growing up. Be a doctor, lawyer and work for the government. It really let people with entrepreneurial traits down.

But you can’t hold us back, nothing can. Awesome blog post, going to share on FB & Twitter.

BTW we are still going to need those pesky Lawyers to help us entrepreneurs out when we screw up.

OMG! I was raised to get a job for the government – an engineering job! My dad was in the Air Force, and then worked for the USPS. He liked the security working for the government offered. I, on the other hand, despised the security – thought it would totally bore me.

Actually, I learned a lot about being an entrepreneur by getting into the modeling industry. At 18 years old I started to learn about the importance of promotion and doing my own taxes. I, to a certain extent, was my own brand/business.

The last time I had a real job, meaning working for someone else, I was 26 years old and working as a technical writer for Genentech. I have been an entrepreneur for 8 years, and absolutely love it!

You were the first speaker I saw thru TEDx (or under the TED banner in generally really). I just tuned in the web cast in the middle of your speech and I was blown away with the content. It was inspirational and they are ways I would like to raise my children – when/if I had any. I’m definitely going to be recommending to my friends who have young children to watch your talk.

I wasn’t pushed to be an entrepreneur, but it was always there if I wanted it and in subtle clues. My family immigrated to Canada when I was 6 and we were poor-ish like most immigrants. My parents were bright but at first were stuck in low-end jobs (running their own convenience store, incidentally we cane to Canada under the program to encourage entrepreneur to move to Canada).

“It’s nice to have money, but it’s always better to know how to make money,” my dad told me when I was young and questioned why we didn’t have the same stuff other kids had. He went on to say, “Money can be taken away from you in any moment, but if you know how to make money, you can always get it back again.”

So I had picked wild berries and sold them in the neighbourhood as a kid. I attended Shad Valley and for the first time actually invested capital into my own micro-business (with a team) and that opened up my eyes. (I highly recommend kids to attend Shad Valley.) Then during university, I ran a side business helping fellow students with their computer issues while selling accessories on the side – especially when I found out they were using the wrong cable (telephone instead of ethernet) or just didn’t have a network card in their computer when they attempted to connect to the university network.

At least now I’m an IT contractor, although it’s not quite like running a company, I’m still far better off than being a regular employee. I would like to reach higher, but I haven’t figured out a direction I’d like to go yet.

At age 11:
My dad: Ty if you want to own a car company you need to be good at math.

Me: Naah, I’m just gonna hire people that are good at math.

I am 11 and have a website so I can make enough money to get a horse. And maybe someday a whole stable!

Love it Ty – Your dad was a good man – but you get biz Outsource everything except genius

AWESOME – Love that you broke free from the man…

Yikes – can’t imagine you or I working for gov’t – in fact – I spend time imagining a world with 90% less gov’t

I am 39. While at University I had a small company selling sunglasses and pictures /I made my frames/. I also had little entrepreneurial occasions with my product ‘a metalpiece for sleeping’ and paradise lach-gas balloons in Berlin and Zurich. I must say the paper-work (tax) part killed my zest. It is more fun to pick grapes then sell sunglasses.