Our children need to know what failure feels like as they grow up, so that when they grow up, failure can be an opportunity to learn rather than a debilitating crisis. I’m thankful that my parents equipped me to thrive and I’m hopeful that my wife and I can pass on the legacy to our children, as well.

5. Make straight As in academic subjects the sole measurement of success.

The ability to organize and operate a successful business does not necessarily correlate to academic achievement. Most budding entrepreneurs are a real pain in the classroom.

4. Put them on medication at the earliest sign of ADD or bipolar disorder.

Lifelong entrepreneur Cameron Herold  calls bipolar disorder “the CEO disorder.” When we are too quick to medicate our children, we tend to squelch their God-given creativity. There is certainly a time and place for psychotropic drugs, but we abuse them when we use them as a substitute for “learning by suffering” aka “the school of hard knocks.”

3. Insulate them from failure at all costs.

“Fail faster” is the mantra of the lean start-up movement. And it’s true. You are going to fail anyway. Better to fail faster so you can learn from your mistakes faster. Our children need to know what failure feels like as they grow up, so that when they grow up, failure can be an opportunity to learn rather than a debilitating crisis.

2. Give them an allowance with no strings attached.

Herold is brilliant on this point. He comes out strongly against giving children allowances. Carte blanche allowances teach children to feel entitled. Instead, we should teach our children how to earn money by creating value for others. We can do this by paying them when they do extra chores, and encouraging them to negotiate with us for their compensation.

1. Forbid them to read the Book of Proverbs from the Bible.

The Book of Proverbs should be required reading for every entrepreneur. There are 31 chapters in the Book of Proverbs, enough to read a chapter a day. And every chapter has important principles entrepreneurs ignore at their peril. Just a sampling:

• “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine” (3:9-10).
• “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest” (6:6-8).
• “Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth” (10:4).

Daniel Vos is Lead Web Developer at Five More Talents and Lead Web Developer at IX Publishing, Inc. This article appeared on his Facebook page.

[Editor’s note: the link to the original source for this article is broken and has been removed.]