How these 2 founders pass on entrepreneurial values to their kids

Photo credit: Szefei / 123RF

This is a Discuss post, where we feature short but insightful opinions from the Asian tech community on startup, entrepreneurship, and tech topics. Got a topic or question to suggest? Drop us an email or leave a comment.

In many Asian homes, children are told to work at a well-established MNC straight out of university. Parents get nervous when their kids say they want to start a business instead.

So, we got curious. How do successful entrepreneurs in Asia raise their kids? Do they train them to be startup founders early on? We reached out to Ankur Warikoo (Nearbuy) and Darius Cheung (99.co) for their thoughts.

Editor’s note: Answers have been edited for clarity.

Ankur Warikoo, co-founder and CEO at Nearbuy

We have moved from the industrial revolution to the social revolution, where value is created not through producing but through connections. And the entrepreneurial way of thinking (which is different from being an entrepreneur) is the way to educate oneself. The current education system has a massive 1900s hangover that it’s trying hard to get rid of, but it’s unable to with the pace that’s required.

As mentioned, entrepreneurship is not a profession but a state of mind. It starts with encouraging curiosity and ends with accepting failure as a way to learn, and it’s not something one should be reprimanded for. As parents, we encourage our kids to think like entrepreneurs by:

• Allowing them to fail (and fail often) and to truly understand the facts of real life.
• Questioning the way things are done and why they are done the way they are done.
• Introducing them to as many ways and things to learn as possible.

I think it’s more difficult to raise entrepreneurial children in Asia than in other regions because Asians are competitive. There are billions of people in India and China, for example, with limited opportunities, and they’re taught not to take risks. They’re told to become doctors, engineers, or lawyers and be settled. Going outside of this norm, while easy for the parents, is harder for the kids because they see their peers raised very differently than them.

If there’s one lesson I learned from being an entrepreneur that I’d want to share with the next generation, it’s this: Never allow anyone else’s opinion of you to become your reality.

Let’s discuss