How can I talk to my child about "work" and "income"?

 In today's rapid development of various emerging economies, how to provide children with appropriate career and financial education? In fact, all of this ultimately points to how children understand "money". Understanding the idea that "your income = the value you create for others" is the premise and solution to unlock many relationships.

文丨晴妈    编丨May

In recent years, I have often been asked by my parents:

How to cultivate financial intelligence thinking in children?

Do you want to give your children some financial quotient lessons?

Should we cultivate children's financial awareness at home?

Can children be paid for housework? When children ask their parents for money to buy things, how should they respond?

Can children find jobs when they grow up? If children are not excellent, they can't find any jobs, and they are old at home?

Nowadays, there is a great gap between the rich and the poor in society, can we let our children understand the current situation of society? How should we explain the gap between the rich and the poor in society?

How to let children have the right concept of wealth, how to let children earn money in the future?

All these questions, in the final analysis, are how to make children understand "money".

On the issue of "money", I would like to offer a little personal opinion and experience today. It does not represent the only correct view of wealth, and there are many other valuable views, please search for many parties, think for yourself, and learn from the strengths of others.

Your wealth stems from the value you give to others

From the very young age of my two children, I told them that how much money you can make in the future depends on how much value you can bring to others.

Bringing value to others is the only source of wealth in the market.

As long as you don't take into account the illegal income from cheating, abduction, theft, and power corruption, then all your income is equal to the value you bring to other people.

Source: Pixabay

Here's how I explain to my children how much money they can earn in the future:

”

"Your income must come from people paying you. Why do people pay you? It must come from the value you bring to others. For example, if you can make others comfortable through massage, they will spend money on you, and you can earn money. For example, if you can tell jokes to others and make others happy, they will spend money on you, and you can earn money. ”

"If you want to earn a lot of money, bring value to as many people as possible. For example, an ordinary comedian can make 10 people laugh and bring value to 10 people, and he can earn the money paid by those 10 people. And an outstanding comedian can make millions of people laugh, and he brings joy value to millions of people, and he can earn a lot of money. The same is true for various other professions. ”

In life, sometimes many people have misunderstandings about "finding a job".

When I think of "work", I think of "qualification certificate", and then think of a series of materials that "prove" my excellence, such as "academic qualifications", "qualification certificates", "score results", "award records", etc. Parents also do everything in order for their children to live a decent life in society. It's not that these things are bad, it's just that this way of thinking will make people focus on "themselves" infinitely.

But in fact, people who can really work well need to focus on "others".

In the economic society, as long as you can have "others" in your heart, consider what others need, what others want, what I can do to best meet the needs of others, and which of my abilities can better meet the needs of others, you will definitely be able to find a suitable job, earn money, and earn money, whether it is to enter the company or do it yourself.

When I was talking to a well-known AI engineer Zhang Jiaxing, he once said that there are many graduates from prestigious universities who only think about proving that they are excellent, but do not consider how much value you can create for the company, and they are out of place in the team and cannot make money for the company.

There is a huge truth in what he said: no one only pays for "good", and companies hire someone because of the "value" you create.

Source: Pexels

Why does a company need a young person? Does it need this young person to come to the company and show that "I'm smart, I'm smart, I'm smart, I'm smart, I'm good, I'm better than all of you"? Absolutely not.

No company wants this kind of person to ruin the team atmosphere. What a company needs is "you develop products for the company", "you increase income for the company", "you create value for the company", all that is needed is that the young man has the company's needs in his heart, to meet the company's needs, and the salary and value contribution are equivalent exchanges.

When you get a job, if you bring more value to the company than the company pays you, you will definitely not be satisfied with such a low salary and will move to a better agency. If the company pays you more than the value you bring to the company, the company is not satisfied with such a high salary and tends to lay off employees.

In the end, the two sides can reach a balance, which must be the realization of the employee's self-perceived value and the salary that the company can pay.

What if young people have personality and are not willing to succumb to meeting the needs of the company? At this time, what you need to meet is the customer's needs, because only by meeting the customer's needs will someone pay you.

People need to be humble in this world, knowing that people are socially dependent animals, and "others" are the source of their own income, so don't feel dismissive about "serving others".

People can also be a little arrogant in this world, knowing that they are too maverick and do not want to meet the needs of any others, then accept poverty with very little income, because this is the choice of self-purification.

But what I am most afraid of is "both want and want", not only to proudly prove that I am good every day, only to consider my own interests, but also to want the world to meet my own needs and give myself rich rewards, and if you can't achieve it, you will be cynical - this is an impossible thing.

What does it matter to others how many awards you win? Others buy only what they need.

No one will pay for a self-absorbed "good" unless it is the "good" who creates value for others.

Source: Pexels

When you see this, you will realize that it is not only "excellent" students who have graduated from prestigious universities that can find jobs, but also all those who have the ability to create value for others.

If the value you can create is to "tidy things up", then there are countless people in this world who "can't clean up" who will pay you to help them clean up.

If the value you can create is to "listen and comfort others", then there are countless people in this world who "don't get listened to and comforted" who will pay you to listen and comfort them.

If the value you can create is to "solve the technical stuck point", then there are countless engineers in the world who are "stuck in the technical stuck point" will pay you and ask you to help them solve the stuck point.

If the value you can create is to "attract the attention of others", then there are countless people in the world who "will not attract the attention of others" who will pay you to help them sell and attract attention.

If the value you can create is to "summarize abstract principles from concrete cases", then there are countless people in this world who "can't summarize principles" who will pay you and learn Xi success from your summary.

Everyone has their own value to create. It has to do with your own characteristics and how you understand the needs of others. The more traits that meet the needs of more people, the easier it is to earn more income.

Some highly educated people are indignant, thinking that the income of some female celebrities is so high, but their income is so low after studying for a doctorate. But in fact, in the market environment, this is fair.

In this world, income does not depend on your suffering, but on how much of the needs of others you can meet.

The knowledge of doctors is very professional and can only meet the niche needs of their own professional fields, while the value provided by female stars is beauty, beauty is the instinctive need of all human beings, and the number of people in this world who need beauty must be more than the number of people who need niche knowledge.

Is the Ph.D. worthless? Is this preaching the futility of knowledge? Of course not. Post-doctoral research will bring about changes in your vertical professional field for hundreds of years to come, and your successors for hundreds of years to come will remember your value.

Money and wealth are the value of your service to the people of the present moment, and your reputation and status are the value of your service to the future generations for thousands of years to come. It is the ego's choice of worth.

The universality of ideas

Understanding the concept of "your income = the value you create for others" will give us a deeper understanding of all walks of life.

For example, the direction of technology development.

Many people envisioned some of the most ambitious technological visions years ago, such as the Dyson sphere, which would envelop the entire sun, or the awakening AI, which would control all the super-powerful computing power. But these sci-fi visions all miss one thing: who will pay for it?

Many people may assume that the state pays for the development of science and technology, but in fact, the mass demand of all the citizens of a country adds up to the total national economic output (GDP), and the government tax revenue can only extract a small part of GDP, and then spend all the national welfare from this small part and give a little bit to scientific research, so the total amount can only be very small compared to GDP itself. The direction of technological development supported by mass consumption of GDP entities must be much larger than that supported by the state.

What does the public support? Household appliances, not the lunar exploration project. PCs, not super AI. Cell phone, not Starfleet.

Therefore, in recent decades, the technological development in the field of personal consumption has been far ahead of the grand narrative of interstellar technology, and the technological breakthrough of the American model of PC companies is far ahead of the breakthrough of Super AI technology promoted by the Japanese state.

I've seen a lot of tech startups say "our founders have excellent educational backgrounds, our technology is world-leading, but we haven't found a good application scenario yet", and such startups basically can't succeed.

Only reverse entrepreneurship - there are needs and landing scenarios, and then there are new technologies to meet the needs, and then recruit outstanding talents, can we really come out of the technology development path. Every entrepreneur who understands technology should start as a product manager, that is, first understand the needs of users, and then see how to implement them.

People's needs determine the market size, the market size determines income, income determines R&D investment and talent flow, and R&D investment and talent flow determine the speed of technological development.

Because of the philosophy that "your income = the value you create for others", I have never despised any profession.

If my child goes to the scenic spot to sell barbecued sausages after many years of hard study, can I accept it? Of course I can! Everyone who comes out of the scenic spot wants to eat a mouthful of fragrant grilled sausages because they are hungry and tired, so as to meet the needs of tourists, and this is of course a decent and good job with income.

The problem is that selling grilled sausages is too cookie-cutter, with little interest and variety, and it is difficult for today's young people to endure this kind of persistence and boredom.

What if the child did something interesting and unstable? For example, doing magic tricks, performing improvisational comedy, and doing fun guidance in the scenic spot? Of course, as long as there are people who really recognize and meet the needs of tourists, it will be very good.

The problem is that these jobs actually require talent.

What if the child does physical work in the future? For example, taking care of the elderly and children, giving beauty massages to people, and working hard every day to sell, is it acceptable? Of course it can! These are the areas where the needs of users are most directly understood, and there must always be a demand and an income, so why not? As long as the children have excellent ability and flexible minds, they will definitely be able to think of ways to save their physical strength and expand their income and business scope.

The question is whether the child has love for what he is engaged in.

What if the child still wants to find a stable job in the future? Of course, it can! But it will lead the child to think, what kind of jobs are really stable, whose jobs are met, and what are the core needs? For example, school teachers or civil servants, why is the job stable? Where does the income come from? Who needs to meet the needs of this job? The problem with stable jobs is that the income comes from the finances, and when the finances are bad, the income will be very meager and spiraling down.

As long as you care about the world and others, you will always find the need to earn/make money. The core difficulty is not about the degree of excellence, but only whether the child can find something that he is happy to keep doing and that is beneficial to others.

Satisfy others with your own efforts, no matter what you do, what is the difference between superior and inferior?

Source: Pexels

The child can be guided in this way

Because of the concept of "your income = the value you create for others", I have not excluded the idea of "earning money" since the children were young, and I am also guiding them to think:

"Can you bring value to others? How much value can you bring to how many people?"

When my sister was in the second and third grades, I allowed her to take the initiative to provide domestic services and raise the price herself. She would take the initiative to find a job and negotiate a price with me – for example, if she could win 5 dollars for lifting my suitcase up a very high staircase.

Proactively observe user needs and propose their own solutions, which is a good product manager thinking.

In addition to doing housework to earn income, I also guide children to think:

What are your talents that can create value for others?

My younger brother is still young, and he doesn't understand this and can't answer. My sister already has her own ideas and preferences, and she likes to draw. She often draws villain books, and draws the merchandise code behind each villain book, and although she does not charge a penny, she also "publishes" the paintings decently. She told me that she set up a company at school that doesn't charge a fee to customize comic books for other people. Recently in recruitment, the only admission threshold is to like drawing.

There are many, many possibilities for a child's future, whether it is a good student, a middle student, or a student with poor grades, as long as you can think clearly about what you are capable of and what value others need, you can find a path that suits you. There is no child who has no talent, and there is no child who cannot find his own place. Heaven and earth are vast, and if there are a thousand children, there will be a thousand paths.

The only child who will have problems is the child who is imprisoned by his parents - when the parents think that they must be admitted to the key market, key universities, key majors, master's and doctor's degrees, state agencies or key enterprises, otherwise there is no way out and they can't survive, and the child has worked hard for this, so he can no longer accept any other possibility, but in fact he can't meet the expectations of his parents, then everything may be violent, depressed, sinking, and self-destructive.

In fact, the sky is high and the birds are flying, the sea is wide and the fish is leaping, a person who can bring happiness to others in the crowd, even if he is not admitted to a prestigious school, what survival problems do he worry about? A selfish and narcissistic person is struggling, and a person with an open mind is everywhere.

We are empathetic to others, and therefore we are ourselves.

Source: Pexels

Back to education, it's good to have children in our education build a good foundation of skills. But the greatest lack is to think about others, to think about the world.

If a child only thinks about how he can get all the benefits and how to win over others, he will not be able to master the wealth code in this life. The reason why our test-oriented education has created a large number of hollow people is also that it does not guide children to think about the needs of others and society, so children grow up empty, empty, have no life aspirations, and it is difficult to find a job.

But in fact, as long as your heart is not empty, you have your own preferences and full of vitality, whether you go to a prestigious school or not, you can get out of your wonderful life.

Discover quality education

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