How does the choice of being an entrepreneur or a 9-5 professional, impact responsible parenting? This is one question that several parents who intend to be active in their children’s growth and development have had to ask at one point or another.
And not only as it pertains to their own choices as parents, but also in the context of how their kids can make informed decisions when they grow to the stage, too.
In this piece we examine the pros and cons of entrepreneurship and 9-5 jobs for parents, while also showing how we are preparing secondary school students to make the right choices on the subject at Premiere Academy, Lugbe, one of the best private secondary schools in Nigeria.
Firstly, can you be an entrepreneur and a good parent?
The answer is yes. Good parenting and entrepreneurship have a number of similarities. Here are some of such similarities:
1. Parents love their babies
The Human Brain Mapping journal published a study in 2017 that says Entrepreneurial love is similar to parental love. Entrepreneurs and parents both have to create, nurture, and protect their babies even when it’s stressful.
As a result of their experience raising kids, parents who intend to become entrepreneurs already have a lot of what it takes to manage a business.
While parental love comes naturally, love for your business and what you do may need some cultivating. And how are we implanting this culture in the minds of secondary school students at Premiere Academy? By ensuring that we hire seasoned teachers and other professionals who teach in a way that makes learning and extracurricular activities easy and fun for the secondary school students. This way, they actually fall in love with the whole process and enjoy it, as opposed to being bored and struggling through the learning process. Our intentionality with this is a testament to our status as one of the best secondary schools in Abuja.
2. Parents are leaders
While you may not have formal leadership experience on your CV, you surely have it as a parent. You are naturally a role model to your children, in the same way that entrepreneurs must serve as mentors for their employees.
As a parent, you've honed this skill over time. So, when it comes to trying your hand at being a boss, you already have the tact to lead people successfully.
Being one of the best secondary schools in Abuja, we are constantly preparing our students for this by ensuring that we train them to embody leadership qualities such as effective communication and team work, among others.
3. Parents encourage learning through failure
Part of being a good leader is recognizing the importance of learning through failure. You've seen your children crawl before they could walk, and know that not all skills can be taught or developed overnight. As such, you know that encouraging your children to try and fail at new things is a powerful way to promote learning.
When it comes to managing employees as an entrepreneur, the same idea holds true. While it is great to emphasize the importance of error-free activities, you also have to allow for mistakes that will inevitably occur. Sometimes, it's in these failures that people learn the most, and build the character and willpower they need to succeed.
Not many boarding schools or private secondary schools in Abuja properly encourage and guide students who don't perform well. But here at Premiere Academy Lugbe, we build critical thinkers, who are disciplined to grow through failures and come out on top as high achievers.
4. They understand time management
One of your biggest concerns about becoming a "parentpreneur" might be the thought that you won't have enough time to devote to your family and your business. However, entrepreneurship can actually give you that freedom in many ways.
Entrepreneurship gives you a greater leeway to find the right balance between family time and business time. And since you've already developed sharp time management skills from juggling all the tasks involved in raising a child, you’re well-equipped to get work done efficiently as an entrepreneur.
As a top boarding school and one of the best secondary schools in Abuja, Premiere academy emphasizes the need for this important trait in our students. So, again, if you needed a reason why we are one of the best private secondary schools in Nigeria, that’s one for you.
5. Parents take risks
Taking a loan for your child to attend a private secondary school, or just spending a little extra here or there to make them happy. Either way, having a child makes you responsible for more than just yourself, which sometimes could mean taking on a great deal of financial risk.
The willingness to take such risks is a characteristic that good parents share with successful entrepreneurs. By taking risks, you learn to deal with constant challenges, which ultimately allow you to grow and become better at making decisions.
This ties very well with Premiere Academy’s vision of teaching secondary school students the principles of taking responsible decisions independently.
Now let’s talk about the benefits of working 9–5
These are the best things people love about working 9–5 jobs, and why it can be a good option for you, too.
1. You have less responsibility
The position of entrepreneurs as business owners puts an overwhelming responsibility on them.
But as a salaried employee, you take significantly less risks. While entrepreneurs suffer emotional and financial losses when their business fails, you get paid whether the business succeeds or not. This is not to say that it’s OK to not care about the company you work with; it’s just a statement of how things are.
At Premiere Academy, we maintain our stand as one of the best secondary schools in Abuja by constantly nurturing great minds in high school who are well informed of these facts and truths from an early age. We do this by educating them during our career days, and other enlightening events about their future careers.
2. You can actually switch off
We are in an age of never switching off. With emails on our phones, we can be accessible every minute of every day.
While entrepreneurs may not have much of that luxury, being employed at a 9 - 5 means you can actually switch off. You can turn your emails off at 5:30pm, go home, and have an evening, or a weekend completely to yourself.
We believe in a decent work-life balance at Premiere Academy, and this is why we are rated as one of the best private secondary schools in Nigeria with the best teachers. We also exemplify this by ensuring our boarding school students get that fine balance between work, play and rest.
3. Regular pay
The very best thing about having a steady job is you don't have to worry about financial instability. You know how much money is coming into your account at the end of each month. This makes it easy to budget, and the peace of mind is quite nice as well.
4. You can leave your tasks at Work
It's not always the case, but most of the time you're able to leave work issues at work once your day is over. Since 9-5 employees are expected to show up and work their assigned hours, time off the clock is generally respected.
It might please you to know that secondary school students at Premiere Academy are being shown how this works and how important it is. An example is how our football academy and other sports teams are active, ensuring that our kids, particularly boarding school students, are able to leave school at school.
5. Clearly-defined roles
One great thing about being an employee is that you're expected to do the assigned work, and not have to try wearing other hats.
Also, you don't have to worry about billing the clients, advertising, paying the bills, or any of the other things a business owner has to do on top of providing a service to customers or clients.
You show up and do your particular work and leave the other things to the people employed for those purposes.
You can actually be successful with either
Success can come in any form: whether you are an entrepreneur or an employee. The two options have their merits and with excellence at either of them, you can rise to the top and achieve success and genuine fulfillment.
We know all about this at Premiere Academy Lugbe, one of the best private secondary schools in Nigeria. That is why we help our secondary students understand that it is OK to initiate a start-up with their ideas, or join an existing company and help them achieve their set goals. Success, fulfillment and life satisfaction comes from both.