Continuing to learn

Wow, what a response!

I went away for three days on family business and when I got back the comments on my last post about what we should be teaching our children massively outweighed my original post.

This is just what I had hoped for!

This sort of response gives me so much to ‘get my teeth into’ and so many things to learn.

I have now come back to writing this post which I started a few days ago. I have so much more information buzzing around in my head that I need to order it all so that it will make sense!

Well my first response HAS to be to Nikki Stephen’s rant. Thank you so much, Nikki, for being honest here about issues that affect you personally. I have to say that I agree with you about so many of the inequalities to be found in our system in the UK and the resulting mindset.

I caught part of a TV trailer last night for a programme set in a school where one of the girls was pregnant and the boyfriend referred to the fact that baby = house and money, kerching! What example is this setting? I admit that I didn’t see the programme so I don’t know how it was played out, but…

Children need to be taught the basic values of honesty and integrity, and that hard work pays off.

I really couldn’t agree more Nikki, and that is really behind what I am looking at here. We as parents should be teaching our children these things, but I know from the experiences I have had working with my students that many of them have not had that parental input, sometimes because the parents do not understand these things themselves.

We can moan about this, or we can get on and do something about it and help those who have not had a chance to learn so far. Surely this will help future generations, even if the current generations do not understand these principles?

I know what it feels like when a student I have been working with tells me that they bunked off school, but now realise that they have to work hard at their literacy / numeracy etc if they want to be able to move forward in their lives.

I know the encouragement that I am able to give them and the sense of achievement when they say to me “I finally understand that now”. I want to be able to help young people like that, who perhaps have not had the best start in some of these matters.

But I also want to be able to provide help and resources for young people like my own children and others who have good, positive parental or other support but would like somewhere to go for resources and other information. I believe that these two areas can cross over, but it is something that needs to be worked on and that has given me a goal to work towards.

Other ideas to come out of the comments on my last post include:

Internet safety – I couldn’t agree more and I know that I have perhaps made the odd comment that should not have been made, so I will need to go back and cover my tracks there.

Thom Swartwood made a great observation:

I think it is great they want to get out there and blog, just remember there is nothing better in this world than a concerned parent, a parent that watches over what their children are doing. Communication is the key.

Other commenters also expressed the same concerns and I agree that we must do our utmost to make sure of the security of our young people on the internet.

I was particularly interested by Stephen Bray’s comments:

In my work as a family therapist, lately consulting almost exclusively to business owning families I found:

Children of successful business owners frequently are cared for by a host of au-pairs or nannys, go on to boarding school, and may well develop a dislike for their entrepreneurial parents and their enterprises.

The parents frequently cannot understand that the time and effort that they put into their businesses is no substitute for regular quality time at home. Indeed they believed that the long hours and work they undertook to build a better future was an act of love.

Obviously this is a situation that we want to avoid wherever possible and must be borne in mind – and I think that this applies not only to entrepreneurs. However if we can teach about the balance between working and living, that is a really important step forward.

I have just read a Quick Reads book (106 pages) by Richard Branson called “Screw It, Let’s Do It – lessons in life” (ISBN 0-7535-1099-5) which has some wonderful short thoughts at the beginning of each chapter as well as the information he gives about his philosophy in life.

In Chapter 7. Value Family and Friends he says:

Whatever you might think of him, Richard Branson has built up and run a very successful empire and his views towards the making of money are refreshing.

So if you want a quick morale boosting read, I really would suggest reading this book – I read it in just over an hour, but will be returning to it regularly.

I have been doing some other researching since I made my last post and I have discovered that there is some excellent information out there already for young people. Some of it has to be paid for, but much of it is free.

As I have gone about this research, I have realised that I do not want to be reinventing what is currently available, especially when some of it is already so well researched and tested.

I have decided at the moment that I am going to follow one of the available programmes with Lizzie and hopefully also my son, so that I can have a better understanding of how this works.

The programme is run by Chris and Jenny Ford whose three girls have all started their own businesses whilst at elementary school.

You may have heard of “That Internet Girl” on YouTube – their 12 year old daughter:

Anyway if you want to check out the free information they have and the programme they offer parents and children do have a look at www.cash-smart-kids.com. I will try to make regular posts about how this programme is going for us so that you can follow us and see if it will work for you too.

I have already found a number of really useful sites, blogs and other information. I have decided to put this together in the form of an ebook, so I shall be working on this in the next couple of weeks.

If you have any other information, websites, blog, links etc that you have not yet sent me please let me know so that I can add it onto the list and I will acknowledge you as the contributer of a link or information. I will also be emailing the commenters on my last post to request permission to use quotations from those comments, where appropriate.

At last I feel like I am getting my teeth into something that I feel passionate about!

There is a long way to go, but learning begins early in life and should continue throughout it.

I’ve got competition!

I haven’t posted for a week because I have been busy doing other things (like Tax Returns – due in the UK by 31st Jan or we get a £100 fine!)

But I’m going to have to up my work rate because I have competition!

Now I know that so many of the other F500 students are so much further ahead than I am, but I don’t really think that I am in competition with them.

In fact I have been quite clear in my comments here and on other blogs that it is important that we are ourselves and work at our own pace as long as we keep moving forward.

So why the concern now?

I know I have contributed to this because I have spent the past two evenings helping my daughter to get her Wordpress blog set up.

One of the best ways of cementing your own learning is to help someone else to do what you have learnt yourself.

I still used Dean Holland’s excellent eBook on how to set up your blog, but this time I was able to take several shortcuts through adding plugins, setting up a blogroll and editing posts because I have been doing them myself for the past seven weeks.

Yes there were things I couldn’t remember how to do and initially we set up the Wordpress blog and exported it to her own domain where we had to edit some of the things – like finding a new theme.

We also copied over a couple of posts and responses from a blog she had set up by herself on a free website. Some of those comments reflected the issues she had with her blog because she couldn’t do what she saw me doing, but she was delighted that the Gazz-Man (Gary Simpson) had come over and left her a message – she’s even added him to her list of Cool People (along with me of course!). A link to her blog is under blog links if you’d like to see what she is up to and leave her a comment.

But this has made me particularly aware of a couple of things.

I’ve just been over to Ian and Becky Carter’s blog and had a look at their video for the competition which I think really sets out what is important to them. Like so many people this is their first attempt (mine is still to come). But importantly, their motivation for taking this journey and following what Alex Jeffreys is teaching us so brilliantly, comes in the shape of Becky’s two sons (and they are cute!).

My children are a little older, but I see how important it is that we not only do our best in what we say to them, but also in letting them see what we do.

If they can see us working hard, learning, interacting with others and hopefully also benefitting financially, what better model is there for them to walk down the same path, hopefully to their own financial independence?

What do I want for my children (and I’m sure so many of you do for yours)?

For them to have a good, healthy and happy life. But also not to have to struggle financially as I saw my parents doing (though that gave me a good grounding in looking after my money) and as we have had to do for so long.

Our children are our future and I want to help them to be winners too. Yes, I’ve shown my daughter Gary’s latest post on 20 Big Differences between Winners and Losers. (I also showed her the responses to my comment there – thanks Gary!)

My professional life is spent working mainly with young people and I do get a buzz out of helping them to learn something they have not previously understood. Why should it be any different with my own children?

So the competition?

My daughter wants us to see who can make the most money from what we are doing. If I’m not careful she will quickly overtake me as young people are so quick to learn new things.

But in the same way that Ian and Becky are sharing their journey, I now have a companion on mine in my own home. I know that I have lots of companions in the F500, but it’s good to share face to face.

She’s asked me if she can do Alex’s course because she’s heard so much about it.

I’m sure that Alex will not mind if I let her see the videos. I will ask him, but I am certain that he is the sort of person who will be only too pleased to know that his teaching is already filtering down to the younger generation and hopefully setting her off on a path of financial independence she can eventually bring to her own family. After all he is a father too.

So my plan now?

To get off my backside so to speak and really plan out what I and we are going to do. My daughter has already said that she wants to help me with the video and I have some ideas that I want to get going on. So if I can get some peace and quiet for a little while tomorrow, I hope to work on it then.

Once I have made some plans I will share them here as I really think that it is helping me to be accountable to others.

And my next move?

To get the men in the household involved in what we are doing – four of us will be stronger than one or two.

Watch out! We may become a force to be reckoned with (if I have my way!)

Alex’s $1,000 challenge

I’ve been hit by the dreaded cold this weekend, which has put me back a few days as I have been so washed out.  I’m sorry that I haven’t been able to post or visit other blogs, so it’s time to start catching up now.

However, before the cold really hit me I managed to listen to Alex’s 4th module on Social Media Money and there was some great information as ever on that session.

He’s set us a challenge to see who can drive the most traffic to their blog. 

Now I know that there are lots of the other students who are much further on than I am in terms of being set up, having a bigger readership and having lots of other ways of driving traffic to their blogs.

But am I worried by this?  No!

Each one of us is different, thank goodness!

We each have a different way of doing things and those of us who are further behind needn’t worry as long as we keep on going. 

Maybe I’m a tortoise at the moment rather than a hare, but I know I will get there and that is the most important thing to me in the end.

So how am I getting traffic to my blog?

Well one of the things I have done is put a link to my blog in all the Christmas letters I have sent out to my family and friends.

I’ve been telling people at work what I am doing.

But until I finally get my ppp up and running (and thanks to everyone who is giving me a hand with that) I haven’t got the free report to give them.

So I’m going to concentrate on getting that sorted out and then I’ll work on generating traffic.  I’ll let you know what I’m doing when I really get going.

In the meantime I’ll keep going with visiting blogs, learning from others and preparing for Christmas.

I’ll update you soon!

I’ve done it!

Thanks to everyone who has told me to get my own hosting and the help that they have offered I have managed finally to export my blog to my own website.

I particularly found Dean Holland’s Blog Setup Guide which you can download free at www.deanholland.com really useful for doing that and following the video guide at www.Mat4.com helped me with the fantastico software.  Dean has just posted that due to a wordpress update he needs to update his book, but I have just used it and managed to do what I needed to by clicking on the tools dropdown on the left hand side to find the export button and it worked OK for me.

I love these video guides!  For a newbie like me I can have two tabs open, one with the video guide and one with my page so that I can follow each step, pause the video and do exactly what I’m told to do.  Occasionally, I have to look a little further for some information but it is so good to have this kind of help.  This is what a community is all about – picking up on things that we comment about and passing on the information to one another.

Right, I just need to sort out my theme again and how I set up a blogroll and other such things and then I shall be ready to go…

Hilary