Raising Entrepreneurs

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Shonika Proctor offers her unique perspective on one way to escape a life that’s, like, whatever …

Get a Teen Life Coach or Just Get a Life?

There they go again - your parents, hounding you to go see a teen life coach.

Maybe a teen life coach can help you find happiness, they say.

Maybe a teen life coach can help you find direction.

Help you get out of this rut, this funk you seem to be wasting your whole life away in these days.

Don’t They Get It?

When your parents were your age, they were being primed to go out and get a job when they graduated. But you don’t live in your parents’ generation - and you know it.

You’re not blind. You watch television. You hear the stories:

• Skyrocketing Unemployment!
• Economy Takes a Nosedive!
• Layoffs Layoffs Layoffs!
• Worst Job Market Ever!
• Job Turnovers Faster

There is no such thing as job security anymore, and you’ve already given up hope that there will be any social security money left for you when you retire. If you retire.

Screw that!

No wonder you’ve gotten so apathetic about your future. Don’t they see it? What the heck do you have to look forward to? And how is a teen life coach supposed to help?

Well I’ll tell you:

Doing Your Own Thing

You’re no dummy. You know the only real way to make it in your generation, in this world, not the world of 50 years ago (or even 15!) is to work for yourself. Numero uno.

Like you keep saying - you’re the only one you know you can count on 100% of the time. So, for a life that’s more than scrimping and saving and breaking your back to make ends meet and still not getting by, you need to forge your own way. Blaze your own trail. Not live out the fantasy of a life laid out for you by parents, teachers, counselors, civic and religious leaders, people who may or may not love you, may or may not have your best interests at heart, who may or may not realize the life they’re talking about is a fantasy!

It used to exist. But it doesn’t anymore.

The old way is dead. The new way is you. Or, put another way, whatever you want enough to make it be.

Now a teen life coach might possibly be able to help. But there’s someone else who is likely to be able to help you even more than a teen life coach - and that’s:

A Teen Business Coach

Plainly put: self-employment, freelancing, going into business for yourself is your best shot of living the kind of life you want to live. The kind you may or may not have already given up on.

There is a future for you. And a business coach can help you find it.

If visions like these fill you with dread

• a long daily commute stuck in traffic with thousands of other poor slobs like you, on your way to or from a job you hate working for someone you despise for a pittance of a paycheck that (for an extra kick in the face) the government takes half of anyway -

then it’s no wonder your parents want you to seek help. You’re probably already miserable about it all, and it hasn’t even started yet. And you’re certainly not trying to hide it. What would be the point?

But a therapist or a shrink isn’t what you need. You’re not crazy. And you’re not sick. You’re just disturbed - and as well you should be.

To whom much is given, much is expected. That hasn’t changed. But what are you supposed to do about it?

A teen business coach can help you take that festering knotted mass of frustration and confusion, and turn it into something that could give you a life that you deem is worth living. A life lived on your own terms. In charge of your own destiny.

The Clear-Cut Difference

There’s no shame in seeking help, guidance, and support. There’s only shame in letting your vast potential go to waste.

School can be a fantastic resource if learning is happening there. But sometimes the learning you need simply isn’t being offered there. And that’s when you need to look elsewhere to get your needs met.

One way to look at it is like the difference between the two types of coaches being described in this article is like this:

A Life Coach helps you get

your you-know-what together.

A Business Coach helps you figure

out what your you-know-what is!

Whether you opt for a teen life coach or a teen business coach, the mere fact that you’ve decided to seek help and support in taking charge of your life is an enormous step in making that change happen.

Shonika Proctor, aka the Nika’Nator, is a youth and teen entrepreneur coach. She helps aspiring and emerging young entrepreneurs to demolish drama and build dreams. www.renegadeceos.com.