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One of the biggest challenges we have in society today is that there are
too many opportunities just sitting there waiting for people to come along
and snatch up.
The problem is that most of us just haven’t learned how to recognize
those opportunities, even when they are right in front of our nose.
One
of our main goals as teachers is to show our students how to recognize
these opportunities and how to take advantage of them when they come their
way.
A person with imagination and ambition is one who comes across a pile of
scrap metal and sees a wonderful sculpture waiting to be uncovered. An
ambitious person drives through an older part of town and sees a plan for
a new housing development or a new recreation centre. An enterprising
person is one who sees opportunity in all areas of life and who is willing
to take a risk to seize the opportunity when it arises.
Jim Rohn, an inspirational writer states that, “We can all learn to be
enterprising by simply keeping our eyes open and our mind active. We have
to be skilled enough, confident enough, creative enough and disciplined
enough to jump on opportunities when they present themselves, regardless
of the economy.”
Rohn went on to say, “Enterprising people always see the future in the
present. They always find a way to take advantage of a situation and they
aren’t lazy.”
One of the points Rohn made with which I am in full agreement is that
enterprising people don’t wait for opportunities to come to them - they
go after opportunities and are brave enough to be creative and take
chances.
DO
WE ENCOURAGE ENTERPRISING YOUNG STUDENTS OR DO WE DEMAND THAT THEY FIT IN
AND CONFORM WITH OUR BELIEFS?
As I look back on my career as an elementary school teacher, I wonder how
many enterprising young boys and girls I helped destroy in a
“system” which is certainly not conducive to the development of
an enterprising spirit. In order to be enterprising, you must have the
courage to see things differently and go against the crowd. By taking a
different approach you often have to stand alone and you definitely have
to choose activity over inactivity.
I think back on all of the “discipline problems” I encountered among
students during my 28 years in the classroom and wonder how many of those
boys and girls were actually merely expressing their enterprising spirit.
As teachers we often do everything we can to make them “behave” and
“fit in with the rest of the class”.
As I watched my three sons all graduate from the School of Business and
Commerce at Laurentian University, I was often reminded that our
school system does a good job of preparing our youth to be good employees.
Everyone wants to know “Where you will be “working” next year? Have
you got a job yet?” No one asks, “What kind of business are you going
to begin? In which type of work are you going to be self-employed? Where
are you going to set up your office?”
Without
a doubt, there is usually some security in finding a job where an employer pays
you for your work and you put in your time making the employer a success.
However, in order to be a “good employee” you are often forced to
repress your creativity and ambition by following instructions and doing
what you are told. As long as you remember who the boss is, everything
will be fine.
Being enterprising means having enough self-confidence and self-worth to
look for opportunities. You must be willing to set forth on risky voyages
in order to do things which will make a difference in your future and in
the future of people who come into your life.
We
have talented young people who come to us ambitious, enterprising and
fearless. It is up to their teachers to release the chains and allow these
people to seek out the opportunities and make things happen. We must
provide them with support and encouragement while at the same time
accepting that they may do things differently from what we would expect.
That doesn’t mean that they are doing anything wrong. It just means that
they see things in a different light.
My message for teachers today is very simple. Allow your students to be
different, to go against the crowd, and to see the sculpture in a pile of
scrap metal. The opportunities are everywhere - just have the courage and
confidence in your own abilities as a teacher to allow your students to
learn how to see them.
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