Talking Entrepreneurship - with Kids!
In July of this year, I led a remarkable entrepreneurship workshop. The twist? I was working with girls, only 9 to 13 years old.
I admit that I was surprised to receive this invitation from Kailey’s Queens, a community that empowers and inspires young girls. I’ve worked with startups and multinationals, governments and NGOs … but not usually with kids this young! But one of the employees of Kailey’s Queens had heard me speak at her high school in Miami a few years ago, and she thought of me when their virtual summer camp for 2021 started to come together.
I was seriously intimidated by the offer.
“Come on, Tiffany,” I thought. “Your son is this age! You got this!”
So I said yes to Kailey's Queens… …and then I began to boil down what I know about moonshot thinking and Massive Transformative Purposes (MTPs), in order to inspire these girls to become the best entrepreneurs that they can be.
Getting ready to go live at Kailey’s Queens Virtual Entrepreneurship Camp
Let’s take a look at what I learned from this experience, and explore how you can translate these learnings to inspire entrepreneurship in your own family.
Dig to the Why
As a faculty member at Singularity University, I’ve been lucky enough to hear some of the world’s most stimulating entrepreneurs talk about how to change the world. Here are the two pieces of advice that I decided to share with Kailey’s Queens:
Go for 10x better, not 10% better—that’s moonshot thinking.
Go big, go bold, and build a business that changes the world and changes you—that’s finding your MTP.
When I joined the Zoom session, I met eight girls and their camp counselor. They had spent the past three days working on the how of their businesses: a few cupcake-forward bakeries, two businesses focused on inspirational messaging, and a fledgling swimsuit company (which also was going to have some inspirational messaging to share).
💡 I was excited to help these girls dig into the why of their efforts … but of course they already knew! I asked them, “What do you care about?” On screen, each face lit up. They took turns sharing, and a common theme emerged. All of them wanted a kinder, more supportive world for girls like them. And they wanted to start businesses that would lead the way.
MTP? Check.
Next, to head down the road to moonshot thinking, I asked them to imagine how they wanted the world to look in 10 years. They fired up the worksheet I had prepared for them, and spent a few minutes actually drawing what that world would look like. Then they crafted their moonshot as a single sentence and shared it with the group.
Grateful to inspire young girls around the world
The next question required even more creative thought. “How does my business help with this, starting today?”
Fortunately, I was ready with a little story about a friend of mine, Shahreen Reza, and her company’s quest to make space food that is as delicious and nutritious as the best food on Earth. Food that’s not 10% better than today’s astronaut food, but 10X or even 100X better. And she’s starting with a product that anyone could enjoy: a vitamin-packed dark chocolate sensory explosion. (Trust me, I’ve tasted one. Incredibly delicious and fun!)
We ended this part of our workshop with accountability. Each girl made a promise about what her business would do this month in order to take the first step on her moonshot journey.
Make it personal
As I prepared for the Kailey’s Queens session, I looked back on my own entrepreneurial journey. Did I go through these steps when I started my first business?
No way! I knew that I wanted to help scientists be better communicators, not just with other scientists but with non-scientists too. I had identified an educational gap that led to a later services gap, and I formulated a business model that tackled both gaps. For my second business, my co-founders and I did put together our moonshot and our MTP … but then the pandemic happened, and “pivot” became the word of the year for 2020.
I realized that I wanted the girls in Kailey’s Queens to go beyond the fairytale of entrepreneurship, so I kicked off our session with the icebreaker “Two Truths and a Lie”. The votes were pretty evenly split: with a bit of skepticism, most of the girls correctly identified my two truths: “I’ve been to Mars 3 times” and “half of my businesses have failed”.
My lie was “I love Legos”. What can I say? I’m the mother of a 10-year-old boy.
💡 Here, I made entrepreneurship personal by showing up as a woman who was taking chances in business—just like them. Sometimes the dice fall in your favor. Sometimes you can bias the toss. But other times you need to articulate what you’ve learned, take a deep breath, and move on to your next challenge.
Shahreen’s story was a great example of a woman founder thinking big and bold. And like me, Shahreen is a brown woman. I didn’t know it ahead of time, but all the girls in our Kailey’s Queens workshop were Black. For me, it was deeply satisfying to show these budding entrepreneurs that the world benefits when all are welcome to the entrepreneurial journey.
Define the win
Toward the end of our session, I asked a seemingly simple question.
“What kind of entrepreneur do you want to be?”
When I read the girls’ responses in the chat, I was delighted to see words like these: excited, fun, kind. In fact, “kind” came up several times. Words like “busy” or “powerful” or even “rich” were nowhere to be found.
Earlier in our session, they had told me what they cared about. Now they were telling me that their views of themselves as businesswomen were aligned with their views as people. By having that integration, their odds of achieving their MTPs just got a whole lot better.
One perceptive girl chimed in with a tough question. “If we’re so busy being kind and fun, can our businesses really be successful?”
I laughed. “You’re right,” I replied, “your business still has to make money! That’s what you’ve been working on for the past few days, right? Building a business that can really work. You need to know your customers and offer a really good product and have a good plan.”
Eight heads nodded in unison.
“But I hope today you’ve seen that there can be more to entrepreneurship than that,” I continued. “You can make money while making the world a better place. And while you’re doing it, you can grow yourself and be the kind of person that you really want to be. That’s the magic of an MTP. That’s finding your win.”
And what was the win for me, personally, after this hour with Kailey’s Queens? Did I meet a future Musk, Bezos, or Zuckerburg?
To be honest, I hope not.
Instead, I hope that I inspired these girls to believe that there’s more to entrepreneurship than luck, or privilege, or a relentless pursuit of shareholder value. To believe that girls and people of color can bring their talents to the table and earn recognition for their efforts.
For me, winning is planting seeds for a future of impactful, profitable businesses that focus on the best parts of our humanity.
At Kailey’s Queens, I met the entrepreneurs of the future. I can’t wait to see what they build!
About Tiffany
Dr. Tiffany Vora speaks, writes, and advises on how to harness technology to build the best possible future(s). She is an expert in biotech, health, & innovation.
For a full list of topics and ways to collaborate, visit Tiffany’s Work Together webpage.
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After a 19-day voyage to Antarctica aboard The Island Sky in November 2023, Tiffany has many remarkable stories to share & a wealth of insights to catalyze a sustainable future.
You can support her ongoing journey by making a contribution through her donation page. Your support will spread positive impact around the world, empower Tiffany to protect time for impact-focused projects, and support logistical costs for pro bono events with students & nonprofits.