Use this scenario to help young people to learn the differences between being an employee, a self-employed, a business owner, and an investor.
When to use it:
Size of the group: 5 to 15 people
Age of the group: over 14 years old
Time:
Preparation: 30 minutes
Presentation: 60 minutes
Materials:
How:
Preparation:
Presentation:
E (Employee works for others) |
B
(Business owner – others work for him/her) |
S
(Self-employed works for him/herself) |
I (Investor – money works for him/her) |
“Once upon a time there was a little village, a great place to live, except one problem. The village had no access to water, unless it rained. However, close to the village there was a river that could be used as source for clean water. To solve this problem, the village elders asked different contractors to submit ideas to deliver water to the village on daily basis”.
Each group of five people represents a contractor contacted by the village elders. At this moment the contractors are working people from the village who village elders thought they might be more entrepreneurial and help the village to find a solution to deliver water everyday, and come with their business idea.
Ask the participants to work in groups and come with solutions to the village problem. After 20 minutes, ask each group to present their idea.
From the discussions, or from the feedback you provide, two stories should emerge:
Though this game, the participants should understand the main difference in vision between self-employed and business owner. At the same time, they also see what could be the role of an investor.
An Employee might say: “I am looking for a safe, secure job with good pay and excellent benefits.”
A Self-employed might say: “My rate is $75 per hour.” Or “I can’t seem to find people who want to work and do the job right.” They are people who want to be their own boss, and they only believe the in the quality of their work. While employees respond to fear of not having money by seeking for security (a secure job), the self-employed persons respond to this fear by taking control of the situation and doing what they know best.
A Business owner might say: “I’m looking for a new president to run my company.” Usually they surround themselves with smart people from the other categories. To be a successful B, one should own or control a system, and to have the ability to lead people.
An Investor might say: “Is my cash flow based on an internal rate of return or net rate of return?”. The investor makes money with money, the money is working for them. Kiyosaki says that this quadrant is the “playground” of the rich.
Follow-up questions
(Here you can guide the discussion by explaining Kiyosaki’s point of view, who says that there are a lot of entrepreneurs providing superior products or services than those of multinational companies, however in order to compete or compare with a multinational corporation is important not to create better products, but better business systems).
Possible variations
For the step 3., you could use a different story, adapting it to the audience of the workshop.
Other resources:
Read how to attract business investors, when you want to become a business owner, here: http://www.iseeyou-network.eu/files/8514/5579/7112/Business_Angel_Attraction_Plan.pdf
Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant. Guide to Financial Freedom (2012).
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