Teaching Teens Entrepreneurship and Financial Independence with Dan Sheeks: An EOFire Classic from 2022

0:01Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. On today's classic episode, we'll be breaking down teaching teens entrepreneurship and financial independence. To drop these vibe-ons, I brought Dan Sheiks in the EO Fire Studios. Dan is the author of First to a Million, a teenager's guide to achieving early financial independence, and the founder of Sheiks Freaks, a community of young entrepreneurs and early FI seekers. Dan has also been teaching high school business classes for 19 years.

0:32And today, we talk about a lot of awesome stuff about how it's difficult to know what you want to do for the next 40 years of your life when you're 18 years old. I think we can all relate to that and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Dan and our sponsors. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies? Build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white-label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today.

1:09Fire Nation, it's time to stop guessing and start winning with a proven playbook. Inside the Freedom Circle, you'll have access to my step-by-step systems for creating offers, building processes, and driving traffic all in just 90 days. Ready for freedom? Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more. Dan, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Awesome. Yeah. What's up, everybody? To answer your question, I would say the one thing that I stress quite a bit to my community is that you have to love to fail. You have to thrive in your failure.

1:55and you have to sometimes seek failure because that is where you learn and that is where you grow. So Fire Nation, today we're talking about failure in a sense. That's the failure of schools in general when it comes to financial education. So we'll be talking about teaching teens, entrepreneurship and financial independence. So Dan, as I kind of already let out of the bag, in my opinion, schools fail terribly in a number of areas. and one of the most glaring is financial education. So can you tell us why schools don't focus on entrepreneurship and financial education? I can sum it up in one word if you want, and that's money.

2:38But we can dig a little deeper than that. I think a lot of people, especially in the fire community, some people tend to think there's some kind of a conspiracy theory out there that the government is trying to keep everyone down by not promoting entrepreneurship and financial literacy. I don't think that's the case. I don't have any way of proving that right or wrong. I think it's more around constraints and lack of resources. And teachers work their butts off. I know because I am one. But there's just not enough opportunity to grow the educational system, to grow and adapt to what our kids today really need.

3:26So what can we do to change this? Yeah, that answer is, I wish it was easy. It's actually easy, it's just not simple. The people who have the ability to make this change are the decision makers. And these are gonna be your school principals, your district superintendents, your school board members, and many times legislators. whether that's county, state, or federal legislators. These are the people that can make change happen. For instance, they can pass a law or a policy that says all of our high school graduates will take a personal finance class before they graduate. That is a graduation requirement.

4:14Some states, very few states have that. The vast majority of high school students will not have that in place. So they just don't take the class. To change that, I found me as a teacher inside the system, there's actually not much I can do. It has to come from the outside of the system, grassroots. It has to be parents and community members calling these decision makers up or emailing and demanding that our youth have this education, receive this education because it's so necessary and critical for their well-being and for them to be successful. That's the way it's going to change. What does a successful entrepreneurship and financial education program look like?

5:01Walk us through, in a perfect world, what Dan Sheiks would create in these areas. Yeah, so I do teach personal finance or have taught. and it's not anything, the curriculum or the lessons doesn't have to be anything groundbreaking or mind-blowing. I think high school students, I teach high school, that's my niche. It's an easy sell to convince a high school student that they need to learn how to manage their money. They need to learn how money works in order to be successful financially after high school. And it's also an easy sell to say to them, hey listen all this stuff we're going to learn in this class you're going to use this after you graduate and and they get that right and there's a lot of classes that high school students take they know from day one that they will never use that material or that content and it's it's a much harder sell in those classes but personal finance and even entrepreneurship are not that way it's very easy to convince a high school student that this matters and you need to pay attention and you need to learn.

6:09So once you cross that bridge and you have them buy into the fact that this content, personal finance, financial literacy, entrepreneurship is going to matter for them no matter what they decide to do after high school. Then it's just a matter of making the lessons and curriculum interesting using different technologies, guest speakers, different you know, YouTube videos, even social media videos, there's so much out there now that can really help students learn and keep them engaged. So one thing that I've always kind of wondered is, you know, we have so many people that graduate not knowing how to balance a checkbook, although that's becoming a little obsolete.

6:52That's just kind of like the common phrase that people, you can kind of glob onto and, you know, they don't understand what interest rates are. They don't understand what, you know, things like a mortgage is and, you know, what a checking account is, what a savings account is. Why are the schools that you teach in and other schools in general, why are they teaching things like trigonometry, algebra, and these really high level math subjects, but not touching upon the basic life survival? You and I and your listeners are probably all in agreement about what you just said, that it would be much more beneficial to teach our young people, our students, personal finance skills rather than, say, high-level math, high-level science.

7:41The reason it is the way it is, it's a systemic issue that's been around for decades. It actually falls on the colleges and universities. they're the ones who require x amount of core classes in order to get admission into those schools and they're the ones who say we need to see you know this level of standardized testing whether that's an SAT or an ACT the standardized tests test core subjects reading writing math science. And so the system is set up so that if a high school student wants to pursue higher level education, they're going to be much more attractive to colleges and universities if they have the higher level math and science classes.

8:32Now, the sad fact is that the vast majority of those students are never, ever going to use that content. They have no interest in math or no interest in science or no interest in either, but they're still forced to walk through those hoops, jump through those hoops, rather than take classes that actually matter like personal finance. Personal finance and those topics and strategies and skills are not in standardized tests and they're not a required class for college admission. So there's the breakdown. So this conspiracy theory that you mentioned earlier that seems to sometimes be pointed towards the high school level, maybe should actually be pointed towards the college level.

9:12Because as you're kind of talking this through, it makes me seem like it really benefits colleges to keep these 18, 17, 16 year olds clueless and incompetent when it comes to matters of basic finance. Because what intelligent person would ever take out a$200 ,000 plus loan with the kind of interest rates that they're dealing with to get an education, especially when it comes to the majority of majors like education and psychology and all the basics that are coming out with starting salaries at$30 ,000,$40 ,000,$50 ,000 per year, if they're lucky. Because if they could do the math and they say, well, wait a second, if I'm making$40 ,000 a year, that leaves me with a couple hundred dollars a month in disposable income after I pay everything with taxes and with my rent and food and entertainment and all this stuff.

10:11How can I ever pay back a hundreds of thousands of dollar loan when the reality is most don't anytime soon? And a lot of them are buried with this for decades upon decades upon decades. So what are your thoughts on that? I agree 100%. The problem is as much on the shoulders of the colleges and universities. But it behooves them to turn a blind eye though. Hopefully someday it'll happen, but to stir the pot and to change the status quo, it takes some bravery, right? So just imagine if a high-level college university or medium-level, whatever, if they just decided, all right, starting next year, here's what we're going to require for our incoming freshmen.

10:58We are not going to look at standardized tests because they don't measure the things that really matter. We're not going to require our students to have three or four years of math and science if they're not going to have that as a major. So let's say someone wants to major in marketing or business in general. then yeah, they should have some math classes, but they don't need the highest level. Like you mentioned, trigonometry, advanced algebra, geometry, they don't need those classes to be a marketing person or even finance, honestly. So if they said, you know, based on your major, your required classes in high school will change.

11:42And by the way, if you want to come to our school, you must have at least one semester of personal finance so that you are educated on how to manage your money. Yeah, but not to play devil's advocate here. I mean, but what you're expecting now a 15, 16 year old to like know what they're going to major in, in college. I mean, they, you know, they're not thinking in that direction. Most of my seniors don't know what they're going to major in, in college, which I think is a whole nother issue around, should they start college at, at age 18 straight out of high school rather than maybe take a gap year, which I think is a great idea, honestly.

12:17Yeah, I wish I took a gap year. Yeah, yeah. I think it's really difficult to know what you want to do for potentially 40 years of your life when you're 18 years old and to pick a major that you're not going to change and that you're going to be interested in for decades. I think it's nearly impossible and the statistics show that that's true. Well, to be a little overly dramatic here, it just feels like with what we're talking about that we're just lining up these 17 and 18 year olds, just like I was lined up, you know, for the essential slaughter of, you know, getting into incredible debt burdens.

12:51And, you know, I was only able to avoid that crippling aspects because I took an ROTC scholarship and then, you know, went to war and almost got killed there. So I was, you know, essentially almost slaughtered, you know, in a completely different way. But I mean, it's just, you know, I start to all my friends, all my friends, you know, I'm, I'm literally going in two months to my 20 year college reunion and I still have friends paying off their college debts. And it's just like, and it's like, you know, who are the adults in the room here? And we're all turning a blind eye, myself included. And we're letting these 17, 18 year olds who don't have a clue about money, just, you know, just absolutely get buried before they even know what's happening.

13:37And then by then it's just too late. So we're going to talk about some more stuff when we get back, Fire Nation, from thanking our sponsors. Okay, let's talk about a platform that's completely changing how entrepreneurs are running their business. And they are also our featured partner, HighLevel. If you're an entrepreneur, coach, agency, or course creator looking to grow faster and smarter, HighLevel is the all-in-one platform that replaces your entire tech stack. Seriously, think ClickFunnels, Calendly, MailChimp, Kajabi, and even your CRM all rolled up into one powerful white label solution.

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15:59So Fire Nation, stop reinventing the wheel. Start following the proven path. Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more. That's freedom-circle.com. Dan, we're back and it does take two to tango. So, you know, you can do everything that you think we should do to give financial literacy and education and entrepreneurship education to your seniors, but they've got to get excited about it. I mean, they've got to actually want to learn this. Otherwise, you know, it's just going in one ear out the other. So how have you found success getting these youngins fired up about these topics? Great question. I think a lot of it is how you phrase things and how you deliver things.

16:46Here's a good example. So which club are high school students going to want to join? The personal finance club or the future millionaires club? Those clubs can have the same exact purpose, content, meetings, speakers, whatever, but you're going to have a lot more kids signing up to attend the Future Millionaires Club. I'll sign up right now. So words like personal finance, words like retirement, high school students could care less about those. Instead of retirement, I use words like financial freedom or financial independence. Fire, financial independence, retire early. Come on. Yeah. I teach that in my class.

17:25Oh, cool. But even that, I think everyone in the FIRE community loves that acronym, but it still has that word retire in there. So I use it, but I also focus on financial freedom. Yeah, which I get because I'll tell you, when I was 17, 18 years old, you know, and I signed up with the army, I was like, you know, I knew I was going to be an officer in the army at 22, but 22 seemed like five lifetimes away. So like, I was like, I know I'm going to hate my time in the army, but that's forever from now. I could care less like what the future JLD has to deal with. So I signed my life away and, you know, lo and behold, you know, those four years flew by.

18:00but at the time at 17 years old, I mean, I thought 22 was ancient, let alone retirement. That wasn't even in my periphery. Yeah. You have to meet kids where they're at. Um, and you have to use technology that they, that they love. I mean, TikTok, there are so many, there, there are some that aren't, but there are so many great free TikTok accounts, Instagram accounts, YouTube accounts that are, you know, have people putting out very accurate, engaging, um, real world content. And so showing those in the classroom to students, uh, I think engages them where they're at. Um, now you have to sift through the ones that are, that are not legit, the ones that are selling stuff that's too good to be true.

18:45But there are so many out there that are, um, very honest and they're just, you know, their, their main goal is to educate. Education, Fire Nation. Now, Dan, you believe early financial independence would actually allow these youngins, our youth, to achieve their highest potential. Can you expound upon that? Yeah, this is huge. This is why I do what I do. And by that, I mean in the classroom and outside of the classroom. I think when someone can reach early financial independence and they now have the option to work where they were, to work somewhere else, or to not work at all, They have so many options.

19:25It's freedom. That is when someone can say, now that I don't have to stress about my bills being paid on a monthly basis, I have passive income coming in, I have enough investments. They can then choose to actually follow their passion, their dream in a way that works best, even if that isn't going to generate any or much income. I think So many people in life would rather do A, but they're doing B because B pays the bills. But A is where they're passionate. So I work with a lot of young people who already have their Wi-Fi in place. And once they reach financial independence, they are going to be doing things like starting orphanages in Egypt or service work overseas of some other way.

20:13They're going to start a business that's around helping people or educating people. And those things wouldn't be possible if they weren't financially independent. So Dan, why don't you bring this home for us? We've talked about a lot of controversial topics that are just floating around in this world and where we really need to make some changes going forward if we're gonna maximize this potential that you just mentioned right there. What is the one thing that you really wanna make sure our listeners get from today's conversation and then share any way that we can connect with you, learn more about content that you've created, anything that you've done, and then we'll say goodbye.

20:49Sure, thanks, and thanks for having me. I think one great takeaway would be if you are a young person, high school, college age, or you are a parent of a young person, flip the script on the status quo, the typical American Dream pathway, in that if that person is going to go to college, have them go to one that is much more affordable. Community college is a great option. have them do an internship or an apprenticeship that, that, uh, you know, isn't going to put them in tens of thousands of dollars of debt. Uh, don't, don't have them go to the most expensive school they get accepted to or, or, you know, have the financial component be a major part of that decision.

21:33Um, so yeah, people want to get ahold of me. Uh, my website is sheiksfreaks.com and And that is a free website with lots of great blog posts and other resources for young people. My niche is about 15 to 25 years old. We also have an online community called Chic's Freaks. And it's a private community. There's a free level and a paid level. But it's an online community where young people are connecting with like-minded other young people to achieve their goals at early financial independence, entrepreneurship, and everything that falls under those umbrellas. And I'll send all of the links your way to put in your show notes.

22:15We'll make that happen because Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And you've been hanging out with DS and JLD today. So keep up that heat. And as Dan mentioned at eofire.com, you can just head there, enter the word Dan in the search bar and the show notes page will pop up with links to all that jazz. And Dan, I just want to say thank you for sharing your knowledge with Fire Nation today For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

23:08Vaynerchuk. The common path to uncommon success is the step-by-step guidance that you need to achieve the lifestyle of your dreams. Visit uncommonsuccessbook.com to order your copy, and I'll catch you there, or I'll catch you on the flip side. Are you ready for the ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies, build funnels, automate follow-ups, manage clients, and even white label your own software. Say hello to our featured partner, High Level, and visit highlevelfire.com to start your free trial today. Fire Nation, it's time to stop guessing and start winning with a proven playbook.

23:53Inside the Freedom Circle, you'll have access to my step-by-step systems for creating offers, building processes, and driving traffic all in just 90 days. Ready for freedom? Visit freedom-circle.com to learn more.