Teen Entrepreneurs: Opportunity Knocks

So you want your teenage son to get more social and more active in the world, but he's too busy
having fun flipping sneakers and making money. What are you going to do about that? Well, that's
what we're going to talk about today on Tips on Teens. My name is Kent Tussant. I'm a licensed
marriage and family therapist, and I specialize in helping kids, teens, and families to live
happier lives. I lead two organizations teen Therapy Center and the nonprofit 501 c three organization,
child and Teen Counseling, both here in Woodland Hills, California. Everyone's day noon.
I jump onto Facebook Live to answer your parenting questions. Let's answer today's. My son
doesn't have any extracurricular activities. It's really hard to get him interested in anything.
He's really focused on flipping sneakers at the moment and spends a bunch of time doing that.
We appreciate his initiative, but we want him to get a job because we think it will help him socially
and also teach him responsibility. Any advice

here? Yeah, what I would recommend doing is possibly leaning into the sneaker thing. Let's
assume for argument's sake that your son has an entrepreneurial mindset. He has a mind for business,
like some people have a mind for biology and some people have a mind for writing. Maybe business
is his thing, I don't know. But let's lean into that. How do we create that and make that more social?
There are sneaker conventions you guys could go to. Maybe there's groups. How do we help that
become his source of responsibility? How do we help that become his source of social engagement?
Because he already has a passion for this, and it sounds like he may already be making money at
this. So the reason why most of us get jobs, because we need money, because we got to pay for our
mortgage, groceries, all those things, it's the same thing for teenagers. If he doesn't need
money, he's not going to get a job. Just like if you didn't need money, would you still have your
job? Maybe. Like, I love my job,

I'd work a little bit less, but I would still do what I do because I love what I do even if I had all
the money in the world. So with your son, if you're expecting him, go get a job selling French
fries or ice cream or flipping church, whatever. And he's making less money than he can with
flipping sneakers. It's a hard sell unless you start increasing his financial responsibility,
and that's a whole ball wax that takes a lot more than a quick five minute video can go into, but
it's worth having these conversations. How do we expand his social engagement without him
getting a job if he's making money flipping sneakers? Also, I'm wondering, is he engaged in
other parts of life? Is he doing okay in school? Does he have a plan for after high school? Whether
it's going to college, studying business, perhaps whether it's finding some way to engage
and be in the world. Those are conversations I think are really good to have. If you're having
a hard time having those conversations, maybe getting

a therapist to help navigate, help bridge the gap, help translate teenager into parent and
parent back into teenager can be helpful. But I don't think this is necessarily a problem. It's
an opportunity. It depends on how you and him work together to fulfill this opportunity to serve
his needs, not only financially and in excited ways, but also how to help him have a social world
and social awareness. Anyways, it's a big topic. There's a lot of variables that we don't know
about this, so I'm talking about generalities. But if you have more details about this and want
to email us back, feel free. Our email address is tips on teens at teen therapies, and we love
your questions. Keep them coming. If you like your question answered, feel free to email us
here. Again. My name is Kent Tussant with Teen Therapy Center and Child and Teen Counseling.
This is Tips on Teens, and I'll see you next Wednesday. Bye.