The Barefoot Investor for Families

by Scott Pape

That’s how powerful applying for a part-time job can be for your teen. But best of all, it gives you a socially acceptable way of building up your teen’s self-esteem without making them want to stick their fingers down their throat.

  And let’s be honest: by the time they’re getting a job, you have limited time remaining with them under your roof—so this ‘undercover parenting’ may be one of the last chances you get to make a lasting impression on them.

  So now, let’s put it all together in what is possibly the most powerful Money Meal of all.

  Zero to Hero

  Most kids are totally freaked out about applying for a job.

  They’re getting more responsibility . . . they have to come up with answers to questions about experience they don’t think they have . . . and they even have to do an interview IRL (in real life)!

  So in this Money Meal, you’re going to help them succeed.

  What you’re going to do now is sit down over dinner with your teen, and fill out the Zero to Hero Résumé.

  First, you’ll get them to identify specific times in their life when they were confident, courageous and hard-working.

  Second, you’ll get the broader family to share their (positive!) stories about your teen’s strengths and abilities. (‘What about that time you had the flu and still made it to the exam?’)

  Then, you’ll get your teen to put all these positive stories into their Zero to Hero Résumé.

  Make a big deal of it. It’s an inflection point for your teen at 15 years of age. And if you can’t find the time, well, it’s even worth taking the day off work and thinking through this—it could change your kid’s life.

  THE ZERO TO HERO RESUMÉ

  Résumé of ______________________________________

  Date of Birth

  Suburb you live in

  School you go to

  Mobile

  ‘I want to work at ___________________ , because ________________________ (paragraph).

  (Give a real, specific reason why you want to work at that business. Do you love what they sell? Do you know someone who likes working there? Have you been a long-term customer?)

  I am available to work on __________________ days, and these _________________ hours.

  (Talk to your parents as they’ll be taxiing you, and then be specific: give days, and times).

  My biggest strength is ______________________________________________________.

  (Give a real example of a time you demonstrated your biggest strength.)

  The biggest challenge I have overcome is ____________________________________.

  (Give an example of when you bounced back. Were you dumped from a sporting team and got back in the side? Did you fail an exam but ace it the next time?)

  References:

  •One academic

  •One personal (a mentor, coach, or family friend . . . not your mum)

  My Work Experience

  (List the jobs you’ve done, if any, and for each one, a few sentences on your responsibilities and what you learned.)

  •Serving Customers

  •Making Barista Coffee

  •Using a Sales Register

  •Cooking or Preparing Food in a Cafe / Restaurant

  •Waiter / Waitress in a Restaurant

  •Office / Admin work

  •Babysitting / Childcare

  •Paper Run

  •Sales Assistant (working in a shop)

  •Education Achievements

  Extracurricular Activities

  (Use this list to jog your memory. Write two sentences for each: what you did, and how that helps the job you’re applying for . . . like ‘I played in the footy team, which taught me how to work in a team’ for sports.)

  •Any of the Barefoot Ten you’ve completed

  •Team Sports

  •Debating

  •Surf Lifesaving

  •Cadets, Scouts or Guides

  •Martial Arts

  •Gym Membership

  •Volunteer Work

  •Food Hospitality Course

  •Barista course

  •Acting or Drama Course

  •Public Speaking

  •Food Technology Course

  •Music

  •Speak / Learn a Foreign Language

  Money Meal ‘shopping list’

  •Print two copies of the Zero to Hero Résumé template from barefootinvestor.com/resources

  •Get your teen to have a go at filling out their copy beforehand—and bring it to the Money Meal. Doesn’t have to be perfect.

  •Fill out the other copy yourself, with suggestions to be discussed at the Money Meal. Take time to come up with some really thoughtful stories you can tell about your teen.

  BAREFOOT MONEY MEAL

  Zero to Hero Résumé

  Make a family favourite meal tonight—we want everyone to be on their best behaviour.

  ENTRÉE:

  Tell the family that tonight you’re all helping your teen put together their résumé.

  If siblings are going to be there, set the tone: they can fight the rest of the week, but tonight you’re all a team and you’re working for the same goal.

  MAIN COURSE:

  Go through the Zero to Hero Résumé as a family.

  For each question, first get your teen to read out their answers. Give them honest, supportive, feedback!

  Then everyone else should suggest their own stories or memories (and you read out the ones you’ve prepared).

  Your teen should write everything down, and add anything new to their résumé after dinner.

  Over the next week, they should use their updated résumé to start applying for jobs.

  DESSERT:

  Play the Family Legends game:

  Do you know . . .

  •what Mum’s or Dad’s first job was?

  •what Grandma or Grandpa did for a living?

  •what mistakes Mum or Dad made when starting out in their career and what they learned?

  Then, do payday (three minutes is all it takes!).

  Everyone pitches in and does the dishes.

  Look what you’ve achieved!

  By helping your teen with this process, you’ve done something invaluable for them.

  You’ve shown them how to throw together a killer résumé in just one night (a skill that will be useful to them for years to come).

  You’ve taught them how to impress an interviewer, even if they have no job-specific skills and no prior experience.

  And you’ve given them their start in the world of paid employment—one of the very last steps they’ll need to take before they become adults in their own right.

  Yet the most powerful thing you’ve just done is to inject a life-changing dose of confidence.

  By getting a job, your teen will be forced to overwrite the negative stories inside their head with genuine, tangible, positive ones—which will hugely impact the rest of their life.

  What’s more, they are going to remember that it was you who helped them do this, and you who believed in them.

  But this is just the beginning.

  In the next chapter you’re going to celebrate all your hard work.

  Yet you’ll also show them that now they’ve got the job, it’s not time to slack off.

  It’s time to channel their inner Barefoot Betty.

  ‘Now she’s got the tools—and the confidence—to land her first job.’

  Amanda Screen, Ballina, NSW

  After making Money Meals our new family tradition (see page), we started working through the Barefoot Ten. When we got to number seven, I had a real proud parenting moment!

  My daughter Talaya really wants to be like everyone else and get her first job and earn her own money.

  With her acquired brain injury affecting her vision and other areas of her life, she gets anxious about her future. It’s so devastating for her that she can’t do everything her friends can.

  So we sat down with the Zero to Hero Résumé.<
br />
  She was worried she wouldn’t have anything to write down and at first she couldn’t think of any achievements she could share.

  But sitting down together with the résumé actually reminded me of things I could ask her. And after some coaxing she remembered an award she’d won at her school that they only give to one student out of a thousand kids.

  Suddenly we were talking about why she’d won it . . . she went to every sports carnival and always competed even though she wasn’t going to win. She always has a go at everything. And that’s what the award was about: being prepared, working hard and being a good role model. These are all qualities that employers look for.

  Not only did we unearth some amazing achievements but here we were having a genuine conversation about her strengths and writing them down. Now that she has her first completed résumé she’s started applying for casual work.

  It’s been a dream of hers for a long time to get her first job. Now she’s got the tools—and the confidence—to make her dream come true.

  And I’m going to be even prouder of her when she does.

  Barefoot Betty

  This week is all about celebrating!

  Your teen has officially entered the workforce.

  And they’ll never be more pumped than the first week or two after they land their first job.

  Everything is new and exciting, and then . . . the novelty quickly wears off.

  That’s why in their first few weeks of employment, you’re going to teach them how it really works.

  Yes, all that experience you’ve gained over the years working with morons, slackers and weirdos hasn’t been for nothing. You’re going to navigate your teen through the unwritten rules of work, and show them how they can check off number eight of the Barefoot Ten, by ‘earning at least one glowing reference from a boss’.

  The lessons you teach your teen over the next few weeks could add millions of dollars to their net worth over their lifetime, and make them happier than 70 per cent of the working population.

  Also in this chapter we’ll cover:

  •Taxi-cab confessions: the hidden benefit of locking your teens up

  •Why 70 per cent of Australians are just phoning it in at work (and how to avoid your teen doing it)

  •How your teen can get a glowing reference from their boss (using Barefoot Rule 85).

  But first, I’d like to introduce you to the hardest-working girl I know: Barefoot Betty.

  Woof, woof!

  A tough old girl

  Take a look at that dog on the cover.

  Her name is Betty, and she’s a sheepdog from the Mallee.

  Betty was given to me a few years ago by my uncle, who told me she was the hardest-working dog he’d ever had. No one knew exactly how old she was, because she’d been passed around among different farmers for years . . . and now she was at my farm.

  Suddenly I had two dogs: Betty the wonder working dog, and Buffett, my very cute (and very blond) golden retriever that I’ve had for nine years now. His skills include sleeping, eating, and laying giant turds in the middle of the lawn.

  Buffett eats his expensive dietary dog food from his doggie bowl.

  Yet when I bought Betty her own bowl, she cocked her head and wouldn’t eat.

  ‘Maybe she’s feeling insecure about her new environment, and she’s off her food,’ proffered my animal-loving wife.

  My uncle had other ideas: ‘Just tip the food on the ground.’

  Betty dutifully started chowing down.

  Buffett sleeps in a kennel with a sheepskin for warmth.

  Betty sleeps on the dirt underneath the ute . . . so she doesn’t miss one minute of work.

  Buffett thinks sheep are his friends (they do look roughly the same) and plays with them till he gets bored, which doesn’t take long.

  Betty, on the other paw, almost jumps out of her skin when it’s time to work. She listens intently to my commands, studying my face like a poker player, and then darts off into the distance to round up the sheep.

  Once, she went missing when we were out working. After spending over an hour searching for her, I gave up—and drove home. ‘That’s the last we’ll see of Betty,’ I announced, stretching for a beer.

  And an hour later, Betty returned panting and exhausted . . . with three dazed sheep in tow.

  ‘Betty found three sheep!’ said my wife.

  ‘Well, I was actually the one who told her to round them up,’ I said, sitting on the porch rubbing Buffett’s belly, drinking my third beer.

  Betty was unfazed, and trotted off to have a kip under the ute.

  Here’s the thing: I wasn’t watching over her shoulder. It didn’t matter. She never gives up.

  Betty always gets the job done.

  Okay, so you may not be lucky enough to have a broken-down old sheepdog to demonstrate what hard work is for your kids.

  But you can show them, and you should. It’s up to you to convince your kid that they’ve inherited the hard-work gene. That’s one of the most empowering beliefs you can give to anyone.

  It’s something I’ve drilled into my kids from the start. Case in point, the other day my five-year-old said to me:

  ‘My name is Pape, and you know what that means, doncha Dad?’

  ‘What does it mean, mate?’ I retorted.

  ‘It means I’m a hard worker!’

  Goosebumps.

  Taxi-cab confessions

  When your teen begins working, I want you to taxi them back and forth, particularly for the first few weeks.

  Yes, even if it means you have to duck off from work early.

  Reason being, amazing things happen when your teen is locked in the car and forced to talk to you . . .

  You’re going to use this taxi time to become their ‘Work Yoda’.

  What’s a Work Yoda?

  Well, the average person does 90 000 hours of work over their life. You’re probably at 20 000 hours (or so) yourself.

  Your teen is at one hour.

  Wouldn’t it have been great if someone had taken you aside when you got your first job and explained how things really work?

  Well, that’s your job, Yoda.

  And it’s highly likely your teen has no freaking idea about what really happens in the workplace. That’s not their fault—the school system brainwashes them into believing that the golden ticket to a career is getting a qualification. And when they have their shiny piece of paper, they get a job and . . . work?

  Ha!

  What they don’t know is that the average workplace is really just another version of their high school classroom: there are people slacking off, gossiping, shirking responsibility, bitching about the boss (the teacher), and blaming everyone (except themselves).

  A 2013 Gallup poll found that more than 70 per cent of Aussies are either ‘ambivalent or completely disengaged with their jobs’.

  Look, there are disengaged workers at McDonald’s. And at the United Nations. And at every place you’ve ever worked. It’s really not about the job at all . . . it’s about the person.

  The truth is that how you do any job is how you do every job.

  The moment your teen steps into a workplace—no matter what the job—they’re going to find the same situation: repetitive tasks, a social hierarchy, rules to follow, workplace politics.

  As their Work Yoda, it’s your job to help your teen work out who’s who in the zoo, and how to spot the slackers.

  They’re easily recognisable by what they say and do. They only work hard when the boss is looking, and they say things like ‘that’s not my job’ (at the same time as they’re thinking, ‘Of course, I’ll work harder when I get a real job’).

  Tell your teen to look out for these people—and discuss them as you’re driving home together.

  Then, give your teen one goal: to purposefully develop a reputation for being a hard worker . . . like Betty.

  Very soon they’ll be known as the kid who gets things done. No whining. No complain
ing. No excuses.

  The payoff for being like Betty is that they’ll get pay rises, and promotions, and a glowing reference (which is what this Barefoot Ten experience is all about).

  But that’s just the start.

  Remember, they’re only one hour into a 90 000-hour career.

  Further, the average person spends more time at work than they do with their family and friends.

  The character trait of being a hard worker will fundamentally change the course of your teen’s life. It’ll quite likely earn them millions of dollars more for the same number of hours that their whining co-workers put in. And they’ll enjoy their work.

  How to be like Betty

  You don’t have to hit your teenager with all the philosophical stuff right now, of course. Instead, focus on the feelings: the pride they’ll feel and the respect they’ll gain by being known as a hard worker.

  Also, I’ve got three ‘Betty Behaviours’ that will make this easy to achieve:

  •Be on time. (Yoda, you set the tone here.)

  •Roll up your sleeves and get the job done, even when the boss isn’t around.

  •Say please and thank you, and smile while you do it.

  Sounds simple, right?

  Well, I’ve employed 55-year-olds who haven’t learned these habits. A little bit of class never goes out of style, and if your teen can nail these three Betty Behaviours they’ll go a long, long way.

  What’s more, they’ll never have to worry about being right-sized, downsized, or replaced by a robot. (Case in point: Betty will never be dumped for a drone—she has a better battery life, and she brings home the lamb.)

  And finally, how do you check off the next item from the Barefoot Ten, and ‘earn at least one glowing reference from a boss’?