Have you given birth to a minimogul?

Denise Hernandez definitely has. She is the mother of Aaron Chavez, the topic of a story in today’s Bee by Bethany Clough. If this story was posted on Central Valley Moms, the headline would be “Bright, Good Kid Quits College!” And the drophead below would say, “Mother screams, ‘Noooooooooooooooooo!’”

OK, but this is on the normal front page of the newspaper so the headline says, “Dinuba teen riding social media wave” and the drophead says, “Aaron Chavez becomes successful in business using Facebook, Twitter. “
This 19-year-old is a minimogul who’s (gasp!) quitting school to pursue a great business opportunity selling T-shirts that benefit charities, consulting on social media — and whatever else he thinks of before breakfast tomorrow. There is a great quote in the story from his mom, Denise, that says, “I’d be like, ‘Aaron, clean your room’; and he’s on a business call.” This is a kid who made $20,000 in a single month.

As a businesswoman, I get it. As a mom, I’m so scared for him. Not sure why, because I went back to school in my 30s, and it was a great experience. Probably, it’s because most people never go back and many regret it all their lives. At some point, I’m sure they are looking at their parents and asking, “Why did you let me do that?”
There are a lot of opportunities swirling around out there, and this recession has become a time when “common knowledge” has been thrown out into the recycling bin. College is one of those things. With all the tuition hikes, class cuts and layoffs, is it really worth it?

The Freakonomics guys over at the New York Times have cooked the numbers, and any way you slice it, the answer is yes for most of us. A college education pays for itself in an increased salary in two years if you go to a state school, in six if you pay private tuition.

However, once you get out, it’s often becoming about inventing a job not getting a job. Innovation is the global currency. Our kids are more often striving for patents, rather than positions.

So how are we to coach our minimoguls, whose routes to success and happiness may not go a traditional way? Do you have one of these kids? How are you handling him or her? If your child wanted to quit college to start a business, would you be supportive or just flip out?