What I would tell kids.

Even early on kids pick up the difference between beating the system vs being the system.

We spend too much time trying to fight city hall, when we should become city hall.

Kids pick up on our attitudes and habits way more than we give them credit for. You give kids the example of getting smashed and I guarantee you will create an unproductive future. That's what we did. Don't get me wrong, if you want to party do so, just create a way to do it so that it is invisible to the kids. Kids are what they eat. A few slip through the cracks and become a success but most will follow suit, and if the suit says "I don't give a d*** than that is what we will get for our future.

I made a trip to China and the rest of the fareast some 20 years ago and they, even then, were telling me that what has happened to the US was going to happen. I thought to myself "are you kidding, we are the stars of the world". Everyone wants American, right? Not so. I went back 10 years ago and saw a completely different middle class to the 10 years before. China was not the same place. While the US was in decline China and India has boomed. China and the fareast have taken innovation seriously. Copying has not only been flattery for the US but major money for China. Many manufacturing experts say that from 1970-95 the US built junk as compared to the fareast in most product categories. In the last 50 years the US has gone from #1 to #8 in manufacturing an innovation out of the top 110 countries. We had the technology but we chose money over quality. We still have the technology (have you driven a Ford lately?) now our minds need to get around work ethics, or in many cases back to work ethics.

Let me ask a simple question, one you have heard many times. If you had a million dollars would you still work? There's your answer to solving our financial woes and the message we might be sending our kids. Most Americans do not believe in our system enough or find enough enjoyment in it to keep working. 1 out of 3 lottery winners are broke in 5 years and over half in 7. We go nuts over the idea of getting money. So much so that we put money in front of quality.

I would tell them first of all make sure you have a business license (the states have been cracking down on things like lemonade stands)

I would say invest in your business by putting aside an amount to buy more items to make more lemonade.

Save enough money to later open another lemonade stand on the next corner.

And put some money aside for yourself.