10 Nov 4 Tips for Raising Successful Adults
by Kara Ferreira
All parents hope to raise their children to be successful, self-sufficient adults. Parenting books and articles are full of all the things that we should (or shouldn’t) be doing as parents. Aside from specific parenting styles and techniques, there are certain parental behaviors that lend to self-sufficiency in adult children.
A recent CNBC article, written by the author of Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dream, looked at 70 successful entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds, and identified four main traits:
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They encouraged their children’s passions both in and outside of the classroom.
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They empowered their kids to make their own decisions.
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They valued happiness but not necessarily high-paying jobs.
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They taught financial literacy to their children.
While entrepreneurship is not necessarily a goal that every parent has for their child, entrepreneurship demands determination, resiliency, focus, leveraging one’s own talents as well as those of others, and can be a great benchmark for self-sufficiency.
Another great point from the author, Margot Machal Bisnow, in an interview in The Atlantic, is that it’s okay for kids to excel in some areas and not in others. Parents of successful entrepreneurs tended to allow their children to pursue the things that they enjoyed and excelled at, without forcing them to dedicate a lot of time to improving areas that they were not as naturally gifted in.
Now, this does not mean that a child who dislikes literature class gets to skip it entirely, just that they don’t have to come to be as strong in that subject as they are in another subject that they gravitate more naturally towards.
Overall, parents of entrepreneurs listened to their children and enabled them to have a stake in many of the decisions that dictated how they spent their time and what activities they pursued, and empowered them to be in control of their finances.
If you find that you need additional support with parenting, we’re here to help! If you’d like to explore working with a therapist, contact us at (734) 323-4897 or info@galvingrowthgroup.com for more information. Our practice, based in Novi, Michigan, is home to a team of psychologists with a wide range of expertise. We also offer teletherapy and can see anyone in the state of Michigan.
Kara is a G3 Contributing Writer
