Blueprint to Business

CHAPTER 12Lying to Our Children

It takes time to achieve success. As we've discussed, success means different things to everyone, but no matter what it means to you, you can't get to the top just by hoping for it. It may be a cliché but our children are our future, and your business may someday be passed down to them so it is crucial that they learn, and that you teach them the real life skills now.

We often hear about parents who say, “You can be whatever you want to be, Bobby [or Billy, or Mary]. You can be the president of the United States.” It sounds great, and it's awesome to give your kids a goal, but if you don't follow it up with anything, it's never going to happen. You're just going set them up for failure. When you tell your child, “You can be anything you want to be,” that is so abstract and open that there really is nothing quantifiable. When you say you can be anything you want to be, it's not a reality. They can't be anything that they want to be. Maybe your child can be a singer a dancer, an architect, or a lawyer, and, yes, maybe even the president of the United States, but it has to be set forth in a manner in which children understand that they're going to experience failure. It's not going to be easy, and there has to be a certain level of realism. We have to tell our kids that there's work to be done to become what they want to be.

I was talking to someone recently who claimed to be an eternal optimist. “I'm an eternal optimist.” It's ridiculous. Optimism ...