In this pathbreaking book, based on interviews with 60 top entrepreneurs and their moms, Margot provides a guide to helping your kids identify a passion and figure out how they can spend their professional life at something they love.
She argues that parents’ well-intentioned efforts to help their children prepare for careers often boomerang, ignoring their skills and interests, limiting their options, and creating an environment of pressures and anxiety where they are less likely to excel and find happiness.
Too often, “following your heart” is deemed impractical, Margot writes, whereas it’s often exactly what will lead to success and fulfillment. This is a book that will shake the longstanding assumptions of traditional parenting.
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In her easy-to-read style, Margot gives us colorful backstories of tech entrepreneurs, actresses and musicians, political activists, and non-profit founders, and tells what they and their moms see as the critical lessons of their upbringing.
You’ll meet such remarkable entrepreneurs as:
WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg’s mom Kathe said, “I think every child has infinite potential if you find what they’re passionate about.”She used to tell Matt, “If you don’t stand up for something, you’ll fall for anything." And, "If you can make something better, what are you waiting for?"
I Am That Girl founder Alexis Jones' mom Claudia Mann taught her it’s good to make mistakes, and said, "It’s easy to not fail; if you can learn how to learn from mistakes, you’re on a completely different track.” She taught her that kindness, brains, and hard work trumped beauty. And said, “Never use a lack of money to walk away from your dreams. If you want it, go get it.”
Under Armour founder Kevin Plank’s mom Jayne told her five sons, “There are no problems, there are only solutions you haven’t found yet.” Her other mottos were: “Embrace adversity and get over it,” and “Live your passion.”
When other kids were mean and teased FEED Projects cofounder Ellen Gustafson, her parents gave her the tools to handle it herself. Her mom, Maura gave her daughter confidence in herself when she stressed that Ellen was talented and the mean kids’ taunts didn’t matter. Maura believed her most important job as a parent was to help her child figure out her true strengths; and while she knew Ellen’s strengths, she understood she had to let Ellen figure it out herself.
When movie producer (Now You See Me 2) Jon Chu's parents saw how much he loved making movies when he was in third grade, they found the money to get him a mixer. And when he was in high school and his mom Ruth saw his passion for filmmaking, she got him books so he could learn more. And when he shot his first movie in college, she drove down and supplied food to the cast and crew for 10 days.
courtesy of White House Photo Office
Margot and her husband Mark have two kids. Austin has written successful pop songs and started a popular LA-based band, Magic Giant. Elliott founded Summit, a noted international conference series for Millennial entrepreneurs, and led the purchase and development of the Powder Mountain ski resort in Utah as a permanent home for the Summit community.
In book talks around the country, Margot has been joined by some of the entrepreneurs and parents she wrote about (see pictures below) in discussing techniques to raise children who are confident, creative, and happy.
Here are some of Margot's book talks. If you want to learn about events in your city, sign up HERE.
Diesel Book Store, Los Angeles, with Crazy Rich Asians director Jon Chu
Barnes & Noble, Tribeca, with National Poetry Slam champion InQ
The Yoga Barn, Silicon Valley, with education pioneer (and mother of YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki) Esther Wojcicki and Method cofounder Eric Ryan
Politics and Prose, Washington, DC with Jayne Plank, mother of UnderArmour founder Kevin Plank