I’ve become passionate about telling parents how to raise happy, resilient, creative, confident, entrepreneurial children who are doing something that gives them joy. So many young people are unhappy; parents don’t understand how to help. They think their children should follow their path, but that no longer works for many. For the last 10 years, I’ve been speaking to parent groups; I was an Advisor to EQ Generation, an after-school program that gives children the skills to succeed; on the Advisory Board of MUSE School, preparing young people with passion-based learning; and on the Board of Spark the Journey, mentoring low-income high school students to achieve college and career success.
I wrote...
Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dreams - 99 Stories from Families Who Did
I loved reading about grit–that “passion plus perseverance toward long-term goals” is the key to success–by Angela Duckworth, who pioneered the concept. I particularly loved reading the section in her book, Parenting for Grit, which supports the parenting style of every parent I interviewed who raised entrepreneurial children.
Rather than Permissive Parenting or Authoritarian Parenting, she supports what she calls Wise Parenting, when there’s a “carefully struck balance between affection and respect on the one hand and firmly enforced expectations on the other.”
In this must-read for anyone seeking to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth takes us on an eye-opening journey to discover the true qualities that lead to outstanding achievement. Winningly personal, insightful and powerful, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that - not talent or luck - makes all the difference.
I loved reading this recently released wonderful book. It’s not a parenting book–and Jon would be surprised that I list it with my favorite parenting books—but it’s a fabulous book about his life and how the child of immigrants who ran a Chinese restaurant in Palo Alto became one of the top movie directors in the US with Crazy Rich Asians and the upcoming Wicked.
But I’m including it in this list because he talks about his incredible parents and how they protected, supported, and believed in him. He also describes how he is now using what he learned to raise his four children. My book includes a very brief version of his story, but I loved learning the rest of it.
From visionary director Jon M. Chu comes a powerful, inspiring memoir of belonging, creativity, and learning to see who you really are.
“A must-read for aspiring artists and dreamers of all kinds.”—Ava DuVernay
Long before he directed Wicked, In The Heights, or the groundbreaking film Crazy Rich Asians, Jon M. Chu was a movie-obsessed first-generation Chinese American, helping at his parents’ Chinese restaurant in Silicon Valley and forever facing the cultural identity crisis endemic to children of immigrants. Growing up on the cutting edge of twenty-first-century technology gave Chu the tools he needed to make his mark at USC film…
Every picture tells a story, but it’s not always the one we expect or remember. Christmas Actually is a festive drama about family and forgiveness and a snapshot of modern family life, addressing Instagram to motherhood and everything in between.
Why Christmas? My publisher wanted my new novel to have…
I loved reading about the importance of a growth mindset by the person who pioneered the concept. She explains why it’s so important for parents to praise children for their effort, not their success. She shows that praising children for their intelligence or talent harms their motivation and prevents them from succeeding.
I also love that she shows how important it is for children not to be afraid to fail and to keep trying because, with enough effort, they will succeed. I think these are among the most important concepts in raising creative, entrepreneurial, and risk-taking children.
From the renowned psychologist who introduced the world to “growth mindset” comes this updated edition of the million-copy bestseller—featuring transformative insights into redefining success, building lifelong resilience, and supercharging self-improvement.
“Through clever research studies and engaging writing, Dweck illuminates how our beliefs about our capabilities exert tremendous influence on how we learn and which paths we take in life.”—Bill Gates, GatesNotes
“It’s not always the people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.”
After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this…
I loved reading what Michael Ellsberg says: “The biggest thing you won’t learn in college is how to succeed professionally.” I love that he explains seven success skills you don’t learn in college–like building your brand, learning sales and marketing, and developing an entrepreneurial mindset–while giving us examples of successful people who didn’t graduate from college. Many of these are skills parents can–and should–teach their children.
Of course, I really loved reading the section on my son Elliott Bisnow, who he described as “one of the world’s most successful twenty-something leaders: If you want to be successful and make a huge impact in your life, find exceptional people to learn from and surround yourself with them.”
Some of the smartest, most successful people in the country didn't finish college. None of them learned their most critical skills at an institution of higher education. And like them, most of what you'll need to learn to be successful you'll have to learn on your own, outside of school.Michael Ellsberg set out to fill in the missing pieces by interviewing a wide range of millionaires and billionaires who don't have college deegrees, including fashion magnate Russell Simmons and Facebook foundeing president Sean Parker.This book is your guide to developing practical success skills in the real world: how to find…
Bold, funny, and shockingly honest, Ambidextrous is like no other memoir of 1950s urban childhood.
Picano appears to his parents and siblings to be a happy, cheerful eleven-year-old possessed of the remarkable talent of being able to draw beautifully and write fluently with either hand. But then he runs into…
I loved reading Esther’s book shortly after mine came out because even though we didn’t know each other when we wrote them–and even though they are written very differently–we agree on every major point.
While my book is based on interviews with 70 other families, hers is based on her personal experiences: raising extraordinary children (the CEO of YouTube and the CEO of 23andMe) and creating the country’s largest high school journalism program. But we both agree on how to raise children: trust them, give them independence, teach them to have grit, and model kindness.
______________________________ Being a parent is complicated - but the trick to succeed is simpler than you think.
There are no Nobel Prizes for parenting or education, but if there were, Esther Wojcicki would be the bookies' favourite. Known as the Godmother of Silicon Valley - or simply Woj - Esther's three daughters have all gone on to huge success in their professional fields and, more importantly, their personal lives. What's her secret?
As we face an epidemic of parental and childhood anxiety, Woj has the advice every parent wants to hear: climb out of that helicopter and relax.
This book shakes longstanding assumptions of parenting. Through 99 stories of people who are now changing the world, it shows how to raise creative, confident, resilient children who are filled with joy and purpose. Based on interviews with top entrepreneurs and their parents, it guides you to help your children identify their passion and figure out how they can spend their professional lives doing something they love.
Parents' well-intentioned efforts often boomerang. By ignoring their children’s skills and interests, parents can inadvertently create pressure and anxiety, thwarting their children's ability to excel and find happiness. Too often, following your heart is deemed impractical, whereas it’s often what leads to success and fulfillment. Each two to four page story is easy to understand and relatable.
The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. This book traces the story of the bull in the sky, a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull.
I grew up thinking that being adopted didn’t matter. I was wrong. This book is my journey uncovering the significance and true history of adoption practices in America. Now, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, the renewed debate over women’s reproductive rights places…
