Prosperity Parenting: The Roadmap to Raising a Financial Prodigy

The Pathway To Raising Financially Savvy Offspring

No one ever said parenting was easy. It’s hard enough trying to raise kids who are kind, loving, focused and hopefully successful at whatever they set out to do. But if your dreams for your kid go beyond all that — as high as there are zeroes to a billion — then you have your task cut out for you. Thankfully, there are some role models you can look up to in this regard, one of the best examples being Bill Gates Sr.

The father of the once second richest man on the planet, Bill Gates Sr passed away at the age of 94. He left behind a rich legacy and no, that legacy isn’t limited to being the father of the tech magnate and philanthropist, Bill Gates. Here are some pages you could borrow from Bill Gates Sr’s book on how to raise a billionaire.

Allow your child to think

It’s an iconic episode from Bill Gates’s reminiscences — the day he told his mother he HAD to think and suggested she try it too. Bill Gates was a difficult teen, and this was one instance where he pushed his parents to the limit, repeatedly ignoring his mother’s call to come to the dinner table.

They, however, didn’t hold it against him, but enlisted the help of a counselor to help the young boy navigate his thoughts and emotions. After a few sessions, the counselor told the parents to simply let him be as he was the sort of kid who needed his space, both to think and act.

This doc-sanctioned independence early on probably played a huge part in letting Bill Gates grow into the person he would be. Perhaps the decisive factor in moulding his future was the moment his parents decided to try and figure out how to deal with his temperament instead of coming down on him with an iron hand. They allowed him to think, unrestricted, and act on those thoughts.

Show, don’t tell

Bill Gates Sr and his wife were heavily involved in philanthropic work right from their youth, and their discussions at the dining table had a huge influence on their son. Bill Gates credits these discussions to his dedication to philanthropic activities around the world.

Seeing his parents’ commitment to the world around them would surely have created a greater impact on his young mind that any amount of lectures on how to give back to society.

Children almost always end up going further than their parents, but unless you set the bar for them they’ll never know how high to aim. Walk the talk. This has a much greater chance of positively impacting your child’s life than any amount of motivational speeches.

Show them life is about balancing your strengths and weaknesses

Every parent knows to let their children thrive in stuff they’re good at. They give them all the necessary support and encouragement. But how many have the heart to push their children into something they’re demonstrably not good at?

Bill Gates recalls how his parents insisted on his taking sports and music lessons even though he was clearly not cut out for either. Their logic was simple — their son had to know that he wasn’t good at everything and that that was perfectly OK and normal.

These experiences also exposed him to leadership opportunities — the need to delegate what he wasn’t good at and he had the humility to admit it. In these days of helicopter parenting, it’s more important than ever to let your child fail at times, just so they know it’s perfectly normal not to be infallible, and that they can work on their own strengths while relying on capable others when needed.

Offer to Help

Bill Gates, in the tribute he wrote for his father after his passing, mentions how the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation came into being. He was standing in a movie line having an animated discussion with his wife on the various requests for donations they were getting when his dad, who was also with them, chimed in and said, “Maybe I can help.”

He’d go on to help his son set up the foundation and turn it into the global philanthropic presence it is today. With his legal acumen and experience in charitable work, he was able to provide support to his son and even show him a path ahead that the tech titan wasn’t entirely clear about.

Simply put, never be afraid to lend your expertise where it’s warranted. That’s just as important as staying away where it’s not.

Don’t be afraid to be a little unconventional

Getting on board with your adult offspring’s decision to drop out of an Ivy League institution is one thing. Allowing a 13-year old to spend his nights reading and using computers at a nearby university is a whole other ballgame.

Allowing your son to spend chunks of time away from home pursuing projects he was keen on and even taking a year out of high school to work as a programmer at a power plant demonstrates nerves of steel.

More importantly, it displays an extraordinary level of faith in your child and the ability to distance your own hopes and expectations from your child’s idea of what’s right for them. There’s no one right way to go about life. Extraordinary success requires some extraordinary decision making when called for.

Never stop being you

In the early days of Microsoft, Bill Gates often turned to his father for legal counsel. He remembers also that his father played a mentor role for several others, including Howard Schultz of Starbucks, at critical points in their business lives.

A respected attorney, Bill Gates Sr could have spent the last one or two decades of his life in peaceful retirement. He never did. After he left the firm he worked at for 48 years in 1998, he continued to steer the vision of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and remained active in civic life right up to the end of his days.

He traveled to his heart’s content, spent quality time with his family and organised special “10-year-old” journeys with each of his grandchildren. In other words, in the personal as well as professional spheres, he lived a full life — one that his children, including the then second richest man on earth, would be proud to emulate. To raise a billionaire, you need to lay some pretty strong foundations. That’s what your children build on.

Behind every successful person is someone who believed in them, fostered their potential, gave them the space they needed and also a leg up when called for. Everyone aspires to be Bill Gates, but the world also needs more people like Bill Gates Sr.

The real secret to raising a billionaire? Not trying to raise a billionaire at all, but just staying true to who you are and encouraging your children to do the same, irrespective of how much they might earn in the future.