Hello parents, Alex here again.
So, you know, I just had a thought about a story, and I wanna share this story with you, because maybe it’s gonna help you with interacting with your child, with your teenager. Oh, let me get settled back a little bit more.
Anyways. Many years ago, you know, like I mentioned before, I have four children, and my eldest daughter, Michelle, she decided that when she finished high school she wanted to go to college.
Well, myself, I only finished Grade 10, I never went to college, except for a specific subject that I wanted to study, because after I went into the working world I realized that I didn’t know certain things about finance, or business, or sales, or marketing.
So, I went back to college and took one specific course on sales, one specific course on finance. And I built very successful businesses for myself, and I was doing extremely well
And when my daughter finished high school, she said to me, “daddy, I wanna go and study, “I wanna be like you as a business person, “but I wanna go and study at college “from a professor from people that are teachers “that can teach me, “because you only have a Grade 10 education, “and you don’t know all that stuff, “so I wanna learn from them.” I said, “okay, honey, “you know what, whatever you want, I will support you.”
So, she went to college, and she was there for about a month, and one day she came home super excited, and she was jumping up and down, and, “daddy, daddy, I love my teacher, “I love my professor, he’s absolutely amazing, “and as a matter of fact, “he said a whole bunch of things “that you’ve been telling me for years, ” And I’m really excited about it, because “you know, you guys sound the same,”
And I said, “well, honey, that’s really wonderful, “but I’d just like you to do one thing for me. “I would like you to, when you go back to school tomorrow, “please ask your professor how many businesses he ran, “because obviously if he has all of this knowledge, “you know, I really want you to become smart, “I really want you to become a success,”
So, next day she came home from school, and she goes, “well, I had a really good conversation with my professor, “and actually, he’s never ever ran a business, “but he has degrees from three different universities.
“He’s got a PhD, and an MBA, “and he’s got some other letters behind his name “that I don’t even know what it means, “but he’s got all this knowledge, “so obviously he can teach me,” and I said, “honey, well, that’s kind of interesting” I said, “do you know what a teacher makes “as far as money is concerned?” I said, “Did you see what kind of car he drives?” She goes, “yeah, and you know, he was telling me “that him and his wife live in an apartment, “and you know, one day he wants to buy a house.”
I looked at her and I said, “sweetheart, I want you to be a great success “however way you’re gonna do it, I want you to do it. “however, I want you to think about this one thing. “If you are ever going to fly an airplane, “would you like to go and learn “from somebody that has read all about it in a book “and knows how an airplane is made, “and how they can actually know “all the different parts of it, “or did you wanna go and fly with somebody “that actually has flown an airplane many times?”
She kinda looked at me, pondered for a minute, and she said, “you know daddy, you have a point. “it’s very interesting.” Well, unfortunately, or fortunately, she went back to school and she ended up quitting college.
Now, I’m not saying that you tell your child to quit college. What I’m saying is that she quit the college, she came back, she came and worked with me, which I’ve had businesses for many years, she became a great success, she actually built her own business, and she’s a very successful business owner today with her husband, and she’s excited.
So, what’s the message in this? We know that kids may not listen to us, and she didn’t listen to me for years. But then one day, just by understanding about who to speak to, and I would’ve been very happy for her to finish college if it would’ve actually taken her to a place that she could’ve been a success.
However, she realized that, you know, us parents are pretty smart sometimes. Anyways, I just thought I’d share that with you, hope it will help you a little bit, maybe you need somebody else on the outside to communicate with your teenager and to help them to make a decision, you know.
Again, I’m not advocating quitting college, because I see lots of people that become very great successes learning in college and following through right after.
However, sometimes you just need to step aside and you need to listen to the advice of people that’ve been there.
Anyways, hope this helped a little bit, look forward talking to you again on some other subject that can help you interacting and communicating more effectively with your teenager.
