THINGS THE RICH TEACH THEIR CHILDREN THAT THE POOR DON’T
Behavioural experts have termed parents as the true gene therapists; further explaining
that although your genes lay out a blueprint for your potential development, they do not
determine the way in which you will grow.
Instead, it is the environment your parents create that instructs and directs your genes.
Every day you meet and interact with different kinds of people and I daresay, they've turned
out the way they are major because of the influence their parents had on them as they
grew up.
And this got me thinking about the big guys ruling the economy.
Did their parents have a role in how amazing they turned out?
Well after some digging I came up with a few things that the rich teach their children
which the poor very likely don't.
#1 Decorum Believe it or not, aside from money the world
very much revolves around etiquette and niceties.
In our world today, nothing can be done alone.
We function within a society, full of different people and at different places.
So accordingly, there is appropriate behaviour for each occasion.
Social decorum and etiquette involve more than just the way you speak.
It includes how you present yourself and how you handle others.
It gives personal security and projects a good impression of you while it enhances communication
by breaking barriers.
The corporate world heavily depending on human interactions to make deals and business transactions
has its own set of etiquette.
As such, the rich clearly understand that their children will go out there and will
need to create social relations as they are building their own name.
They, therefore, take care in instilling their children with the correct education on good
manners.
The poor seem to overlook this as you would readily find their children not minding a
lot about etiquette a simple example being their manner of speech, the local slang ever
heard in their neighbourhoods.
#2 Self-expression It is no rare occurrence to find children
of wealthy people taking different career paths than their parents.
A good example is Bill Gate's daughters.
His last born child Sophie Adele Gates is learning ballet and actually, from a very
young age while his oldest, Jennifer Katherine Gates is an equestrian.
The point here is that the rich understand the need for self-expression and give their
children the choice to decide over their own lives.
And this is what the poor do not understand.
Forcing a child's choices to bend to your own opinions is never productive and can even
bring counterproductive results.
“The journey of self-discovery is the most important journey we can take” (De la Huerta,
2014).
Perhaps you do agree with this quote and if you don't you should because self-expression
starts with understanding yourself to earn your unique individualism.
Because doing what you love leads to satisfaction, increased productivity and even success.
#3 Planning You've probably heard that nobody plans to
fail; they simply fail to plan.
Planning your life is one of the most powerful and effective ways to attain what you want.
Most rich people have this habit.
They normally plan for everything before actually doing them unlike the poor where most of them
spend the day without prior planning.
With keen observance, one can easily notice that the rich have a specific way of doing
things from one step to another.
From the meals they take to the activities of the day, their goals in life and how to
spend time on almost everything is planned.
This is easily passed to their children as they take their parents as role models and
would like to do the same things their parents do.
Perhaps focusing on earning the essentials and living on the clock and as the days come
deprive the poor of this aspect.
And consequently, their children end up missing out on this.
#4 Securing their future With their considerable amount of wealth at
their disposal, the rich teach their children to have a sense of ensuring a secured future.
In relation to this, they open saving accounts for their children at a young age and bring
them up encouraging them into putting an effort to at least save.
This covers for perils and gives insurances such as health, mortgage and even a means
of transport.
On the other hand, the poor rarely have enough to actually store for the future.
Most of their lives are spent living hand to the mouth.
As a result, they barely have enough for themselves hence rarely encourage their children to put
the extra they have for the sake of the future.
#5 Maintaining public image Because of their status as public figures,
the rich teach their children on the importance of appearing socially upright whenever in
public.
In most societies, the rich always have a reputation to uphold.
From the official meetings, they attend to the social gatherings in their posh communities,
the parents encourage their children to follow the same footsteps and present a good image
to the community.
With enough resources available at their disposal, they have the ability to dress appropriately
for every occasion.
On the other hand, the poor do not consider appearance in the society as something critical.
Most times, they rarely have gatherings where everyone is looking all good.
In a situation where they have to be socially attractive, they give it their best and unless
another similar function appears, the likelihood of them showing up the same is low.
And this is not advisable as even if one is not a public figure, everyone should mind
their image and reputation.
Maintaining a proper image is part of decorum and portrays a dependable and admirable impression.
#6 Gender equality The world has constantly been fighting gender
bias and we are seeing a breakthrough with changes in stereotypical chauvinist mentality.
The rich have found their way out of this constrictive mindset and teach this to their
children by motivating their daughters to express themselves and their aspirations,
to work hard and gain their financial and social independence.
Women figures are used as an epitome to encourage them that they can make it in life as well.
They are also encouraged to look up to their mothers as role models and try to emulate
them in life.
Unlike the rich, most poor people rarely encourage their girls to gain their own independence
in all life perspectives.
Others are encouraged to just grow up and look for a husband to start a family.
#7 Importance of Education With the higher education, the rich encourage
their children to take their education level to the highest point possible.
With enough resources and experience of a good education system, they train their children
on the importance of going beyond their imaginations.
With this comes social and financial security as the kids learn on the importance of a good
education.
The poor rarely take their children to attend higher education levels due to the lack of
resources.
Most rarely complete their basics hence have no interest on the importance of more education
beyond the basics.
#8 Importance of privacy While living a life mostly under public focus,
the rich barely have social privacy.
This makes them take measures to ensure that their children have the security of privacy
that they need when growing up.
Believing the exposure to be negative for the growth of their children, rich people
are perhaps the ones who greatly understand the importance of privacy.
They encourage their children to stay on their own indoors in the name of safety.
While the poor get to enjoy the joys of community interactions, there is still a lack of privacy.
The children get to grow in a diverse community which exposes them to various factors both
good and bad.
What's your take on this?
Tell us in the comments section.
#9 Importance of health Having a lot of money does not mean that anyone
would love to spend it all on hospital bills.
Even if you can afford top-notch quality health care, you wouldn't want to get sick just to
enjoy it.
To define health it is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being.
For a healthy life cycle, a person needs to have a balanced diet and has to regularly
exercise.
One must also live in a proper shelter, take enough sleep and have good hygiene habits.
The rich understand the importance of health as the first capital necessary for any achievement.
Therefore they teach their children the importance of health by guiding them into forming healthy
lifestyles.
Ensuring they eat healthy nutritious food, attend regular check-ups, maintain hygiene,
and regular exercise.
And not just that, we see them invest in luxuries that make their children's lives easier and
more comfortable.
Making sure they get the best of what they need and what they may want.
It's all about investing in oneself.
As they say, the greatest wealth is health.
#10 Independence There are various benefits to being independent.
It provides financial freedom, self - sufficiency and a responsible, self-driven mind.
Knowing that their wealth could possibly blind their children into being materialistic and
self-absorbed, they strive to inculcate in their children an understanding of the importance
of regarding money as a means to happiness and not the source.
To know the satisfaction that comes with one's own hard-earned money and encouraging them
to carve out their own path.
For example, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have pledged to give almost all of their wealth
to a philanthropic cause.
This goes to show that they expect their children to follow their own aspirations and create
a name for themselves instead of depending on and solely relying on their parents' wealth
and name.
To foster this sense of responsibility right from when they are young, some rich parents
encourage their children to own pets.
Could be a dog, a cat, a bird or any other pet.
It teaches them on responsibility as they will have to clean and feed the pet to ensure
it is safe to stay with humans in the house.
Gradually, this will transform to include all the other aspects in their life, as they
learn to shoulder both fame and blame as they grow up in their lives.
#11 Philanthropy The rich engage in not just charity to provide
quick need to society but also involve themselves greatly in the philanthropic goal of working
towards improving situations in the society.
Not only does philanthropy work to solve a social problem that our community faces, it
helps provide opportunities to today’s society.
For example, philanthropists who are focused on education may provide academic scholarships
to different ivy league universities.
In doing this, the philanthropist is providing the opportunity for someone to attain an education
that they would not be able to afford otherwise.
Having earned millions in their lifetime, the rich have come to understand the importance
of money lies in how it is spent.
From education to health to poverty eradication, and even donation of used items; there are
many causes they support for the betterment of society.
Warren Buffet once said that, if you are in the luckiest 1% of humanity, you owe it to
the rest of humanity to think about the other 99%.
He and Bill Gates prove their sense of responsibility to the world as they pledged to give most
of their wealth to charity mainly through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
We can see this philanthropic mindset being passed on as Buffet's and Gate's children
are also involved in philanthropic causes.
To serve the community and give back to society in a noble cause.
As John Rockefeller said, "The best philanthropy is constantly in search of the finalities—a
search for a cause, an attempt to cure evils at their source."
#12 Family bonding After a tiresome work period, we always need
a rest once in a while.
Especially in the current fast-moving world we readily get swallowed up in the flow of
hectic days.
The rich mainly encourage having a family fun-based activity for everyone to ensure
both relaxations from tiring schedules as well as deepening of bonds between family.
The children are taken to the parks, swimming pool, horse riding or even a road trip that
is taken as a mind relieving activity.
With this upbringing, they grow up understanding the importance of relations and the closeness
of a family.
They then long for those activities and try to set them up again with their friends.
Holding parties and get-togethers.
While bonding may be there for the poor, in the quest of meeting needs most times they
do not have the luxury of even sparing time for their children.
And although understandable, this is not good as it leaves the parents outside the life
and growth of their children.
It leaves the children wanting for care and attention they deserve.
As you can see, rich parents take great care in the upbringing of their children.
And some of the things outlined can and in fact should be done for children even without
having the blinding amounts of riches.
If Katica Herjavec, mother of Herjavec Group CEO, Robert Herjavec, did not support him
during their hard times as immigrants then perhaps we wouldn't see him as he is today.
Nor would we hear him celebrate his mother as his inspiration.
She once told him, "Robbie, nobody in this world is better than you and you are no better
than anyone else."
Now isn't this thought-provoking?
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