Fascinating article in Thursday's Wall Street Journal. "Raising Bill Gates" is an in-depth look at the early life of Bill Gates and what his parents did right and lessons they learned in bringing him up. Here's what I captured and as the father of three will try to put into practice:
1. Don't freak out when children's interests, talents, and desires begin to diverge from your own. This is natural.
2. They will be independent of you at some point, so when that process begins, go with it. It was only when the Gates began to let young Bill follow his hunches (including leaving college) and stopped trying to control him that he really blossomed.
3. A man named Dorm Braman had a huge impact on young Bill Gates, Sr. when he was a child. The lessons he learned from Braman were put to use as he raised Bill Jr. I loved what Sr. had to say about Braman: he had "no sense of personal limitations whatsoever."
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