From a natural history perspective teaching a young predator how to fend for themselves is the key to survival and a prerequisite of success. In the final scene of the movie The Lost World: Jurassic Park a female Tyrannosaurus Rex corners her prey (a man) after being lured to the cargo hold. Rather than kill her prey herself she encourages her off-spring to do it by nudging the fledgling forward with her nose. Having pushy parents helps prepare entrepredators for the hunt ahead.
Animals such as lions ‘push’ their young to learn how to hunt and the case of Okovanko delta, how to swim. Many of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs were born to some quite exceptional parents. Examples of those that benefited from early parental guidance or early hunting guidance were Giovanni Medici, his son Cosimo, Christopher Columbus, Jacob Fugger, Samuel Colt, John Law, Matthew Boulton, Mayer Rothschild, Ivar Krueger, John D Rockefeller, Aristotle Onassis, Berry Gordy, Martha Stewart, Richard Branson, Donald Trump and many more.
Law learned banking as a child from his parents and ended up as France’s central banker. Devil’ Bill tried to cheat his son’s as often as he could to sharpen them. Their mother Eliza had one of her boys lending money to farmers at 7% interest as a mere child. The young lad was set on a course to become the world’s richest man ever. Cornelius Vanderbilt benefitted similarly. Donald Trump’s father passed on his experience as a very successful property developer and would tintinnabulate “You’re a Killer... you’re a king” in the ears of his young impressionable son. Sam Colt’s father owned a factory where young Sam began working from the age of ten. Branson’s mother and father maintained a regime designed to ensure their children maintained a spirit of adventure and a ‘can do’ mentality. Interestingly Branson’s father Ted is cousin to Scott of the Antarctic. It’s tempting to think of the African adventurous travelling down through time continuing to push hosts to adventure beyond known boundaries. Branson is off to space next.
In his book Outliers Malcolm Gladwell in contrast highlights the fortunes of a man with no, or very little, parental guidance. Chris Langan, armed with an IQ that’s nearly 25% higher than world’s most famous genius, Albert Einstein. Langan, is an American celebrity purely because his IQ “defies” as Gladwell puts it “human explanation.” But Langan has not won a Pulitzer or Nobel Peace prize or solved any human or scientific mysteries. He isn’t a bum, but his level of success is in no way close to what is remotely commensurate to his IQ. The thing he lacked in his early life, Gladwell proposes, was parental guidance.
ron@thehistoryoftheworldsgreatestentrepreneurs.com
http://www.ronshillingford.blogspot.com
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