Parents teach us many things including how to be a parent. We can learn from their mistakes, sure, but we can also learn a lot from the things they got right. We asked successful entrepreneurs and creatives to open up to us about their parents and what they felt their parents got right.

Kristina Hoyer

A little background on Ken and Kathy Hoyer would bring better vision and context to this story. My father, Ken, grew up in downtown Detroit. He always used to tell me that he was lucky to have made it out alive. My mother, Kathy, grew up in a white glove family in Wisconsin. I love telling stories at length, and am obsessed with extraneous detail, but I will save you from that by telling you that my parents brought the yin and the yang. That is exactly what they did right as parents. Read more>>

 

Lindsey White

From a young age, my parents were always very supportive of my creative endeavors. Growing up with a single mom, my mom was always my number one fan when it came to making art. My introduction to art came naturally in elementary school as I began with drawing my favorite cartoons and creating my own characters. My mom was always the person I turned to when I needed color suggestions, character ideas, or more hole punched paper for my big green drawing binder that I religiously carried with me. Read more>>

 

Citlalli Beltran

Everything that I have, everything that I’ve accomplished, and everything that I am is because of my parents. My parents came to this country with nothing to give me everything. “To be an American” is the title of my life. When I go to school or to work, I remind myself, “This is what it’s like to be an American.” because this is something my parents repeated to me many times growing up. The notion that I am privileged is at the forefront of my brain because right next to it is the reminder that my parents did not receive the same opportunities as me when they lived in Mexico. Read more>>

Alberto Ramirez Jr

There’s not one particular thing my parents did for me or said that guided me into the visual and performing arts. They were , quite simply , very positive toward the things I enjoyed like drawing or reading comic books , for instance. They never discouraged me . And that kind of love goes a very long way. Well into adulthood. Read more>>

Morgan Hutchings

There will always be someone better than you! This is by far one of the greatest things my mother has ever taught me. To some reading it on paper may sound cold or harsh but for me, coming from a loving mother who was teaching her son about losing it meant the world. Early in my T-ball days, I lost a game of no significant importance but I was devastated that we lost. As all great mothers do she comforted me with the easy things; its okay son, there will be another game, don’t worry about it, you did great. Read more>>

Jacqueline Little Aka JLittle

I really lucked out in the parent department. They made sure I always felt loved, supported, and safe. They eliminated extra stressors and points of worry, and told me my only job was to do well in school. If I don’t have anything serious to worry about, and I only have one job, I better do it well – so I excelled. My parents raised me telling me I can do whatever I put my mind towards, which instilled a ferocious work ethic. Read more>>

Cristina Acevedo

What did my mom do right? My mother raised me to be an independent woman from a very young age. Growing up, I lived with my two older brothers and my mom in Zacatecas, Mexico, which was a very conservative community at the time. When my mom was pregnant with me, she decided to separate from my dad. She didn’t want to raise us in a hostile environment, so she raised us as a single mother. Read more>>

Zach Allen

I was blessed with two really great parents; both as individuals and as a unit. They put our family first and provided everything we needed to be successful. Despite this, at times early on I did everything I could to NOT take advantage. Fortunately time, maturity, and failures allowed me to get my life headed in a direction that they could be proud of. Read more>>

Ryan Ashe

My brother and my parents come from two very different backgrounds. My dad is extremely analytically brained and as such has always been very business savvy, while my mom has always been a self starting creative. They do however, share a common ground in that they’ve both been highly supportive of us and our endeavors. Read more>>

Kal Anderson

As a kid, I was always surrounded by art supplies- and books, and math worksheets, and dance, and music, and the zoo. I was enriched, all around. But as I grew into my late teens and early 20s I thought that I somehow should be settling down to do something more serious. And in my very sophomoric way, I majored in mathematics in college and got a lucrative job in MedTech, and proceeded to be miserable. Read more>>

Dr. Artelia Wadley

My parents who have been married for 43 years and still together until this day have played one of the biggest parts in who I am today. Growing up my parents were very open about allowing me to choose what it was I wanted to do and never making or forcing me to participate in things that didn’t interest me. Their parental approach was firm ,but very laid back at the same time. My mom taught me how to be loving, forgiving, caring, and that beauty on the inside is just as important as beauty on the outside. Read more>>

Jovana Stosovic

Being raised by a single mother who was foreign at that; came with a treasure chest full of tips and tricks to help me along the journey of life. A life motto my mom has always preached to us is that “There’s always a solution.” Regardless of the challenge at hand, and no matter how difficult, there is a way to solve it. Even if it’s not the way you expected it. It may not be an easy path to travel or endure, and at points it may feel unbearable, but the end results always seem to be in your best interest AND will be worth it. Read more>>

Kristen Twele

My parents did one thing my whole childhood and that was encourage me – to do anything and everything I wanted. They always wanted the best for me, like most parents. But they never made me feel like there was one path I had to take verses the other. They just told me to find what it was that made me happy and go do that. There was never any judgement on what that thing was. I remember when I was going to college, I had it set in my mind that I wanted to be a nurse. I picked my college because of that. Read more>>

Chimnedum “OMEGA” Nga

I am lucky to have been blessed with two of the most solid individuals God has ever created as parents. I cannot ignore the impact they have had on my development and growth from a boy into a man. My parents were born and raised in the southern region of Nigeria, an area that used to be referred to as Bendel state. I was also born in that same region, but by the time I was born Bendel State had been been divided into Edo state and Delta state. Read more>>

Lisa York

My parents have always been supportive of my nomadic/artistic life, and having many art friends, I am definitely aware of how lucky I am to have such encouraging parents. My parents mantra was “pursue your dream of being an artist until you discover you need to do something else with your life.” So far I have not needed to stop doing art. Read more>>

Brianna Leidy

My parents did everything right and I truly cannot thank them enough for their support throughout my entire life. I have met many peers who wanted so badly to pursue an art of some kind, but the lack of support from their parents prevented them from doing so. At a very early age, I was already drawing animals (mostly our pets– we had a mini zoo, haha!). They were always so proud of my art and encouraged me to keep working at it. Read more>>

Michelle Newton

My mom was honest about tough topics. She was a single mom raising 5 children with no help from the fathers. She cried, she yelled, she cursed, she pushed me beyond measures I didn’t think I could reach. Witnessing her tenacity but also her vulnerability has been and still is life changing for me. She did not hand me anything and as an adult I have a greater appreciation for this than I had as a child. Read more>>

Melba Tellez

Growing up in a single-parent household with a mom who worked multiple jobs to provide for our family, I learned the importance of hard work and perseverance at a young age. Despite the challenges we faced, my mom always instilled in me the value of taking risks and being bold, even in the face of fear. Her unwavering support and encouragement significantly impacted my personal and professional journey. Read more>>

Darel Hope

My Mother Diana, Is the most supportive and inspirational person my life. She taught me to be fearless and to believe that I could do anything that I wanted to. Watching her work ethic and drive to take care of my brother and myself as kids, Showed me that nothing is impossible with hard work and belief. She instilled belief in self and the unwavering love that will be passed down to my child and generations to come. Read more>>

Lex Holley

I love this question because I don’t give my mom enough credit for everything she did for my sister and me as a single parent. I couldn’t see it growing up, but now as an adult, I see it! I see the sacrifices she had to make; I see the hard decisions, the second-guessing, and feeling like a failure because she couldn’t give us exactly what our friends with a mom and a dad had, but if I’m being honest, my mom did phenomenally! She had the most important bases covered. Read more>>

Kandy Robertson

Talking about my parents brings a variety of emotions. I used to speak of the negative things that my parents have done or haven’t done for me. How I struggled without the support I felt I needed. This topic comes personal to me, however, I want to speak on this question from a different perspective, and share the story of the lives of my parents. Read more>>

Gretel Vazquez

I was raised by my grandparents and they were always my main source of inspiration. I feel that when I was younger, these lessons while important, did not feel as impactful. However, once I became a parent, hard work and perseverance have become some of my strongest values. I think there is so much power in being proud in the effort you put into things, whether is your work or your family. Teaching me to appreciate the value of hard work is definitely something I am grateful to my mother for. Read more>>

Erin Carere

My parents are kind, humble, smart, funny and original folks; a city gal and a farm boy who met on my mom’s first day of college at age 17 and who have been together ever since… that’s married over 50 years, folks! Wow. They did so many things right. But I thought I’d share a few tidbits from the “It Happened to Me” files to demonstrate some of the values they instilled in me through their own examples. Truly I could, and perhaps should, write a book about this! But for now, we’ll start with my mom. Read more>>

Nitro Billy Goat

When My mom passed away when I was 3 on thanksgiving my dad took care of me and my sister. As I aged, my dad had me in church playing drums and always had me doing something musically. I made my first song on my dad’s laptop at 16 and when my dad noticed the passion I had for music, he bought me my first recording setup and I’ve never looked back since. My dad always had me around anything music related and I thank him for that. Music is my calling and he knew it all along Read more>>

Rochonda Ferrelli

When I was a kid, my step-father was a business man and I am grateful that he instilled many entrepreneurial skills in me. He would often times bring home random things for me to sell to our neighbors. During the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles era (the one in the 80’s) he brought home ninja turtle sunglasses for me to sell. They sold for $3 each and I got to keep $1 for every pair I sold. I went door to door displaying a cardboard box lid filled with individually wrapped sunglasses in different neon colors each with a ninja turtle on the side. Read more>>

Crystal Valdez

Growing up, I was sort of a “all hands on deck” kind of child. My mother wasn’t able to keep custody of me past somewhere around 2nd grade. When my great-grandparents received full custody of my older brother and I and we were transitioning back to living with family, she was given opportunities to be around. It took me a lot of processing, growing, and reflection to recognize that she was doing the best she could and surviving some severe battles. Read more>>

La Bronaca Bradley

I think we all have times where we thought our parents should have done this or that better, especially in black families. We often don’t realize until we either have children or have experienced enough to know they were doing the best they could. Growing up my parents didn’t always make it to my games when I played sports or to school plays, they were often busy working or trying to rest from working. Read more>>

Adara Meyers

My parents loved and respected art and literature: my mother was an illustrator and my father is a voracious reader. I attribute the fact that I’m fundamentally driven by the world of art and ideas to their constant encouragement of my creativity and curiosity. It’s difficult for me to point to a handful of stories that convey this, because I most deeply cherish how they considered art an integral, everyday aspect of being alive: not a “hobby,” not a “phase,” but a process of enjoyment and questioning, a process of of understanding ourselves and our shared humanity. Read more>>

Whitney Pyles

My mother raised me to be kind to everyone. From the time I was little girl she has always made it a point to talk to strangers. Whether it’s the customer service person on the other end of the phone call, the folks working or shopping at the grocery store or whoever sits next to us on a plane – she always makes it a priority to not just say hello and ask them thoughtful questions but also to make them feel heard, seen, and appreciated. Read more>>

Lora Moore

I think the biggest thing my parents did right was instill in me a solid work ethic. My father ran his own business, and I watched just how much work being the business owner was. I was always made to work for something I wanted. Taught that nothing would just be handed to me and that if I wanted to be successful, I needed to outwork those around me. Read more>>