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.

LaShonda Cooks

My parents’ support has meant the world to me. They are both creatives themselves: my dad is a retired art teacher finally doing his own art and my mom plays piano by ear and can read music. When I graduated from college, I packed up my bags, hopped on a flight and moved back home. I was given a safe space to come back to in my parents’ house with no strings attached. I wasn’t pressured with questions about what my next steps were. Read more>>

Aliayah

My mother was a single mom she impacted my life by always making sure that even though my family would tell me I just needed God to help with my mental illnesses my mother never dismissed my feelings of course she told me I needed to pray but she took the necessary steps as a mother to be sure I had psychological help as well she made sure I knew I was loved and even when at times I would scare her during an episode she always stayed by my side and forgave every time I would come out I knew she would be by my side through whatever even if she didn’t understand what was going on she made sure to UNDERSTAND my mindset during these moments she even switched Jobs to be closer to my school if anything happened or needed me Read more>>

Mario Scroggins

Our parents, because there are 5 of us, raised us in the church. There, we were able to learn about our salvation but we also got to witness them display their talents. My mother and father both sang in the choir and held many leadership roles in the church. It was this example that helped us see action in their words. They also strategically supported the individual paths we all took. They never pushed us to do anything, yet, they respected each of our independent ways and ensured that we were supported. Read more>>

Florida Palmore

This could be considered a loaded question. As a child growing up you think more about what your parents are doing wrong, than what they are doing right. Especially if you’re raised by a single mother that has to be both disciplinarian and nurturer. There seemed to be a lot more discipline than nurturing. But as you grow, both physically and mentally. you notice the “right” and nurture in that discipline. So that’s what my mother did right. She disciplined me. She taught me that my actions can have reaction or consequences. She taught me how to be respectful. Read more>>

Wesley Ulloa

Everything! My parents are my true guiding force. They always taught me to believe i. myself and my crazy ideas and allowed me to experiment all while teaching me how to calculate the risks I take as well. It is really hard for parents to instill a fearless can do attitude at the same time as one that will teach you to analyze the best path ahead but they truly helped shaped me through the good and bad of life. They also taught be perseverance. My family was very well off and had a tragedy occur but my family some how was able to ride the wave and get back up even when like knocks you down. Read more>>

Dr. Nancy V Brown Willis

When people see me posing with balloons in the background, they don’t understand the profound symbolism of power behind that picture for me. At age 5, the day I had to face my sexual abuser, I was holding on tight to a white balloon and used that balloon to cover my face. I was trying to hide my face because I felt an unbelievable amount of shame, fear and guilt for telling our secret… My mom snatched that balloon out of my face, threw it at his face and told him that he should be the one covering his face and not me…. Read more>>

Christopher Firestone

I grew up in an amazingly environmentally conscious home. I remember my parents and grandparents tending their backyard gardens every summer. Gardening is such an amazing expression of self-care and self-sufficiency, and I believe it can be a powerful force in our fight against climate change and a strong message to those that remain deniers. It is still a passion of mine to this day. Inside we were always repurposing something, restoring furniture, or doing some other DIY project. Very early on I found a love for buying second hand at thrift stores and hitting the neighborhood garage sales on Saturday mornings. Read more>>

Kenneice Wilson-Smith

Both of my parents were entrepreneurs at an early age they both taught my sisters and me the importance of hard work. I remember playing on rolls of carpet with my sister at my father’s job sites, totally unaware we were my father’s marketing plan. You see my father had a floor covering business and he would bring us with him for a couple of reasons he was our babysitter and we helped generate more business for him. While he would be installing the carpet we would play and neighbors would stop by to get his card. Read more>>

Beth Ross Buckley

My parents, Ed & Thelma Ross, were my biggest fans. It meant the world to me – and I always played for them. The first thing they did right was to have a piano in the house and then they made sure that all 4 children had private lessons. I grew up in a small town in Northern Minnesota in a time when almost everyone played an instrument or sang in the school choir. So, the question wasn’t “Are you going to play an instrument?” – it was “which instrument are you going to play?” Read more>>

Simon Sliva

My Parents had a profound impact in me at a young age, they tought me the important of hard work and the joy of it, the importance of doing what you love for a living and to work with pride and confidance, And always to make sure to give thanks to God for the talents that he bestowed upon me. Read more>>

Journei Green

My mom is so busy, so strong and so determined. I wish to be like her in that order but even better. Watching her only makes me realize it’s possible and your dreams can come true if you work to make them happen. I’m not sure when she rests or will take a break from everything but the one thing I admire is that she keeps going. After my dad passed away in 2015, I learned at only 3 1/2 years old that we won’t breathe forever. While we are here with life, we must express the love we have very pure because those will be the memories you leave behind. I’m blessed to still remember how much my dad loved me while he was here. I actually believe that every time I see a white feather appear from out of nowhere, it’s my dad. Read more>>

Dishita Y. Patel

Being sheltered my entire childhood, through no intentional fault of my parents, the opportunity to branch out and figure out who I am as a person was nonexistent. It wasn’t until the first heartbreak that my parents taught me one of the essential life lessons. Being sheltered can come with suppressing emotions and no clear understanding of anything, so constant confusion and difficulty accepting imperfections. Now you can imagine why that relationship ended. I had completely lost myself in this person. I allowed manipulation, gaslighting, and disrespect. Looking back, it made sense why I stayed for longer than needed. Read more>>

Vannak Seang

Growing up in an immigrant house hold we didn’t have much. Both my parents worked multiple jobs to be able to provide what they could for us. I grew up watching my parents struggle at times to raise us the best they could with what they had, so from a young age I understood why I wasn’t able to get new things or why I wasn’t able to do certain things like other kids, but I had a happy childhood. I understood the value of money at a young age helping my grandmother sell her homemade Cambodian desserts around our neighborhood, I always saved what money I received. Read more>>

Tasha Kadira

My parents did everything right for me my whole lifetime . They have laid down a pathway for me to follow. Both of my parents are also entrepreneurs, so seeing them work for themselves and give my sisters and I an amazing lifestyle gave me encouragement to do it on my own too! Growing up my parents would always tell me about their life before they started their businesses. It was not easy for them because they were not granted the opportunities that I have. This really impacted me on my journey because my parents came from the bottom giving me the opportunity to start from the top. Read more>>

Rosemary Jesionowski

My parents are both creative people! My mom is a very active visual artist and my dad practices creativity in his daily life. They both studied art in college and continue to approach life filled with passion for the arts. Growing up, my sister and I were always supported in our creative endeavors. We took many art courses at various art centers, made weird art at home, and I spent my teenage years and first year of college studying dance. Read more>>

Kori Diener

My parents have offered an incredible example of entrepenuership. They started their own pool cleaning and repair company in 1995, Diener’s Pool and Spa, and have worked together to make it a success. It gave me a first hand example of what working for yourself looks like. Naturally they went through all of the ups and downs, that businesses do. Adjusting to the slower and busier seasons. They have even started doing new things during the winter months, to make up for the income shifts. Its really exciting to see how they have grown. Read more>>

Tamara Guilory

I am my own motivation because of the blessed gift of great parents. I lost my father at a young age and this made growing up difficult for me. Without my father, I made a lot of mistakes and reckless choices. But my mother and grandmother saw greatness in me even when I couldn’t see if for myself. They were consistent in speaking greatness into my existence and intentional in teaching me to be my true authentic self. I was taught to rise above my shortcomings and adhere to the rule of integrity and to always embrace opportunities for growth. Read more>>

Melanie Boychuk

I was very fortunate to grow up in a loving and supportive household where both my parents encouraged my creativity and truly wanted me to pursue it. I remember drawing as a young child (my parents kept some of those early, strange-looking creations), making little story books, creating my own comic book characters, and my family was always interested in what I was doing. Read more>>

Queen Trini

One of my favorite quotes from my dad is, “We don’t raise anything soft around here!”During a moment of failure, he and my mom would comfort me, but not coddle me and encourage me to pick myself up in order to keep going. An immediate example that comes to mind is my relocation to the U.S. Coming to America from a tiny island where people eat differently, talk differently, and live differently required a tremendous amount of heart. My parents believed in me, I watched them believe in themselves and as such, I learned to believe in myself as well. Read more>>

Carolyn Phung

My parents are immigrants from Vietnam. My mother Vietnamese and my father Chinese. They both came to America with the promise of a better life. Growing up, I didn’t see their struggles of being an immigrant with very little English and the financial burden of raising a family. My father, the primarily caretaker worked long hours to provide us with the means of the “American Dream”. Through his resilience, it taught me -yes if we worked hard, we could accomplish our goals, no matter how long and how difficult the task may be. Read more>>