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.

Natalie Goerner

My parents certainly did some things right. They did lots of things wrong as well, as all parents do, including myself but what I do know is that they taught me to work hard, follow my passions and that my true calling is in the service of others.

My dad was a business owner (he had a Volkswagen repair shop) and amidst his own personal difficulties and challenges, he worked hard to build himself a business that was loved by many because of his strong work ethic, honesty, loyalty and sense of responsibility. I admired this and have realized in the last few years (since I have taken a leap to leave my secure work, follow my passion, start my own practice fully…that my heart’s work and my entrepreneurial drive comes from him) Read more>>

Laurel Holland

My parents were very independent, progressive thinkers. They challenged the status quo through their own choices – my father in wanting to establish his own business and my mother in not being the typical “neighborhood” mom who sat out on the lawn gossiping. My Dad was into Eastern philosophy and had no interest in organized religion. Not being indoctrinated into any religious belief system, we were left to discover our own spiritual path and nature. I have felt like this was a gift they gave us, and today have a spiritual practice/philosophy that supports both my life and my professional work. Read more>>

Ana Flaster

My parents showed me how to be brave, especially my mother, who led our working-class family out of Cuba eight years after the revolution she’d backed went awry. I was just shy of six at the time. My parents faced some of the hardest decisions of their lives. They’d never thought they’d have to leave their beloved barrio, where four generations of family and life-long friends lived. But the new revolutionary society and its repression forced them to do the unthinkable: flee the country. They knew they’d probably never be able to return and their families would probably never be able to get out. They hoped to get to the US, but they’d have to start again without the support of community or an understanding of the language or culture. Read more>>

Oleksandra Korolenko

My parents recognized and nurtured my artistic talent from a very early age. I still remember one of the first drawings I was proud of—a knight in armor that I copied when I was just a child in daycare. That moment sparked something in me, and both my parents and my teachers saw that I had a talent. Read more>>

Christa Smith

I love this question of what did your parents do right because even if you feel like you grew up in a dysfunctional household there is often something that sticks with you that helps you thrive in adulthood. I know it did for me. I come from a family of divorce and my mom was a single mother who worked full-time. Each parent taught me valuable lessons, but one from each standout. My mother was always creating art and encouraging expression. She purposely bought a full-length mirror before they were popular and set it up in our living room so we could watch ourselves dance as we listened to the music from the record player. She also let us paint on one of our bedroom walls anything we wanted. Read more>>

Zipei Zhang

My parents did something incredibly right—they let me make all the important decisions in my life on my own. Whether it was choosing which university to attend or deciding on my field of study, they trusted me completely. That freedom shaped me into someone who takes ownership of their path, both in life and in my creative career. Read more>>

Isabel Northington

I don’t regret how I grew up.
Our home was small, our struggles were real, but it was filled with love – and that made it rich in ways money can’t measure.
When I was a year old, my mom got very sick.
My dad worked two jobs for most of his life to cover her medical bills.
Our trailer had water damage and no working water heater for years.
We warmed our bathwater on the stove… Read more>>

Ingrid Neel

The fact that I would choose this life all over again says everything about what my parents did right.

I picked up a tennis racquet at age 5 already having sampled several sports to which my parents introduced me. So the sport interested me in a way that was organic and joyful. Unlike many of my peers’ parents, mine let things unfold naturally. They didn’t obsess over burnout, they didn’t worry about me being “normal,” and they never treated tennis like an investment that needed to pay off. Both of them saw the intrinsic value in the sport, which taught me that when we are truly interested in something, what seems like work to others is play to us. And I’m going spend far more time and be far better than the girl who sees it as work. Read more>>

Khalil McFarland

I’ve come to understand that they played their roles the best they could, with what they had. Their sacrifices—though often unseen or unspoken—have without a doubt shaped me into the person I am today. Read more>>