May 2, 2025 • 32 mins
Are you raising the next generation of innovators and problem-solvers? In this eye-opening episode, I chat with Margot Bisnow, author of “Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dreams,” about nurturing entrepreneurial skills in children from a young age.
Margot shares fascinating insights from her interviews with 100 successful entrepreneurs and their families, revealing common threads in their upbringing that fostered creativity, resilience, and a willingness to take risks. We explore:
Embracing Passion and Failure
- Why supporting your child’s interests outside of academics is crucial
- How to reframe failure as a learning opportunity
- The importance of allowing kids to explore different passions
Shifting Parental Mindsets
- Why the traditional path to success may no longer apply
- How to recognize and nurture entrepreneurial traits in your children
- The value of letting go of preconceived notions about “success”
Fostering Creativity and Independence
- Examples of how successful entrepreneurs were supported in their youth
- Why forcing children into specific career paths can backfire
- How to create an environment that encourages innovation
This conversation is packed with practical advice for parents looking to raise confident, creative children who are ready to tackle the challenges of tomorrow. Whether your child dreams of starting a business or simply wants to make their mark on the world, Margot’s insights will help you support their journey.
Are you ready to nurture the entrepreneurial spirit in your family? Listen now and discover how to set your children up for success – whatever path they choose.
Want to skip ahead?
04:01 Understanding Entrepreneurial Traits and Parenting Approaches
13:49 Embracing Children’s Passions and Evolving Career Landscapes
24:21 Nurturing Children’s Interests and Supporting Their Journey
Margot Bisnow
raisinganentrepreneur.com
https://www.facebook.com/raisinganentrepreneur1/?fref=ts
https://www.instagram.com/margotbisnow/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/margot-machol-bisnow-a29550b5/
Grab more resources at https://easystylewithsami.com
Follow us on Facebook at https://facebook.com/ssmulhern
Follow us on Instagram at https://instagram.com/ssmulhern
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (00:00):
Welcome to Easy Style with Sami. I'm your
(00:02):
host. Sami Bedell Mulhern, eachepisode, I invite a friend,
family member, colleague or justsomeone I've met on this journey
called life, to come and sharetheir personal style and
approach to business, parenting,life and everything in between.
You'll hear motivational andinspirational stories that will
help you refine and build yourown personal style. Remember,
(00:25):
style is easy when it comes fromwithin.
Hey friends, welcome to EasyStyle with Sami. Today, my guest
is Margo Bisnow, Margo, thanksfor being here today.
Margot Bisnow (00:35):
Oh, it's my pleasure. So I we've never met
in person, so I love that thereis just a combination of people
on this podcast that I know welland those that I'm getting to
meet for the first time and kindof learn alongside of all of you
that are listening.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (00:48):
So Margo, before we kind of jump in, would
you mind sharing a little bitabout who you are?
Margot Bisnow (00:55):
Wow, who am I? I Yeah, so since we're talking
about school, my dad was aprofessor. I grew up in
university towns. Everyone Iknew practically had a PhD. It
(01:19):
didn't occur to me that therewas another way in life. I went
to Northwestern, I worked for acouple years, and then I got an
MBA at Northwestern, and then Icame to Washington for a year,
as my husband says, My year isalmost up. I met him, I got
(01:40):
married. I had two kids. Iraised the kids. I had a lot of
interesting jobs. I worked ingovernment. I did things like
foreign assistance, which Iguess is now frowned upon. I
didn't really understand thatthere were different kinds of
(02:03):
brains other than mine, until mykids were maybe in high school,
and I'm happy to share thosestories with you, it didn't
occur to me that I could have achild who didn't graduate from
college until my older son toldme, after two and a half years
(02:23):
he was dropping out. So I'vedone a lot of sort of
interesting professional things,but then my older son, the one
who dropped out, started anorganization called Summit,
which is an organization ofyoung entrepreneurs. And I would
(02:46):
go to these events and meet allthese young people who had
started all these amazingbusinesses and organizations,
and I asked them, like, I'm justso curious how you ended up the
way you are. Like, so willing towork so hard, take on so much
risk, to work so single mindedlyto achieve your goal. And they
(03:07):
all told me the same thing. Theyall said I had someone who
believed in me, who told me Icould do anything I put my mind
to. And usually it was a parent.And even more, usually it was
their mom, not always, butusually. And I was so struck by
this, I kept talking about it,and the kids said, you have to
write a book. And I said, Ican't write a book. And they
(03:28):
said, No, you have to write abook. Anyhow, they wore me down.
And I wrote a book, and theywrote in the forward, everyone
needs someone to believe inthem, and sometimes that's even
your kids. So and then I updatedthe book. And so this one that
we're talking about now is thesecond edition, and it's now my
(03:49):
favorite topic of conversation,what I discovered and what I
learned and what I think is soimportant. So I'm thrilled to
have this conversation, becauseit's my favorite thing in the
world to talk.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (04:02):
I love that. And I similarly had an
experience too, like when I wentto college and even when I
started my first jobs, was whenI first realized, like, oh,
people don't all think the same.Or like, logic or common sense
isn't the same for everybody,because, like, my jobs in
college were in college were incustomer service, working
(04:22):
retail, and I would be like,This is not hard work. Like, you
know, the some of these thingsin the way that we interact with
people, or the way that we doour jobs, like, should just be
obvious. And what we think isobvious is not always obvious.
And so I think it's interestingthat you really leaned into this
entrepreneur thing. Becausewould you say like, age aside
(04:45):
that that the entrepreneur, Idon't want to say gene, but gene
or like style or like approachto things is a unique thing.
Like, not everybody has that inthem. So have you noticed like,
a difference in like? Youngerentrepreneurs versus, like other
adults that have maybe beenthrough a couple different
(05:05):
things, like, are thepersonality traits still the
same?
Margot Bisnow (05:09):
So I would say, first of all, you can't make
your child an entrepreneur,right? You cannot take a child
who has no curiosity and sendthem to entrepreneur camp and
think they will become anentrepreneur. There's definitely
something in that kid. And alsonot everyone wants to work that
(05:32):
hard, not everyone wants to takeon that kind of risk, which I
certainly understand. But in mybook, I interview 70
entrepreneurs and five of themhave a sibling who's an
entrepreneur, only five of the70, and in all five cases, they
also have a sibling who's not anentrepreneur. So the point is,
(05:55):
and it's what my book is about,you can create these conditions
so that you're raisingentrepreneurial children, and
there are things you can do tomake your children more
entrepreneurial, and whether ornot they become entrepreneurs is
kind of beside the point,because you can be more
(06:18):
entrepreneurial, and you can bea librarian, yeah, do it with
creativity and ingenuity andhave sessions at this at the
library to for reading to theparents. I mean, you can be
entrepreneurial in anything youdo. You can't make your kid an
entrepreneur, but you cancertainly create creative, risk
(06:40):
taking resilient children,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (06:43):
yeah. And I think maybe because, you know, I
have a 13 and a 16 year old aswe're recording this, and, like,
we're very much in that stage ofparenthood where we're like, are
we setting them up to, like, beable to be the independent
people they need to be when theygo out in the world. And so, you
know, I think maybe what you'retalking about, and maybe what
(07:04):
you could list off would be likesome of the skill sets that we
would typically find in anentrepreneur, because I love
that you're talking aboutcreativity, thinking outside the
box, but also dedication to anidea. And I would say even you
use the term risk, butpermission to fail. Like, I
think it's very hard for parentsto, like, let go of that grip
(07:25):
and to allow our kids to fail atyoung ages. We want to protect
them. So like, what are some ofthe common characteristics that
you kind of see in a quote,unquote, traditional
entrepreneur? Because also, as Iramble on, you know, all parents
might be very risk aversethemselves. It might be like,
Heck, no, I don't want to raisean entrepreneur. I want to raise
(07:47):
somebody who's going to go toschool be like, traditional job
and like, have that traditionalincome. So maybe kind of explain
what some of thosecharacteristics are,
Margot Bisnow (07:56):
right? But I also, I just want to jump on
your very last statement beforeI talk about, yeah, and that is,
we can have an idea of how wewant our kids to turn out, but
that shouldn't be forced on thechild. And maybe you want your
kid to be a doctor or a lawyeror some sort of professional,
(08:20):
and maybe you think that wouldbe the best outcome for your
child. When I talk to parentswho say this, and they say, you
know that that's not really thedirection that their kids seem
to be headed. And I say, so Ijust want to get this straight.
Your goal for your child is theyshould spend 40 years doing
something that doesn't give themjoy. Yeah, and so many of the
(08:49):
parents in the book, when theydiscovered what it was that
their kids loved playing videogames, directing movies,
cooking, sewing, whatever, atfirst, they were horrified, but
eventually, when they saw howmuch joy their kids got from it,
they they were like, if this iswhat makes you happy, where
(09:12):
we're for it 100% and I wastalking to one dad after I'd
given a talk, and he came up tome and he said, I'm so upset I
haven't talked to my child inthree weeks. He started this
little company in his dorm room.I think it's really stupid. He
just announced he's dropping outof college, and he wants to move
home and work on this littlecompany, and I think he's
(09:33):
ruining his life. And I calledover this guy I know, Craig
Clemens, who I know didn'tgraduate from college and has
made a gazillion dollars. And Isaid, Craig, let me ask you a
question. You have a choice ofhiring two kids. One started a
company, worked dropped out ofcollege, worked on it for a
couple years, decided it's notthe right company, and decides
he really needs experience in abigger company and to kind of to
(09:56):
see what he wants to do. Theother kids stayed in college.
Wasn't motivated, wasn't a greatstudent, wasn't passionate about
anything, but graduated. Whichkid are you going to hire? And
without blinking, he said, I'mgoing to hire the first kid, and
so are the other 100entrepreneurs in this room.
So I would say to parents likeyou, just have to get over it
(10:16):
the way we grew up. And the paththat worked for us isn't the
path anymore, and you have tounderstand that your kids may be
on a different path, and youhave to watch them, and you have
to see what gives them joy, andyou have to nourish that and
support that. So that's sort ofthe answer to the second part of
your question. The answer yourquestion is there are so many
(10:42):
things that are super importantif you want to raise
entrepreneurial children. One ofthem, which you mentioned, is
the attitude toward failure,which is incredibly important. I
talk about that a lot in thebook. I love the Billie Jean
King quote, we don't call itfailure, we call it feedback and
(11:02):
parents, every parent Iinterviewed the most diverse
group. I mean half men, halfwomen, every race, religion,
socio economic background,education level, number of kids
in the families, born here, bornoverseas. I mean small towns,
big cities, you name it. And tomy amazement, they basically all
raised their kids the same, andone of them was they never
(11:24):
punished their kids for failing.They would say, What do you
think you should have donedifferently? What did you learn
from this? What could you changenext week? They never, you know,
scolded them for not gettingsomething right, for not getting
a good grade, or not hitting thehome run or whatever they just
it's like, let's learn fromthis. Let's figure out what to
(11:44):
do differently next time. So Ithink that's hugely important.
And of course, with with thatcomes with the ability to fail
comes resilience, which you alsomentioned, learning that failure
is how you learn and grow andnot to be afraid to fail and not
to be afraid to take risks,because if you're afraid to take
(12:04):
risks, you're not going to doanything creative or interesting
in your life, right? And you'reafraid to take risks if you're
afraid to fail, because you'reafraid someone's going to get
mad at you, and it's superimportant for companies as well
as parents. You know, anotherthing that I would say is super
important, and which reallystunned me when I was
(12:26):
interviewing all theseentrepreneurs and their
families, is every single one ofthem had a passion outside of
school when they were growingup, okay, and in every case,
their parents supported thatpassion. Sometimes it took a big
gulp, but in every case, for alot of them that passing was
sports, a lot more of them wereserious athletes than were
(12:51):
selling things in high school,very few of them actually were,
you know, high schoolentrepreneurs, yeah,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (12:59):
but they're learning How to hone a craft and
how to like, test and workwithin like, Okay, well, this
worked that didn't I needed, youknow, and it has inherent
failures and and wins, and thatkind of makes sense to me. 100%
Margot Bisnow (13:14):
100% and they learned grit, and they learned
teamwork, and they learnedresilience, and they learned how
to pivot when things weren'tgoing well, and they learned the
trade off between hard work andresults, and they learned to
keep going. And, you know, alland for a lot of them, it was
sports, but others, it was likerunning for student government
or playing chess, or, you know,entering rap contests, or, you
(13:39):
know, trying out for parts inthe school play. I mean, they
were all doing something theywere working hard at that they
weren't competing in and and Ijust think that's just hugely
important.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (13:49):
Yeah, yeah, I have a theater kid myself, so
I know that whole world ofthings, which I think sometimes
is more nerve wracking on us asparents than it is for the kids.
But I do want to kind of bounceback to something to the first
part of your answer, because,like, I have a kid who's very
into video games, doesn't reallyknow where he wants that to go,
(14:14):
but knows that he wants that tobe something that he does in his
career. And I think it's beenreally interesting because, as
we have parents have, like,leaned in. I mean, he's only 13,
so we've got time, but we'vebeen having some fun lately,
like, leaning into the research.Of, like, Okay, well, here are
all of the different things younow could do with that. Like,
okay, so which path might makesense for you to go down? Like,
do you want to go down thecoding route? Or are we wanting
(14:36):
to do competitive gaming? Or arewe wanting to there's, like, a
whole eSports management, justlike you would do professional
like a basketball team manager,they have esports team. So
there's all of these things. AndI think it's really interesting
as a parent, when you just leanin and have conversations with
your kids about what they enjoyand love to do that, you kind of
(14:56):
surprise yourself in there's alot of. Print options that are
out there that you just didn'tknow about. I mean, like, those
things didn't exist when I wentto college. And same with my
daughter, who's in theater, andthat's what she wants to go to
school for. It's like, okay,well, let's also take a look at
all of these other things. Like,yes, you can be a stage actor,
but what other interests do youhave so that we can give you the
options to be successful in thearea that you want? Because both
(15:19):
of those are very unique,competitive, a little bit nerve
wracking, but we've had fun withthose family conversations 100%
Margot Bisnow (15:28):
I mean, my younger son is a musician, and
so terrifying, and so it was thesame thing. And we always knew
he he would do something inmusic. Yeah, he wrote 300 songs
before he graduated from highschool. The music just like
pours out of him. And we alwaystold him, like, you know, it's
(15:49):
hard to make it as a pop star,but we always knew there would
be if that didn't work. Youknow, he could write songs for
video games. He could writesongs for commercials. He could
write songs for TV or from, youknow, write scores from movies,
I mean, you know, or manageother people's music or
whatever. There's like, amillion things you can do, as
(16:10):
you said, in the music business.And I know two people who made
big careers in video games. Onewas a competitive gamer, and he
had a team. This is something Iknow basically nothing about, so
I may sound a littleinarticulate, and the other one,
who's in my book, his hisparents were immigrants. I mean,
(16:35):
his family was immigrants. Theycame from Vietnam. They, you
know, almost died on theirlittle boat, you know, getting
here. And his parents wanted himto be like a doctor or
something, and but he all, theyalways encouraged him playing
video games, as long as he alsogot A's. And he was a one
(16:56):
semester away from graduatingfrom college with a degree in,
you know, physics or something,and he had a chance to meet
someone from Electronic Arts andtalk to them about an idea he
had. And they said, come overand talk to us. And anyhow, he
joined their first intern class.He dropped out of college with a
(17:18):
semester to go. He ended up asthe lead producer of League of
Legends. The first time he wentback to Vietnam, it was to a
stadium with like 100,000 peoplewatching his game being played.
And then he became executiveproducer of arcane, which is a
Netflix TV show about League ofLegends. And now he's kind of
(17:41):
morphed onto something else. Buthe said, For the first two years
his his mom would always calland say, You're, you're sure
you're happy you don't, you'resure you don't want to go back
to college. And he was like, I'mhappy, mom. And she's like,
okay, as long as you're happy,you know,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (17:58):
it's, I think it's, it's a really
interesting transitional timethat we're in. I remember when I
called my parents tell them Iwas taking a year off from
college. They about lost theirminds. I ended up graduating,
but it was a whole that was awhole big ordeal. And so as we
kind of navigate these changes,I think with COVID, it's
(18:20):
interesting. I don't know howyou feel about this, but like,
just in the Gen Z age group,like, I know they went through a
lot, and they missed a lot oftheir milestones during COVID.
They didn't get a lot of thatsocial stuff. But I do feel like
a whole lot of innovation andentrepreneurship kind of was
birthed out of that, and I don'tknow if it was just that they
(18:44):
felt the space to be able tokind of do that, where they
wouldn't have had thatopportunity before, because
maybe they couldn't go tocollege right away or whatnot.
But has it been kind of fun andinteresting to watch that evolve
and see all of these youngpeople now, like just doing
things like you mentionedearlier, whether you like to
knit or craft or make soap orplay video, like the opportunity
(19:08):
for you to turn your passioninto a job seems to be more
accessible, not easier, but moreaccessible to more people. So
has it been kind of fun to watchthose, those stories kind of
come out and kind of see thatevolution? No,
Margot Bisnow (19:21):
I think it's fantastic. And and so many young
people now today. I mean, whenmy son started summit in 2008 it
was really unusual. And today,like more than half of young
people say they want to be theirown boss. Yeah, they want to
start something. They want tobuild something, create
something. And, you know, itdoesn't have to be a company. It
can be a, you know, a service,or, you know, it they can be an
(19:46):
actor. I mean, actors areentrepreneurs because they have
to, you know, organizeeverything, yeah. And I think
that's fabulous. I love that,you know, watching these kids
be. Creative. And I think it's,again, it's kind of what we were
talking about earlier. But it'sso important for parents to
(20:07):
realize that the path thatworked when they were growing up
is a different path today. Andthat's what one of the things
that made me so crazy about thecollege admissions scandal. Do
you remember that from a fewyears ago aside? Well, aside
from the fact that basicallywhat these parents were saying
to their kids were, if you don'tgo to this school, you can't be
(20:33):
a success in life. And if thisschool knew the real you, they
wouldn't want you. Yeah, and sowe have to pretend you're
something other than what youare, so that you can go to this
school, so otherwise you won'tsucceed, which, of course, is
the worst possible message for achild. But the other part of
(20:54):
that is, I mean, one of them,their daughter, was like a big
Instagram star, like sellingsomething like, their parents
should have been so proud ofwhat they were doing and say,
like, I want to support you.This thing you're doing is
fabulous, you know. And maybeyou'll go to college, and maybe
you won't, and, you know, and ifyou decide to go, we'll find a
school that loves you becauseyou're amazing, right? And
(21:18):
parents just have to realizeit's a different world, and
these kids who are, you know,just being programmed every
minute of their life to studythings that aren't interesting
to them, and, you know, to haveextracurricular activities that
take up all their time that theydon't enjoy, and are being
forced to Go to college at theseoutrageous prices now and like,
(21:43):
for what like companies don'treally want to hire these
people. They want to hiresomebody who's interesting,
who's done something, who, who'screative, who's, who's, who's
built something, who's who's gotideas, who's flourishing, who's
thriving. You know, not somebodywho's just grinding away doing
stuff they hate. I love that.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (22:04):
And I think to your point too, that starts
younger, like that starts evenlike nurturing. That starts
younger, even more so than liketo I think even college
admissions are changing likethey also want people that are
more interesting, that aren'tjust like, I got these good test
scores, blah blah blah blah blahblah blah blah blah and so I
think nurturing that in yourchild younger, allowing them to
(22:27):
explore fail at things whenthey're younger. Say, Okay, I
tried this. Didn't like it,like, okay, so, I mean, I'll
just draw my own experiences.But, you know, my daughter was
put into a competitive danceteam when she was five years
old. She was really young, butthe studio was like, she's
really good. We're gonna put herin here. So we did, she did it
for two years, and she was like,dancing with girls that were two
(22:49):
or three, four years older thanher, and at five, that's a big
age difference, and it got toomuch for her, and she got
overwhelmed. And after hersecond halfway through her
second season, she was like, I'mout, I'm done. Like, I'm over
this. And that was heartbreakingfor us, because number one, she
was really good, but number two,we spent a lot of money, but we
(23:12):
just kind of, we told her, like,Okay, we'll talk, we'll figure
it out, we'll scale back yourdances, but you have to finish
the season, because you're partof a team. You need to connect.
And she ended up moving on totheater, which is what she loves
in the joy of her life. But wecould have very easily just
continued to push her into that,but we very much let her guide
(23:34):
that so she fails at it or fail,I use the word fail. She wasn't
a fail. You are, but it justdidn't end up being the thing
that, like lights her up. But ifwe didn't let them try a bunch
of things at a younger age, howwould they ever get to that
point to where they're like,Okay, this is my joy and my
passion. So as we kind of wrapthis up, I would love your
thoughts on like, how can wekind of take cues from our kids
(23:57):
at a younger age to continue tonurture certain skills or
natural tendencies that theyhave and still kind of guide
them in a way to where they canhave some of these
entrepreneurial skills or, like,are there things that we can pay
attention to in our kids, whenthey're little, to be like,
okay, yeah, they've got thisspirit. They've got this energy.
(24:19):
We want to make sure we continueto foster it. I
Margot Bisnow (24:21):
could talk about this for like, another hour. I
love it. So I said that everyone of these entrepreneurs had a
passion growing up. For a lot ofthem, that passion changed over
time, just as your it did withyour daughter. It was one
passion here, and then, youknow, after five years, it was a
different passion. And thenafter another five years, it was
another passion. And that'sokay. There's nothing wrong with
(24:45):
that. And the point is, like theparents supported that. And I
think, you know, I talked toparents of high school kids, and
they say, Well, I just don'tknow what their passions are.
And I think then you're just notpaying attention. Yeah. Because
every child there's things thatgive them joy and there's things
(25:06):
they can't stand. And mygrandson now is, it is in
kindergarten, and when I was Iwas at his class, and all the
kids had written down what theywanted to be when they grew up
and drawn a picture, and it was,I want to be a dancer. I want to
be a policeman. I want to I wantto have a store. I want to fly a
(25:29):
plane. I mean, whatever that,there's things at five that they
all enjoy. Yeah, you know, I cansee with this, with this child,
that, you know, he'll seesomething, he'll see people
dancing, and he'll be like, Oh,that's boring. I don't want to
and then he sees somebodyclimbing a tree. He's like, Oh
my gosh. How can I do that?Like, pay attention, because
(25:52):
they all have things that givethem joy and then let them do
it. Don't say like, Oh, stopwasting so much time, you know,
writing music or singing ordancing or or sewing or cooking
or playing tennis or playinggolf or swimming or whatever it
is, and go study yourtrigonometry. Like, who cares
about trigonometry? Like,seriously, you know,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (26:16):
unless your passion is like architecture or
Margot Bisnow (26:21):
right trigonometry for but, I mean,
the point is just to see whatgives your child joy, yeah, and,
as you say, to support it. And Ihave a whole section in my book
called Don't worry aboutstraight A's, where I talk about
all these examples of kids whofrom a young age, you know,
their parents moved their schoolseveral times. You know, they
(26:45):
were unhappy in a small schooland they were moved to a big
school. They were unhappy in abig school and they were
homeschooled. They were unhappyhomeschooled, and they were
moved to a, you know, adifferent kind of school. And I
mean, on and on and on, it's youjust you have to pay attention
to what's working for yourchild, and I was with you, like,
you have to finish the semester,you have to finish the thing,
(27:06):
but then if you hate it, you canmove on and go do something
else. And I mean, I have oneexample. I'll just tell you this
guy, Benny Blanco, who now he'swell known because he's engaged
to Selena Gomez, but, but I'veknown him for, you know, since
he was in high school and hehe's written, I think, 25 number
one songs, he's gotten 11 Grammynominations. I mean, he's just a
(27:30):
superstar. And his mom told methat when he was in
kindergarten, she got a callfrom the his teacher every week
saying, Benny won't sit in thereading circle. And his mom used
to say so, and, you know, Imean, she just was like, that's
just not important. Like, whocares growing up whether you can
(27:51):
sit in a circle, you know? Andshe supported him the whole
time, you know, and told himthat, you know, even if his
teachers found him annoying, youknow, that she thought he was
great, and she found a musicteacher for him at some point,
and the teacher said, Oh mygosh, he's like, the most
talented kid I've ever met. Andthat meant more to Benny than
(28:12):
the fact that his teachers allthought he was annoying, you
know? And so you just have to bethere for your kids. You have to
support your kids. You have tobelieve in your kids. You have
to tell your kids how proud youare that they're doing so well
in whatever it is they love. Andyou know, it'll work out. Yep,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (28:28):
that's quite the name drop. That's
probably the biggest name dropwe've had on this podcast.
Margot Bisnow (28:33):
Oh, really, that's so funny. Oh, I've got
lots I've got lots more.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (28:38):
Well, my my son in kindergarten, said he
when he grew up, he wanted to bea baby. So I don't know what
that means about himpsychologically, but we always
cracked up about that one, thatone stuck in into my brain. So I
just had to share that. But youdo have a lot of names that you
can drop, and I know that youhave a lot of them in your book.
(28:58):
So as we wrap this up, Margot,why don't you tell people a
little bit about your book?What's it called? How can book?
What's it called? How can theyfind it? How can they connect
with you even more?
Margot Bisnow (29:07):
Oh, well, thank you. Well, here it is, raising
an entrepreneur, how to helpyour children achieve their
dreams. And it's the secondedition. So make sure you get
this one, because it every storystarts with with a paint a
picture of them when they wereyoung, and a picture of them
today. So here's John, Chu, whodirected wicked. And there he is
(29:29):
as a cute little kid. And thenthey with his mom. And, I mean,
he's another one, you know, hisparents just had this idea that
he was, you know, they wanted,they were immigrants, and they
wanted their kids to pursue theAmerican dream, and it wasn't
film. And his he was doing, youknow, since he was in fourth
grade, it's all he wanted to do.And and his mom came into his
(29:54):
room when he was, I think, afreshman in high school, and he
was supposed to be asleep, andhe was doing a little video on.
His laptop, and his mom said, goto sleep and stop wasting your
time on this nonsense. You haveto be prepared for school in the
morning. And he burst into tearsand said, You can't make me
stop. It's what I love. It'swhat I want to do for my life.
And his mom said, go to sleep.We'll talk about it tomorrow.
(30:16):
And she picked him up at schoolthe next day, and she'd gotten
gone to the library, and she had10 filmmaking books, and she
said, if you want to do it bethe best. Oh,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (30:25):
that's amazing. So yeah, yeah. I mean,
I have a Chinese mom, so I canunderstand, but who's very
supportive. But yes, culturally,I'm sure that was very difficult
for her to just make that leap.But make sense that she would,
(30:45):
that she would say that, andthat's, that's beautiful,
Margot Bisnow (30:48):
anyhow. So it's raisinganentrepreneur.com and
Instagram is @ MargotBisnow, andI'm trying to do stuff now on
LinkedIn also, and so
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (31:01):
I love it. Well, we will link all of those
up in the show notes ateasystylewithsami.com/42 Margot,
thank you so much for sharingyour stories. Can't wait to
check out the book. Thanks. Itwas super fun. Just want to say
thank you again to Margo forjoining me on this episode. Such
a fun conversation and thinkingabout how we can encourage our
(31:21):
kids at all ages, encourage themto have those entrepreneurial
just skills that can kind ofhelp them be successful. I love
that she mentioned, you know,creativity at any level in your
career, regardless of if you'rerunning your own business or
not, and just being that problemsolver and being resilient and
working through everything. So Ihope you enjoyed this episode as
(31:42):
much as I did, and make sure yougo check out her book. We will
have it linked up in the shownotes at
easystylewithsami.com/42 thankyou so much for listening. I
would love for you to drop yourfavorite takeaway from this
episode on YouTube or you'rewatching this video, or leave us
a comment wherever you listen,as always, leave us a review so
more people can find thispodcast and kind of be on their
(32:06):
path to living their best life.Easy style is easy when it comes
from within. I'm struggling withmy words today, but I so
appreciate you being here andlistening. And as always, if you
have somebody that would be agreat guest for this podcast,
please make sure you reach outto me, Sami at
easystylewithsami.com thank youso much for listening, and I
will see you in the next oneyou.
Welcome to Easy Style with Sami. I'm your
(00:02):
host. Sami Bedell Mulhern, eachepisode, I invite a friend,
family member, colleague or justsomeone I've met on this journey
called life, to come and sharetheir personal style and
approach to business, parenting,life and everything in between.
You'll hear motivational andinspirational stories that will
help you refine and build yourown personal style. Remember,
(00:25):
style is easy when it comes fromwithin.
Hey friends, welcome to EasyStyle with Sami. Today, my guest
is Margo Bisnow, Margo, thanksfor being here today.
Margot Bisnow (00:35):
Oh, it's my pleasure. So I we've never met
in person, so I love that thereis just a combination of people
on this podcast that I know welland those that I'm getting to
meet for the first time and kindof learn alongside of all of you
that are listening.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (00:48):
So Margo, before we kind of jump in, would
you mind sharing a little bitabout who you are?
Margot Bisnow (00:55):
Wow, who am I? I Yeah, so since we're talking
about school, my dad was aprofessor. I grew up in
university towns. Everyone Iknew practically had a PhD. It
(01:19):
didn't occur to me that therewas another way in life. I went
to Northwestern, I worked for acouple years, and then I got an
MBA at Northwestern, and then Icame to Washington for a year,
as my husband says, My year isalmost up. I met him, I got
(01:40):
married. I had two kids. Iraised the kids. I had a lot of
interesting jobs. I worked ingovernment. I did things like
foreign assistance, which Iguess is now frowned upon. I
didn't really understand thatthere were different kinds of
(02:03):
brains other than mine, until mykids were maybe in high school,
and I'm happy to share thosestories with you, it didn't
occur to me that I could have achild who didn't graduate from
college until my older son toldme, after two and a half years
(02:23):
he was dropping out. So I'vedone a lot of sort of
interesting professional things,but then my older son, the one
who dropped out, started anorganization called Summit,
which is an organization ofyoung entrepreneurs. And I would
(02:46):
go to these events and meet allthese young people who had
started all these amazingbusinesses and organizations,
and I asked them, like, I'm justso curious how you ended up the
way you are. Like, so willing towork so hard, take on so much
risk, to work so single mindedlyto achieve your goal. And they
(03:07):
all told me the same thing. Theyall said I had someone who
believed in me, who told me Icould do anything I put my mind
to. And usually it was a parent.And even more, usually it was
their mom, not always, butusually. And I was so struck by
this, I kept talking about it,and the kids said, you have to
write a book. And I said, Ican't write a book. And they
(03:28):
said, No, you have to write abook. Anyhow, they wore me down.
And I wrote a book, and theywrote in the forward, everyone
needs someone to believe inthem, and sometimes that's even
your kids. So and then I updatedthe book. And so this one that
we're talking about now is thesecond edition, and it's now my
(03:49):
favorite topic of conversation,what I discovered and what I
learned and what I think is soimportant. So I'm thrilled to
have this conversation, becauseit's my favorite thing in the
world to talk.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (04:02):
I love that. And I similarly had an
experience too, like when I wentto college and even when I
started my first jobs, was whenI first realized, like, oh,
people don't all think the same.Or like, logic or common sense
isn't the same for everybody,because, like, my jobs in
college were in college were incustomer service, working
(04:22):
retail, and I would be like,This is not hard work. Like, you
know, the some of these thingsin the way that we interact with
people, or the way that we doour jobs, like, should just be
obvious. And what we think isobvious is not always obvious.
And so I think it's interestingthat you really leaned into this
entrepreneur thing. Becausewould you say like, age aside
(04:45):
that that the entrepreneur, Idon't want to say gene, but gene
or like style or like approachto things is a unique thing.
Like, not everybody has that inthem. So have you noticed like,
a difference in like? Youngerentrepreneurs versus, like other
adults that have maybe beenthrough a couple different
(05:05):
things, like, are thepersonality traits still the
same?
Margot Bisnow (05:09):
So I would say, first of all, you can't make
your child an entrepreneur,right? You cannot take a child
who has no curiosity and sendthem to entrepreneur camp and
think they will become anentrepreneur. There's definitely
something in that kid. And alsonot everyone wants to work that
(05:32):
hard, not everyone wants to takeon that kind of risk, which I
certainly understand. But in mybook, I interview 70
entrepreneurs and five of themhave a sibling who's an
entrepreneur, only five of the70, and in all five cases, they
also have a sibling who's not anentrepreneur. So the point is,
(05:55):
and it's what my book is about,you can create these conditions
so that you're raisingentrepreneurial children, and
there are things you can do tomake your children more
entrepreneurial, and whether ornot they become entrepreneurs is
kind of beside the point,because you can be more
(06:18):
entrepreneurial, and you can bea librarian, yeah, do it with
creativity and ingenuity andhave sessions at this at the
library to for reading to theparents. I mean, you can be
entrepreneurial in anything youdo. You can't make your kid an
entrepreneur, but you cancertainly create creative, risk
(06:40):
taking resilient children,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (06:43):
yeah. And I think maybe because, you know, I
have a 13 and a 16 year old aswe're recording this, and, like,
we're very much in that stage ofparenthood where we're like, are
we setting them up to, like, beable to be the independent
people they need to be when theygo out in the world. And so, you
know, I think maybe what you'retalking about, and maybe what
(07:04):
you could list off would be likesome of the skill sets that we
would typically find in anentrepreneur, because I love
that you're talking aboutcreativity, thinking outside the
box, but also dedication to anidea. And I would say even you
use the term risk, butpermission to fail. Like, I
think it's very hard for parentsto, like, let go of that grip
(07:25):
and to allow our kids to fail atyoung ages. We want to protect
them. So like, what are some ofthe common characteristics that
you kind of see in a quote,unquote, traditional
entrepreneur? Because also, as Iramble on, you know, all parents
might be very risk aversethemselves. It might be like,
Heck, no, I don't want to raisean entrepreneur. I want to raise
(07:47):
somebody who's going to go toschool be like, traditional job
and like, have that traditionalincome. So maybe kind of explain
what some of thosecharacteristics are,
Margot Bisnow (07:56):
right? But I also, I just want to jump on
your very last statement beforeI talk about, yeah, and that is,
we can have an idea of how wewant our kids to turn out, but
that shouldn't be forced on thechild. And maybe you want your
kid to be a doctor or a lawyeror some sort of professional,
(08:20):
and maybe you think that wouldbe the best outcome for your
child. When I talk to parentswho say this, and they say, you
know that that's not really thedirection that their kids seem
to be headed. And I say, so Ijust want to get this straight.
Your goal for your child is theyshould spend 40 years doing
something that doesn't give themjoy. Yeah, and so many of the
(08:49):
parents in the book, when theydiscovered what it was that
their kids loved playing videogames, directing movies,
cooking, sewing, whatever, atfirst, they were horrified, but
eventually, when they saw howmuch joy their kids got from it,
they they were like, if this iswhat makes you happy, where
(09:12):
we're for it 100% and I wastalking to one dad after I'd
given a talk, and he came up tome and he said, I'm so upset I
haven't talked to my child inthree weeks. He started this
little company in his dorm room.I think it's really stupid. He
just announced he's dropping outof college, and he wants to move
home and work on this littlecompany, and I think he's
(09:33):
ruining his life. And I calledover this guy I know, Craig
Clemens, who I know didn'tgraduate from college and has
made a gazillion dollars. And Isaid, Craig, let me ask you a
question. You have a choice ofhiring two kids. One started a
company, worked dropped out ofcollege, worked on it for a
couple years, decided it's notthe right company, and decides
he really needs experience in abigger company and to kind of to
(09:56):
see what he wants to do. Theother kids stayed in college.
Wasn't motivated, wasn't a greatstudent, wasn't passionate about
anything, but graduated. Whichkid are you going to hire? And
without blinking, he said, I'mgoing to hire the first kid, and
so are the other 100entrepreneurs in this room.
So I would say to parents likeyou, just have to get over it
(10:16):
the way we grew up. And the paththat worked for us isn't the
path anymore, and you have tounderstand that your kids may be
on a different path, and youhave to watch them, and you have
to see what gives them joy, andyou have to nourish that and
support that. So that's sort ofthe answer to the second part of
your question. The answer yourquestion is there are so many
(10:42):
things that are super importantif you want to raise
entrepreneurial children. One ofthem, which you mentioned, is
the attitude toward failure,which is incredibly important. I
talk about that a lot in thebook. I love the Billie Jean
King quote, we don't call itfailure, we call it feedback and
(11:02):
parents, every parent Iinterviewed the most diverse
group. I mean half men, halfwomen, every race, religion,
socio economic background,education level, number of kids
in the families, born here, bornoverseas. I mean small towns,
big cities, you name it. And tomy amazement, they basically all
raised their kids the same, andone of them was they never
(11:24):
punished their kids for failing.They would say, What do you
think you should have donedifferently? What did you learn
from this? What could you changenext week? They never, you know,
scolded them for not gettingsomething right, for not getting
a good grade, or not hitting thehome run or whatever they just
it's like, let's learn fromthis. Let's figure out what to
(11:44):
do differently next time. So Ithink that's hugely important.
And of course, with with thatcomes with the ability to fail
comes resilience, which you alsomentioned, learning that failure
is how you learn and grow andnot to be afraid to fail and not
to be afraid to take risks,because if you're afraid to take
(12:04):
risks, you're not going to doanything creative or interesting
in your life, right? And you'reafraid to take risks if you're
afraid to fail, because you'reafraid someone's going to get
mad at you, and it's superimportant for companies as well
as parents. You know, anotherthing that I would say is super
important, and which reallystunned me when I was
(12:26):
interviewing all theseentrepreneurs and their
families, is every single one ofthem had a passion outside of
school when they were growingup, okay, and in every case,
their parents supported thatpassion. Sometimes it took a big
gulp, but in every case, for alot of them that passing was
sports, a lot more of them wereserious athletes than were
(12:51):
selling things in high school,very few of them actually were,
you know, high schoolentrepreneurs, yeah,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (12:59):
but they're learning How to hone a craft and
how to like, test and workwithin like, Okay, well, this
worked that didn't I needed, youknow, and it has inherent
failures and and wins, and thatkind of makes sense to me. 100%
Margot Bisnow (13:14):
100% and they learned grit, and they learned
teamwork, and they learnedresilience, and they learned how
to pivot when things weren'tgoing well, and they learned the
trade off between hard work andresults, and they learned to
keep going. And, you know, alland for a lot of them, it was
sports, but others, it was likerunning for student government
or playing chess, or, you know,entering rap contests, or, you
(13:39):
know, trying out for parts inthe school play. I mean, they
were all doing something theywere working hard at that they
weren't competing in and and Ijust think that's just hugely
important.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (13:49):
Yeah, yeah, I have a theater kid myself, so
I know that whole world ofthings, which I think sometimes
is more nerve wracking on us asparents than it is for the kids.
But I do want to kind of bounceback to something to the first
part of your answer, because,like, I have a kid who's very
into video games, doesn't reallyknow where he wants that to go,
(14:14):
but knows that he wants that tobe something that he does in his
career. And I think it's beenreally interesting because, as
we have parents have, like,leaned in. I mean, he's only 13,
so we've got time, but we'vebeen having some fun lately,
like, leaning into the research.Of, like, Okay, well, here are
all of the different things younow could do with that. Like,
okay, so which path might makesense for you to go down? Like,
do you want to go down thecoding route? Or are we wanting
(14:36):
to do competitive gaming? Or arewe wanting to there's, like, a
whole eSports management, justlike you would do professional
like a basketball team manager,they have esports team. So
there's all of these things. AndI think it's really interesting
as a parent, when you just leanin and have conversations with
your kids about what they enjoyand love to do that, you kind of
(14:56):
surprise yourself in there's alot of. Print options that are
out there that you just didn'tknow about. I mean, like, those
things didn't exist when I wentto college. And same with my
daughter, who's in theater, andthat's what she wants to go to
school for. It's like, okay,well, let's also take a look at
all of these other things. Like,yes, you can be a stage actor,
but what other interests do youhave so that we can give you the
options to be successful in thearea that you want? Because both
(15:19):
of those are very unique,competitive, a little bit nerve
wracking, but we've had fun withthose family conversations 100%
Margot Bisnow (15:28):
I mean, my younger son is a musician, and
so terrifying, and so it was thesame thing. And we always knew
he he would do something inmusic. Yeah, he wrote 300 songs
before he graduated from highschool. The music just like
pours out of him. And we alwaystold him, like, you know, it's
(15:49):
hard to make it as a pop star,but we always knew there would
be if that didn't work. Youknow, he could write songs for
video games. He could writesongs for commercials. He could
write songs for TV or from, youknow, write scores from movies,
I mean, you know, or manageother people's music or
whatever. There's like, amillion things you can do, as
(16:10):
you said, in the music business.And I know two people who made
big careers in video games. Onewas a competitive gamer, and he
had a team. This is something Iknow basically nothing about, so
I may sound a littleinarticulate, and the other one,
who's in my book, his hisparents were immigrants. I mean,
(16:35):
his family was immigrants. Theycame from Vietnam. They, you
know, almost died on theirlittle boat, you know, getting
here. And his parents wanted himto be like a doctor or
something, and but he all, theyalways encouraged him playing
video games, as long as he alsogot A's. And he was a one
(16:56):
semester away from graduatingfrom college with a degree in,
you know, physics or something,and he had a chance to meet
someone from Electronic Arts andtalk to them about an idea he
had. And they said, come overand talk to us. And anyhow, he
joined their first intern class.He dropped out of college with a
(17:18):
semester to go. He ended up asthe lead producer of League of
Legends. The first time he wentback to Vietnam, it was to a
stadium with like 100,000 peoplewatching his game being played.
And then he became executiveproducer of arcane, which is a
Netflix TV show about League ofLegends. And now he's kind of
(17:41):
morphed onto something else. Buthe said, For the first two years
his his mom would always calland say, You're, you're sure
you're happy you don't, you'resure you don't want to go back
to college. And he was like, I'mhappy, mom. And she's like,
okay, as long as you're happy,you know,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (17:58):
it's, I think it's, it's a really
interesting transitional timethat we're in. I remember when I
called my parents tell them Iwas taking a year off from
college. They about lost theirminds. I ended up graduating,
but it was a whole that was awhole big ordeal. And so as we
kind of navigate these changes,I think with COVID, it's
(18:20):
interesting. I don't know howyou feel about this, but like,
just in the Gen Z age group,like, I know they went through a
lot, and they missed a lot oftheir milestones during COVID.
They didn't get a lot of thatsocial stuff. But I do feel like
a whole lot of innovation andentrepreneurship kind of was
birthed out of that, and I don'tknow if it was just that they
(18:44):
felt the space to be able tokind of do that, where they
wouldn't have had thatopportunity before, because
maybe they couldn't go tocollege right away or whatnot.
But has it been kind of fun andinteresting to watch that evolve
and see all of these youngpeople now, like just doing
things like you mentionedearlier, whether you like to
knit or craft or make soap orplay video, like the opportunity
(19:08):
for you to turn your passioninto a job seems to be more
accessible, not easier, but moreaccessible to more people. So
has it been kind of fun to watchthose, those stories kind of
come out and kind of see thatevolution? No,
Margot Bisnow (19:21):
I think it's fantastic. And and so many young
people now today. I mean, whenmy son started summit in 2008 it
was really unusual. And today,like more than half of young
people say they want to be theirown boss. Yeah, they want to
start something. They want tobuild something, create
something. And, you know, itdoesn't have to be a company. It
can be a, you know, a service,or, you know, it they can be an
(19:46):
actor. I mean, actors areentrepreneurs because they have
to, you know, organizeeverything, yeah. And I think
that's fabulous. I love that,you know, watching these kids
be. Creative. And I think it's,again, it's kind of what we were
talking about earlier. But it'sso important for parents to
(20:07):
realize that the path thatworked when they were growing up
is a different path today. Andthat's what one of the things
that made me so crazy about thecollege admissions scandal. Do
you remember that from a fewyears ago aside? Well, aside
from the fact that basicallywhat these parents were saying
to their kids were, if you don'tgo to this school, you can't be
(20:33):
a success in life. And if thisschool knew the real you, they
wouldn't want you. Yeah, and sowe have to pretend you're
something other than what youare, so that you can go to this
school, so otherwise you won'tsucceed, which, of course, is
the worst possible message for achild. But the other part of
(20:54):
that is, I mean, one of them,their daughter, was like a big
Instagram star, like sellingsomething like, their parents
should have been so proud ofwhat they were doing and say,
like, I want to support you.This thing you're doing is
fabulous, you know. And maybeyou'll go to college, and maybe
you won't, and, you know, and ifyou decide to go, we'll find a
school that loves you becauseyou're amazing, right? And
(21:18):
parents just have to realizeit's a different world, and
these kids who are, you know,just being programmed every
minute of their life to studythings that aren't interesting
to them, and, you know, to haveextracurricular activities that
take up all their time that theydon't enjoy, and are being
forced to Go to college at theseoutrageous prices now and like,
(21:43):
for what like companies don'treally want to hire these
people. They want to hiresomebody who's interesting,
who's done something, who, who'screative, who's, who's, who's
built something, who's who's gotideas, who's flourishing, who's
thriving. You know, not somebodywho's just grinding away doing
stuff they hate. I love that.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (22:04):
And I think to your point too, that starts
younger, like that starts evenlike nurturing. That starts
younger, even more so than liketo I think even college
admissions are changing likethey also want people that are
more interesting, that aren'tjust like, I got these good test
scores, blah blah blah blah blahblah blah blah blah and so I
think nurturing that in yourchild younger, allowing them to
(22:27):
explore fail at things whenthey're younger. Say, Okay, I
tried this. Didn't like it,like, okay, so, I mean, I'll
just draw my own experiences.But, you know, my daughter was
put into a competitive danceteam when she was five years
old. She was really young, butthe studio was like, she's
really good. We're gonna put herin here. So we did, she did it
for two years, and she was like,dancing with girls that were two
(22:49):
or three, four years older thanher, and at five, that's a big
age difference, and it got toomuch for her, and she got
overwhelmed. And after hersecond halfway through her
second season, she was like, I'mout, I'm done. Like, I'm over
this. And that was heartbreakingfor us, because number one, she
was really good, but number two,we spent a lot of money, but we
(23:12):
just kind of, we told her, like,Okay, we'll talk, we'll figure
it out, we'll scale back yourdances, but you have to finish
the season, because you're partof a team. You need to connect.
And she ended up moving on totheater, which is what she loves
in the joy of her life. But wecould have very easily just
continued to push her into that,but we very much let her guide
(23:34):
that so she fails at it or fail,I use the word fail. She wasn't
a fail. You are, but it justdidn't end up being the thing
that, like lights her up. But ifwe didn't let them try a bunch
of things at a younger age, howwould they ever get to that
point to where they're like,Okay, this is my joy and my
passion. So as we kind of wrapthis up, I would love your
thoughts on like, how can wekind of take cues from our kids
(23:57):
at a younger age to continue tonurture certain skills or
natural tendencies that theyhave and still kind of guide
them in a way to where they canhave some of these
entrepreneurial skills or, like,are there things that we can pay
attention to in our kids, whenthey're little, to be like,
okay, yeah, they've got thisspirit. They've got this energy.
(24:19):
We want to make sure we continueto foster it. I
Margot Bisnow (24:21):
could talk about this for like, another hour. I
love it. So I said that everyone of these entrepreneurs had a
passion growing up. For a lot ofthem, that passion changed over
time, just as your it did withyour daughter. It was one
passion here, and then, youknow, after five years, it was a
different passion. And thenafter another five years, it was
another passion. And that'sokay. There's nothing wrong with
(24:45):
that. And the point is, like theparents supported that. And I
think, you know, I talked toparents of high school kids, and
they say, Well, I just don'tknow what their passions are.
And I think then you're just notpaying attention. Yeah. Because
every child there's things thatgive them joy and there's things
(25:06):
they can't stand. And mygrandson now is, it is in
kindergarten, and when I was Iwas at his class, and all the
kids had written down what theywanted to be when they grew up
and drawn a picture, and it was,I want to be a dancer. I want to
be a policeman. I want to I wantto have a store. I want to fly a
(25:29):
plane. I mean, whatever that,there's things at five that they
all enjoy. Yeah, you know, I cansee with this, with this child,
that, you know, he'll seesomething, he'll see people
dancing, and he'll be like, Oh,that's boring. I don't want to
and then he sees somebodyclimbing a tree. He's like, Oh
my gosh. How can I do that?Like, pay attention, because
(25:52):
they all have things that givethem joy and then let them do
it. Don't say like, Oh, stopwasting so much time, you know,
writing music or singing ordancing or or sewing or cooking
or playing tennis or playinggolf or swimming or whatever it
is, and go study yourtrigonometry. Like, who cares
about trigonometry? Like,seriously, you know,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (26:16):
unless your passion is like architecture or
Margot Bisnow (26:21):
right trigonometry for but, I mean,
the point is just to see whatgives your child joy, yeah, and,
as you say, to support it. And Ihave a whole section in my book
called Don't worry aboutstraight A's, where I talk about
all these examples of kids whofrom a young age, you know,
their parents moved their schoolseveral times. You know, they
(26:45):
were unhappy in a small schooland they were moved to a big
school. They were unhappy in abig school and they were
homeschooled. They were unhappyhomeschooled, and they were
moved to a, you know, adifferent kind of school. And I
mean, on and on and on, it's youjust you have to pay attention
to what's working for yourchild, and I was with you, like,
you have to finish the semester,you have to finish the thing,
(27:06):
but then if you hate it, you canmove on and go do something
else. And I mean, I have oneexample. I'll just tell you this
guy, Benny Blanco, who now he'swell known because he's engaged
to Selena Gomez, but, but I'veknown him for, you know, since
he was in high school and hehe's written, I think, 25 number
one songs, he's gotten 11 Grammynominations. I mean, he's just a
(27:30):
superstar. And his mom told methat when he was in
kindergarten, she got a callfrom the his teacher every week
saying, Benny won't sit in thereading circle. And his mom used
to say so, and, you know, Imean, she just was like, that's
just not important. Like, whocares growing up whether you can
(27:51):
sit in a circle, you know? Andshe supported him the whole
time, you know, and told himthat, you know, even if his
teachers found him annoying, youknow, that she thought he was
great, and she found a musicteacher for him at some point,
and the teacher said, Oh mygosh, he's like, the most
talented kid I've ever met. Andthat meant more to Benny than
(28:12):
the fact that his teachers allthought he was annoying, you
know? And so you just have to bethere for your kids. You have to
support your kids. You have tobelieve in your kids. You have
to tell your kids how proud youare that they're doing so well
in whatever it is they love. Andyou know, it'll work out. Yep,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (28:28):
that's quite the name drop. That's
probably the biggest name dropwe've had on this podcast.
Margot Bisnow (28:33):
Oh, really, that's so funny. Oh, I've got
lots I've got lots more.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (28:38):
Well, my my son in kindergarten, said he
when he grew up, he wanted to bea baby. So I don't know what
that means about himpsychologically, but we always
cracked up about that one, thatone stuck in into my brain. So I
just had to share that. But youdo have a lot of names that you
can drop, and I know that youhave a lot of them in your book.
(28:58):
So as we wrap this up, Margot,why don't you tell people a
little bit about your book?What's it called? How can book?
What's it called? How can theyfind it? How can they connect
with you even more?
Margot Bisnow (29:07):
Oh, well, thank you. Well, here it is, raising
an entrepreneur, how to helpyour children achieve their
dreams. And it's the secondedition. So make sure you get
this one, because it every storystarts with with a paint a
picture of them when they wereyoung, and a picture of them
today. So here's John, Chu, whodirected wicked. And there he is
(29:29):
as a cute little kid. And thenthey with his mom. And, I mean,
he's another one, you know, hisparents just had this idea that
he was, you know, they wanted,they were immigrants, and they
wanted their kids to pursue theAmerican dream, and it wasn't
film. And his he was doing, youknow, since he was in fourth
grade, it's all he wanted to do.And and his mom came into his
(29:54):
room when he was, I think, afreshman in high school, and he
was supposed to be asleep, andhe was doing a little video on.
His laptop, and his mom said, goto sleep and stop wasting your
time on this nonsense. You haveto be prepared for school in the
morning. And he burst into tearsand said, You can't make me
stop. It's what I love. It'swhat I want to do for my life.
And his mom said, go to sleep.We'll talk about it tomorrow.
(30:16):
And she picked him up at schoolthe next day, and she'd gotten
gone to the library, and she had10 filmmaking books, and she
said, if you want to do it bethe best. Oh,
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (30:25):
that's amazing. So yeah, yeah. I mean,
I have a Chinese mom, so I canunderstand, but who's very
supportive. But yes, culturally,I'm sure that was very difficult
for her to just make that leap.But make sense that she would,
(30:45):
that she would say that, andthat's, that's beautiful,
Margot Bisnow (30:48):
anyhow. So it's raisinganentrepreneur.com and
Instagram is @ MargotBisnow, andI'm trying to do stuff now on
LinkedIn also, and so
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (31:01):
I love it. Well, we will link all of those
up in the show notes ateasystylewithsami.com/42 Margot,
thank you so much for sharingyour stories. Can't wait to
check out the book. Thanks. Itwas super fun. Just want to say
thank you again to Margo forjoining me on this episode. Such
a fun conversation and thinkingabout how we can encourage our
(31:21):
kids at all ages, encourage themto have those entrepreneurial
just skills that can kind ofhelp them be successful. I love
that she mentioned, you know,creativity at any level in your
career, regardless of if you'rerunning your own business or
not, and just being that problemsolver and being resilient and
working through everything. So Ihope you enjoyed this episode as
(31:42):
much as I did, and make sure yougo check out her book. We will
have it linked up in the shownotes at
easystylewithsami.com/42 thankyou so much for listening. I
would love for you to drop yourfavorite takeaway from this
episode on YouTube or you'rewatching this video, or leave us
a comment wherever you listen,as always, leave us a review so
more people can find thispodcast and kind of be on their
(32:06):
path to living their best life.Easy style is easy when it comes
from within. I'm struggling withmy words today, but I so
appreciate you being here andlistening. And as always, if you
have somebody that would be agreat guest for this podcast,
please make sure you reach outto me, Sami at
easystylewithsami.com thank youso much for listening, and I
will see you in the next oneyou.
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