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Parents as Role Models



People look up to their parents and how they view the world and their job. There is no better way to learn than to learn from example. How parents work and act reflects directly onto a child's success. Malcolm Gladwell mentions the Borgenichts and how these Jewish immigrants found a use for aprons when no one else had and turned it into a business (141-151). The Borgenichts were new to the country but still managed to find work when no one else could. The factor that was influential to the Borgenichts children was not the fact they started a business, but it was the fact that they started a business out of passion and made their work meaningful. 
 Children understand a lot more than adults perceive and hard work with motive gives a child incentive to work just as hard as their parents. In the video link above one can see how important it is to find the fun in a job, otherwise people lose who they are and the motivation to work hard in their job. Success is gained with hard work and it is hard to work hard when you have nothing to work for. Parents influence what we are passionate about and how much work we put into our passions. The way parents raise their children impacts their child's chances for success and the most important factor of parenting is teaching by example.
We have all heard the phrase, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. It is important for parents to set the right example because their views and opinions of the world are likely to rub off on their offspring. Aleš Kudrnáč and Pat Lyons discuss the correlation between voter turnout in their article Parental Example as a Motivation for Turnout among Youth. Kudrnáč and Lyons state that the “youth is more likely to think they will vote in a future election if they have seen both of their parents voting in previous elections”. This is just one example of parent’s decisions impacting their children’s actions. The way that parents act and talk encourages their children to do the same, knowing this parents should be careful with what they say and do.

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