I had a conversation with an Iowa parent the other day. In middle school her son started making voice-narrated Pokemon game walkthrough videos and posting them on YouTube. That’s exactly the kind of thing that most adults would look at and consider ‘a complete waste of time.’ He’s now 18 and has 70,000+ subscribers to his YouTube channel. His videos have been viewed nearly 54 million times. Some company’s now paying him enough money to make videos for it that he’s already pushing a six figure salary, which will easily pay for his upcoming college experience and then some.
All of this really speaks to nurturing kids’ passions, whatever they may be. You never know how they’ll turn out! Go Wooper!
Very cool. I love when kids are prolific in some way. It would still have been worth it though, even without the money. Even with only 100 subscribers and $0, the experience could have been invaluable to that kid.
Hi Scott,
I firmly agree we need to be nurturing our kids passions (as long as they are legal.)
But don’t discount the difficulty of this, especially when one’s kids’ passions are not one’s own. The hardest thing about fatherhood for me is recognizing that what makes me happy may be quite different from what makes my kids happy. Letting children created their own “happiness’ takes great faith.
Thanks for the post,
Doug
As a parent, I can’t hear this enough. Have faith that if given the chance kids will find their own way. Thanks!
I appreciate the reminder to have faith, and as a parent, my choices about what is best for my own children may not be theirs. But when I first read this entry, my thoughts went to the entire 5th grade class, when asked to envision a career related activity for a promotion ceremony project, I had 25 future athletes sitting in front of me.