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Within the eccentric lives of the world's richest men, there is still room for a modest parenting style for their offspring, or at least that is what is demonstrated by some super-rich individuals who dominate the world, such as Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Meta, or Bill Gates, from Microsoft.
But how do they do it if they have everything to raise their children with everything at their fingertips, luxuries, and unlimited money? The strategies of the super-rich to raise the new generations of entrepreneurs, who will take their legacy further and multiply their wealth in the coming years, seem to be centered on the idea of keeping their children grounded, discreet, and as human and functional as possible.
For example, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have chosen to be fully present in the growth and upbringing of their daughters, to achieve their goal of making them normal people with normal family lives, albeit with extra money.
As the businessman has recounted, he and his wife have instilled in them the responsibility of doing household chores daily, in addition to having them write on a typewriter and teaching them to code. When necessary, they take them to the office so they can see what a workday is like.
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In an interview Mark gave to CBS Mornings, he said: “First of all, we don’t give them everything. That’s important. They have responsibilities and household chores (...)”. For her part, Priscilla commented: “We take them to work so they can see what we do and how we contribute”.
Chan commonly shares photographs of her daily life on social media, including some where her daughters appear doing simple tasks at home, such as putting clothes in the washing machine or clearing the dishes where they eat.
Another example is Melinda and Bill Gates. The former couple raised their children with a certain financial education, where they learned to manage money and not ask for more than what they were usually given for their basic expenses.
In addition to this, the former couple did not allow them to grow up with the idea of consuming luxury brands; instead, they instilled a way of living and consuming “humbly,” without the idea that they were “special for having a father with a certain last name or for having money”.
In an interview Melinda gave to Bloomberg, the businesswoman revealed that she gave her children money for their expenses, but on the condition that they had to save a third of it and donate it to charities.
“I gave my children an allowance. It increased as they got older to help them manage their money,” she said. In addition, Melinda avoided buying them brand-name things so that their classmates at school wouldn't feel bad about not being able to afford the same items: “What message would that be sending to the other girls at your middle school? Wouldn’t it make them feel different?” she questioned.
For his part, the musician Sting told the Daily Mail that he always let his children earn things for themselves, which helped them learn to work and not ask him for anything: “All my children have to work, they know that and they rarely ask me for anything”.
Businessman John Caudwell never gave his children luxury brands nor allowed them to travel on private flights. In an interview with Business Insider, he said that he wanted his offspring to learn to live with “practically nothing” as he did, and thus stay grounded.
In a Business Insider article, businesswoman and family and philanthropic advisor at UBS Wealth Management, Judy Spalthoff, notes that young billionaires with children are adopting this simple, “normal,” and luxury-free education to prevent their heirs from being “spoiled” and, on the contrary, to ensure they know how to use their wealth for something useful.
“It is about wealth being useful and an opportunity rather than a burden, and not discouraging them from following their own path,” she noted.
[Publicidad]