How to Raise Successful People: Simple Lessons for Radical Results

The Godmother of Silicon Valley, legendary teacher, and mother of a Super Family shares her tried-and-tested parenting methods for raising happy, healthy, successful children using Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness: TRICK.

Esther Wojcicki—“Woj” to her many friends and admirers—is famous for three things: teaching a high school class that has changed the lives of thousands of kids, inspiring Silicon Valley legends like Steve Jobs, and raising three daughters who have each become famously successful. What do these three accomplishments have in common? They’re the result of TRICK, Woj’s secret to raising successful people: Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness.

Simple lessons, but the results are radical. Wojcicki’s methods for building resilience in kids are the opposite of helicopter parenting. As we face an epidemic of parental anxiety, Woj is here to say: relax. Talk to infants as if they are adults. Allow teenagers to pick projects that relate to the real world and their own passions, and let them figure out how to complete them. Above all, let your child lead. How to Raise Successful People offers essential lessons for child development, raising, educating, and managing people to their highest potential. Change your parenting, change the world.

In this essential guide to child rearing, you’ll discover proven strategies to reclaim your confidence as a parent:

• Move Beyond Helicopter Parenting: Learn why Woj’s methods are the opposite of anxious, over-involved parenting and how to relax and let your child lead.
• Master the TRICK Method: Implement the five core values—Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness—that are the secret to raising self-driven, capable people.
• Foster Radical Independence: Allow your children to choose projects they’re passionate about and figure out how to complete them, building real-world skills and confidence.
• Raise Successful People: Apply the same tried-and-tested principles Esther Wojcicki used to raise three daughters who became famously successful CEOs and a UCSF professor.

ESTHER WOJCICKI is a leading American educator, journalist and mother. A leader in blended learning and the integration of technology into education, she is the founder of the Media Arts programs at Palo Alto High School. Wojcicki serves as vice chair of Creative Commons and was instrumental in the launch of the Google Teachers Academy. She blogs regularly for Huffington Post and is coauthor of Moonshots in Education.