I recently watched the All In podcast, with a full interview with Howard Lutnick (link is at the bottom to the You Tube video of the program). Howard was mentioned in a previous weekly blog post, When You’re At “This Is The Moment” -here’s the link:
https://www.itsagreatdayto.com/when-youre-at-that-this-is-the-moment-moment/
If you are not familiar with Lutnick, he’s the former Cantor-Fitzgerald CEO who lost 658 of his employees on September 11, 2001, as the firm occupied several floors of the World Trade Center, including his brother and best friend. Howard had taken the morning off to drop off his two sons, second son for preschool and his eldest son for his first day of kindergarten. It was when he was dropping off Kyle for kindergarten that he found out that the first tower had been hit. The majority of the podcast centered on how he arrived at the point of being the Trump Team’s Coordinator of the transition line-up, which was interesting in itself and how D.O.G.E. was created and staffed. I highly recommend it to understand how the budget, deficit, taxes, GOLD cards and tariffs fits into the picture. It’s a good education in finance and governmental budgeting.
Anyway, what fascinated me most was hearing about Howard’s family and advice he has given his four children. His two oldest kids, the two sons he was dropping off on September 11, 2001 are now at the helm, running the Cantor-Fitzgerald ship (incidentally they now employ over 100 of the children of the 658 employees who were lost on September 11), as Howard had to totally divest himself of CF before taking on his role in the Trump administration. He said that he and his wife, Allison have instilled in their children empathy and he feels that his children learned that first hand from seeing their dad experiences the loss of his brother, best friend and employees. Howard and his wife have tried to teach their children respect for their teachers who have dedicated their careers to education and he has told his kids to “color in the lines”. What he means by ‘coloring in the lines,’ is do what you are supposed to do. If there is a rubric or outline of what you need to do to get a particular grade, well you do it. You follow the rules and do what is required. He added, “when you get to college, if you want to have a respectful, spirited discussion with a professor, fine, but do it respectfully.” When you are in grade school, middle school or high school, follow the rules, don’t make waves. I could not agree more, as it is in these formative years that you learn that there are somethings in life you have to learn in a classroom/ school setting, like waiting in line, waiting your turn, following the requirements, as you would out in the real world. As an adult, there are taxes to pay, drivers’ licenses to renew on time, bills to pay, insurance to buy and on and on. You learn this when you are in k-12 education, in addition to basic skills to get through life.
In my observations, the kids who don’t learn respect for rules or authority and how to ‘color in the lines’ have a harder time out in the real world. These are the kids who don’t think the rules apply to them because they have gotten by with NOT following the rules. We all have seen examples of these in our own communities and we know exactly where it comes from, a parent not demanding that their child follow through and rather than their child reaching the bar, they lower the bar and standard to accommodate THEIR child. These parents do their children no favors or those they interact with. Early on, it may be the path of least resistance, but down the road, the problem can get worse and as they grow into adults, their problems become their parents problems. Think of the adult kids who don’t pay for their insurance and then have a catastrophe or accident, or the kid who doesn’t make their lease payment and on and on…
Teaching your kids to ‘color in the lines’ can help lead them (& you) to many Great Days 🍎
