Should successful entrepreneurs pass wealth to their children while teaching them to handle it, or deliberately leave them nothing?

Cliff Obrecht · Jan 27, 2023

Children should not grow up rich; having everything handed to you on a silver platter robs you of the joy of building something yourself and of earning your own self-worth

The joy is in building something you've earned — as with self-made founders who grind it out from the early days

36:47 20VC: Canva Co-Founder, Cliff Obrecht on The Journey From 100 VC Rejections to a $40BN Company, Why Good Enough is Not Good Enough, The Secret to Hiring Non-Obvious Talent and Relationships to Money and Why They Are Giving Away Billions

Jackie Reses · Mar 31, 2023

Growing up in comfort is a kind of curse for children, which she counteracts by teaching her own kids that they have to work and be independent.

Her own grit came from having to survive independently from age 14; kids need to work and be independent to develop that drive.

Scope: framed as what she tries to teach her own kids

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Nick Huber · Aug 21, 2023

Entrepreneurs who brag about leaving their children nothing are copping out of the work of parenting

Money only amplifies the human; the real parenting task is teaching kids to struggle with grace rather than shielding them from the brutality of life

0:00 20VC: The Biggest Lies of Silicon Valley, Why Entrepreneurship is Not For Everyone, Why VCs are Out of Touch, Why Many Would Be Great Entrepreneurs Will Burn Out, Why You Should Let Your Children Suffer and Why You Will Choose The Wrong Partner with Nick

Nick Huber · Aug 21, 2023

Entrepreneurs who boast about leaving their children nothing are copping out of parenting; the job is to raise a family that can handle wealth and pass the advantage on

Withholding wealth entirely is like forbidding a child from ever drinking and then sending them into the world unprepared — they'll mishandle it; better to teach them how to think about and handle money, and there's no point building a network and generational wealth if you don't pass the advantage to your own children

31:09 20VC: The Biggest Lies of Silicon Valley, Why Entrepreneurship is Not For Everyone, Why VCs are Out of Touch, Why Many Would Be Great Entrepreneurs Will Burn Out, Why You Should Let Your Children Suffer and Why You Will Choose The Wrong Partner with Nick

Steve Jurvetson · Aug 3, 2020

Inheriting wealth destroys children's drive and rarely leads to happy, meaningful lives, so children should receive only a fixed amount covering college and living costs while the rest is pledged to charity

At ten people you can coordinate by brute force, but at a thousand people without a mission employees debate endlessly whether to maximize this quarter, this year or this decade; a goal like colonizing Mars aligns everyone on timeframe

30:36 Cap childrens inheritance to covering college and living costs then pledge the rest to charity

Harry Stebbings · Jul 17, 2023

Extreme family wealth is compatible with extreme work ethic in children, as shown by Bernard Arnault's children, who were told they still had to work for it

They enjoyed every privilege but were explicitly told they had to work hard and would be the ones doing the work

35:49 Extreme family wealth is compatible with instilling extreme work ethic