Will Your Labels Stick?

I was home in Miami over the Labor Day Weekend and I stopped in to see my cousins, Al and Joey, who own and operate a highly successful plumbing business started by Al in the 1980s, Empire Plumbing, on Miami Beach.

Al was smart enough to invest in real estate all over Miami Beach before it was “South Beach” so as you can imagine he’s doing pretty darn well for a guy who barely graduated high school.

When I told my mom I had seen Al and mentioned how well he was doing financially, she said, “We always told Al he was going to be a millionaire.” Lo and behold, Al is a millionaire today.

I was talking about that late with Dave and he told me that one of the common denominators of many successful people is they were told during their lifetime that they would be successful by their parents and/or other important adults in their life.

Everytime I argued my case for something I wanted when I was growing up, which was often, I heard “Alexis, you’re going to be some lawyer.” Lo and behold, I’m a lawyer.

Several months ago, I spent time at the home of a consultant I worked with and I was saddened to hear him repeatedly refer to his kids as lazy, good for nothing teenagers, not only to me, but in front of them as well.

While I know he thought he was doing it in jest, I could see the writing on the wall … his kids are not likely to become millionaires or lawyers. Quite the opposite, they are likely to be destined for a lifetime of unhappiness, insecurity and fear.

Be very aware of what you say to your kids, the labels you apply might just stick.

© 2007 Alexis Martin Neely

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this everything in quotes with it: “Written by Alexis Neely, mom, writer, speaker and Personal Family Lawyer. Alexis makes it super easy for your family to talk about and plan for sticky subjects like money, death and taxes. Get Alexis’ humorous, enlightening, and often quite revealing “Family Wealth Secrets” at: www.FamilyWealthMatters.com”

This story is meaningful to me because we need to be very aware of what we say to our kids, because the labels we apply might just stick.