Ego Strength

Bob Mankoff, one of the GEL 2005 presenters, said this: When I talk to audiences like this, I basically have one goal, if it’s one young person in the audience that I can prevent from becoming a lawyer or a doctor ... But one of the things about the creative enterprise is you must accept rejection. The people who can succeed in it have to have that ego strength. There are actually many people with talent – talent in these fields, but the talent wilts under rejection. So often the kids who were very, very talented, whose parents kvelled over them night and day are the ones who can’t succeed. My parents ignored me and made this gift. So do we as parents ignore our kids? I think not. I think we create the environment for them to be challenged and supported in a healthy manner and let them go. What do you think?