Peanut Butter Principles: 47 Leadership Lessons Every Parent Should Teach Their Kids
By- Eric Franklin
In “Peanut Butter Principles: 47 Leadership Lessons Every Parent Should Teach Their Kids”, entrepreneur, speaker, author, management consultant and parent Eric Franklin has assembled a wealth of wisdom that has stuck with him like peanut butter sticks to the roof of your mouth. One by one, you can serve up spoonfuls of Peanut Butter Principles to the youth in your life and make a profound impact to help them grow into confident, intelligent, and successful adults and leaders who make good choices, build healthy relationships, and cultivate another generation of leaders.
And here is an Excerpt from Peanut Butter Principles: 47 Leadership Lessons Every Parent Should Teach Their Kids
47 |“Finish.”
Every person’s actions, decisions, relationships, and experiences create a portfolio of their life thus far. If you flip through the pages of an individual’s book, you’ll get a pretty good picture of who they are—active or passive, driven or indifferent, dedicated or just showing up.
The older we get, the more detailed a profile this portfolio presents. For example, if you’ve been fairly successful along the way—all the way back to earning accolades in school, sports, and activities as a child—then you probably will continue the pattern. If you’ve carried a defeatist attitude or been unwilling to accept responsibility for your decisions, then your portfolio will be defined by these habits and traits. You can change your job, your home, your spouse, and your environment, but if your mindset remains the same, then your future will continue to reflect your past.
You are not what you eat, but what you’ve done—and not done. Some people leave a trail of unfinished plans, ideas, and acts in their wake. They start plenty, but then walk away before the job is done and move on to some other endeavor. Why? Maybe it was too complex, too time-consuming, or just didn’t generate the immediate results they wanted, or at least, didn’t deliver fast enough for their taste. They don’t want to put the effort into maintaining relationships, so they leave them. For whatever reason, these people live unfinished lives.
The worst thing you can do is to embark on a task without thinking ahead about what it will require to finish—and then quitting. Giving up can easily become a bad habit. Maybe a child doesn’t excel at baseball or gymnastics and then gives up on the sport. The youth tries another sport and has equally lackluster results. He quits again. Quite possibly, he gives up on athletics altogether, just based on a couple of experiences. But look at Michael Jordan. He was cut from his high school basketball team because he wasn’t good enough. Imagine if one of the all-time best basketball players had given up on the sport as a teenager!
About the Author-
Eric Franklin, Entrepreneur and Author of Peanut Butter Principles: 47 Leadership Lessons Every Parent Should Teach Their Kids Eric Franklin had his first taste of leadership during a summer job when at age 16, he was appointed supervisor to over 200 peer employees at his local amusement park. He has been on a mentoring roller coaster ride ever since. Although Eric has held a multitude of distinguished positions over the years and is currently CEO/owner of several successful businesses that operate across the U.S., his core values are as basic to the soul as a peanut butter sandwich is to a hungry appetite.
Eric’s formal education has earned him a Bachelor’s degree in biology from Hampton University and a Master’s in procurement and acquisitions from Webster University. His family and community have been the most influential in imparting upon him the character traits that have enabled him to be so successful.
When Eric isn’t busy with writing, business coaching and running several businesses, his ideal scenario for a day would be he, his wife and 3 kids, eating fresh seafood on a tropical island, with of course,the family dog and cat close at hand. An accomplished musician, Eric would end the day by playing a few of his favorite music selections on the piano. Eric also enjoys the simple things in life, like peanut butter.
Eric is a staunch advocate for STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Math) education and serves on the Southern Maryland Higher Education Council. However, Eric is concerned that with the increased technical proficiency of our students, basic character and life principles are not being taught. He sought to develop resources would be embraced by parents and other mentors and shared with the young people in their lives to ensure a firm foundation for the next generation of great leaders.
