You might want to look into what the founders of Blue Bell do with their money. It might change your opinion...

With one kid applying to college, and another that is 15, I can look back and say that I don't have a clue how we raised two kids into responsible young adults. When people ask me for advice, I got nothing. We made it up as we went, and if we had to do it again, I'm not sure the lessons learned with the first two are really that applicable.

I still tell Mandy she can be all she wants to be. And I believe in her. She is 35 and the most fabulous woman I know!

As a teacher, I deal with the kids who think they can do anything a lot. But they are missing an integral part of the belief. The belief and inspiration isn't wrong, I think we just forget an integral part of it. I am all for encouraging children, please just include "with LOTS of hard work and dedication" in your "you can be/do anything." Kids don't put that together themselves that being able to do something requires work and practice and effort, hence the misguided sense of entitlement we see in so much of kids today. Amen to practice.

My wrestling coach used to hate the term "practice makes perfect." He didn't believe it to be true, because if you practiced things the wrong way, when you needed to perform, you'd also do it wrong.

He preferred "PERFECT practice makes perfect." I love that quote.

I'm a fan of effort rather than perfection. Because I've learned that there are somethings you will just suck at no matter how much you practice (for me it's spelling and cooking, for my daughter it's math).
Outcome is something we can't always control and I stress that. You can be the best parent in the world and your kid can still end up in prison. Or you can practice math flash cards for an hour every night and still get a D on the test.
I always ask the question, of myself and my kids, 'did you try your best?'
I'll take 15 minutes of honest effort over 30 minutes of lathargy any day.