Sharply I dropped what I was doing. Now you have my attention. Oya, tell me more. She explained to me that ARMO would be the name of the animation and movie making company she is planning to launch.

Some years ago she disturbed me to start a YouTube channel for her and she has been making videos for the channel, most of which I never upload (since I manage the channel) but she doesn’t stop recording more videos. After a while, she started editing, adding effects and combining her videos herself.

Later she and her brothers started putting together home theatre shows in the living room, force us to come and watch and charge us entry tickets before we sit down. And we actually do pay them o. The thing just be like scam.

Few months ago she started learning 3D animation using Blender. She negotiated her way to gain access to YouTube on my phone to watch a tutorial channel she subscribed to (because YouTube is blocked from all their devices).

Now she has chosen a company name, designed a logo and wants to start her own design studio. Don’t ask me when o, because her skills have not reached where someone would pay her to create anything yet.

But the main excitement for me is not ARMO, it’s the fact that her mind is being programmed in a particular direction, and this is a huge lesson for all of us who are parents and who raise children.

We’ve been told that most of the decisions we make in life are driven by the unconscious programming we didn’t know we received while growing up. You’re bound to repeat the things you grew up seeing. Your immediate environment and exposures become your compass for defining what is normal.

That a child would learn a skill, and the first thing to come to her mind is not to use the skill to get a job but rather to start a company is a confirmation of the fact above.

While the thought of starting a business at 9 may be seen as courageous & laudable from the outside, that’s all she has seen from the day she was born. That’s her normal.

Our children would simply reflect & repeat the decisions they grow up watching us make. They’re being cloned and programmed without knowing. And that brings the big question, what normal are we creating for our children? What are we programming into them?

Are we normalizing scarcity and lack, or are we consciously programming an abundance mindset into our children?

Are we normalizing complain, negativity and constantly painting the nation as a hopeless good-for-nothing place or are we programming an eyes-for-opportunity mindset into our children.

There’s a reason why it takes a miracle for someone who was born into and grew up around poverty to escape poverty, but those born into wealth, even when it doesn’t look like they don’t work hard, end up wealthy. They are simply walking in two different mindsets and mental realities, and it drives their outcomes.

I end with two points:

1. Be mindful and intentional about the unconscious program you build into your children through your everyday “normal”.

2. If you want to hear some more about these things and how you can use them to your advantage, then you can’t afford to miss Design your 2024