What if the most powerful tool you have as a parent isn’t pressure, protection, or a perfect plan, but belief?
Sylvia Worsham sits down with author Margot Machol Bisnow to unpack what she discovered while interviewing dozens of founders and change-makers for her book Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dreams. The surprising part: despite different cultures, income levels, and family structures, the happiest, most resilient high achievers often grow up with the same core support system and the same kind of guidance at home.
We talk about what actually builds real confidence in kids: learning to win and lose, treating failure like a teacher, and focusing on strengths over perfection. Margot shares why straight A’s are not the headline, why mentors matter, and why compassion belongs in the conversation about entrepreneurship and success. Sylvia adds a deeply personal angle on parenting, presence, and doing the inner healing work so we don’t pass our fears and old wounds onto our children.
You’ll also hear why faith and spirituality can help kids anchor to something bigger than performance, and why supporting a passion outside of school can quietly train grit, resilience, and adaptability for life.
If you’re searching for practical parenting advice, purpose-driven child development insights, and a healthier definition of success, this conversation will give you language and next steps you can use immediately.
Subscribe, share this with a parent who needs it, and leave a review to support the show.
To connect with or purchase Margot’s book Heart her website: raisinganentrpreneur.com
To download a free chapter of host Sylvia Worsham’s bestselling book, In Faith, I Thrive: Finding Joy Through God’s Masterplan, purchase any of her products, or book a call with her, visit her website at www.sylviaworsham.com
Transcript:
If you’ve ever struggled with fear, doubt, or worry and wondering what your true purpose was all about, then this podcast is for you. In this show, your host, Sylvia Warsham, will interview elite experts and ordinary people that have created extraordinary lives. So here’s your host, Sylvia Warsham.
Hey light bringers, it’s Sylvia Warsham. Welcome to Release That Review Purpose. And today is Margot Makle Bisnow, author of one of her latest books. She’ll be getting into that uh shortly, but what she discovered in the writing of this book is her son had been at the summit of entrepreneurs. And these kids were from all walks of life, from all backgrounds, and yet they she found a connective tissue among them all. These were happy, well-adjusted uh children that were stepping into their purpose unapologetically, if you will. And what she found is various connective tissues, one of them being faith. They were all faith-based. And when I read her biography, as a parent myself, I have an 11-year-old and a 20-year-old. I want to understand how to best parent these kids in the world we live in today, which is solely a lot of it is focused on me, me, me, me. I got to keep with mine, not give it to humanity. I don’t want to share anything because if I share, that means I have less. And in that space, we’re all losing out because we are given these immense gifts from God the Father to give to humanity. Both Margot and I are doing that, but a lot of us out there listening are a little bit scared of that concept. And so Margo is going to be guiding us parents through this, through the work that she and the interviews she had throughout this book. So without further ado, Margo, thank you so much for joining us on Release Tower of Your Purpose.
Thank you. I’m so happy to be here, Sylvia.
I’m happy to have you here. And please dive into these interviews. What you found to be true about these children, these entrepreneurs, and what blew you away? What started this journey for you?
Yeah, so um, as she said, I wrote this book. This is actually the second edition, called Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dreams, 99 Stories from Families Who Did. So, as Sylvia mentioned also, my older son Elliot started this organization called Summit or Summit Series, and it was these conferences of young entrepreneurs. He started it in 2008. And I’d never met anybody like this. And I used to go around just because I was curious, and I’d say, How how did you turn out the way you did? Like, so willing to take on so much risk and to work so hard, so single-mindedly to achieve a purpose. And they all told me the same thing. They all said I had someone who believed in me. I had someone who said I could achieve anything I put my mind to, and that they would always be there for me through the ups and downs. And I was so struck by this. Generally, not always, but generally it was a family member, not always. And even more specifically, generally it was their mom, but not always. Some people it was their grandma, it was a stepdad, it was a neighbor, it was a teacher, usually their mom, but not always. And um, I was so struck by this, and I just kept talking about it all the time to the kids. And they said, You have to write a book, and I said, I can’t write a book. And they said, No, no, you have to write a book. And I said, I can’t write a book. I’ve always been a writer, but it’s always been like a page, you know. And um sorry. From a page you went to how many pages? Yeah, so yeah, it’s whatever, three, four hundred. Anyhow, um, and um, anyhow, they wore me down and they so I decided to write a book, and I decided to be really sort of systematic about it in and not just like interview random people, but to be deliberate. So I chose half men, half women, every race, every religion, every socioeconomic background, people from small towns, people from big cities, people from you know, only children or two kids in a family to seven kids in a family, to blended families, kids born overseas, kids with immigrant parents, kids whose parents had been here forever, kids whose parents were doctors and lawyers, kids whose parents hadn’t graduated from from high school. I mean, just and people who went into for-profit, nonprofit, artists, activists, just every kind of entrepreneur. And I was shocked that they were all basically raised the same. Like I I couldn’t believe it. And um, and so I that’s that’s what be my book became. Um, and I figured out these sort of ten ways that all of these entrepreneurs in these hugely diverse group, um basically their parents all did the same stuff, and uh we did too without knowing it, you know. Um and I’d love to I’m happy to go through all ten and I’m happy to just highlight what I think are the is the biggest.
Well, we’re gonna get to those. So so do tell us the ten because I’m actually curious about the ten.
Okay. So I’ll save the best for last. So um, where do I start? Um so one of them is let your child learn to win and lose and teach them that losing is how you learn and grow. It’s not it’s not failure to be ashamed of or to be embarrassed about or to pretend it didn’t happen, to embrace learning from failure and to embrace competing. Um one of them is don’t worry about straight A’s. A number of them were great students and just breezed through high school and into the IVs and got advanced degrees. Just as many of them were always hated school, were miserable students, um, and it just never was a good fit. Um, one of them is mentors can be great. So many of these people had a mentor outside their family, um, which can always be a really good thing if you find someone who’s who’s who’s excelled in the thing you love who believes in you. And I’d love to give you like stories about these things. Um instill confidence and uh a true confidence that comes, and again, I’ll get into this later, but comes from really having achieved something, not a fake like everyone on the team gets an award. Um embrace adversity. This is something that really surprised me. Um many of these kids went through real adversity growing up. Um, 10% of them had a parent who died before they graduated from college, which is a huge number. Um, many others had parents who got divorced, parents who got sick, uh, parents who lost their jobs, um, came into financial, serious financial issues, um, all sorts of adversity, which is something I really didn’t expect that I was going to find. Nurture compassion. Um, again, this is not something most people associate with entrepreneurs. They think, oh, they’ve they’re just in it for the money. But in fact, these people were all raised not just to think about themselves, but to think about um other people and how they could affect other people in a positive way. Um be a great family. There’s no definition of what a great family is, except that they love you and they support you and they care for you. Um some of them are just, you know, families like my, like we were, you know, that were always together and had dinner together every night, and others just couldn’t be more different. But all these people knew that when it came down to it, their family was there for them and supported them. Um show them that there’s something bigger, which is we were talking about earlier, it really surprised me how many of these people um were raised with a sense of faith, either an organized religion or just a spirituality, but to believe in something that they were here for a purpose and that there’s an important reason to be to be on this planet. And then the final one was lead by following, let your kids figure out what they want, and then support it. And then I told you I’d save the number one for last, and um this is to support a passion. Every one of these entrepreneurs had a passion outside of school and eventually, sometimes it took a couple of gulps, but eventually the parents supported that passion. And because they had a passion outside of school that they had chosen, they worked really hard at it. And because they worked really hard at it, they got really good at it. And because they got really good at it, as I said before, they they gained confidence that they knew they could achieve something that they worked at. And because it was a passion that they had, again, they were failing constantly, they learned about failure, they were pivoting when things didn’t go well, they were changing stream, they were changing direction, they were making it work, they were adapting, they learned about resilience, they learned about grit, they learned about determination. And even though many of them don’t do anything with that passion today, it was those skills that enabled them to be successful. Something like 30, 40 percent of them, it was sports. Uh-huh. I mean, um, I mean, I was almost afraid to say at the end of an interview, uh, did you do sports growing up? Um, because I didn’t want to say you had to be an athlete, because obviously don’t, you know, in a lot of them it was many other things, but then so many of them it was like, oh yes, I was on the Olympic development team for skiing, oh yes, I was the national equestrian champion, oh yes, I played soccer at Cornell, oh yes, I played basketball at Brown. I mean, it was just, I was like, whoa, you’re kidding. Like, I didn’t have any idea any of these people were athletic, you know. Um, but of course, many others, it was it was chess, it was cooking, it was writing music, it was singing, it was dancing, it was acting, it was running for student government, I mean, it was building things, it was selling things, it was making things, anything but something that they had found that they loved.
I find that so refreshing to hear because it’s these things that we need to be reminded of that our children give us clues as they grow up, what their passions are. And sometimes as parents, we make the mistake of projecting our unhealed wounds onto them, onto the parenting. And I’ll tell you recently this is why I always know that the family unit is the unit that helps you be the best version of you. The love in your life actually transforms us. It’s something that is in scripture, actually. Um, the love is patient, love is kind verse at the end is love never fails or love transforms. And and it’s true. The concept of that is very, very true, and it’s been around for over 2,000 years. My husband’s love for me, and he makes me want to be better, makes me want to be holier in my assignment, my mission. And as such, we tend to level up in doing the hard work, kind of like pulling up our sleeves and and believing that we can be a better version of ourselves. It brings me to an example with my son when he was very young. He um he struggled a little bit in school. He had a lot of um change, a lot of uh adversity in his early years. His father divorced me, and we moved to Austin, and we started a new school halfway through the year. And Brez had an affinity for cross-country running. I mean, he really excelled at it. And so as a parent, I was like, hey, um let me uh let me encourage you. Like, let me encourage you to take it up. And I remember one story as you were talking, I was in the baby stroller. My daughter was very young, and Andres was nine years older than his baby sister, and we’re I’m pushing it, I’m jogging behind my son as he’s practicing his cross country around the deal. And then he turns to me and goes, Why did you believe in me so much, Mom? And he was panting. And I’m like, Because I love you, and I know your capacity to be this kid, right? Um, but the projecting, unfortunately, of our stuff, if we don’t heal it as parents, we project it actually came to fruition for me just very recently. I entered individual counseling because I wanted to heal that neural pathways that had been formed when I had been bullied in high school. And unfortunately, I was projecting that onto my kiddo, my my 11-year-old daughter, and the way I was parenting her. So when I read your biography, I was like, I really want to learn more about this because I’ve actually cleared that neural pathway now through EMDR, my counseling session, and I’m in a much better space. But I do agree with what you found to be true about the family unit, um, about having that mentor, having that person that believes in you, that you can model after. Some of these concepts are neurolinguistic programming, which I was trained on years and years ago, of having someone that you admire that carries the passion and the embodiment of this purpose for life, of this identity that you want. Um, and to have been guided by someone that believes in you. I know for my my boy, my my late father was the one that was his his light, the one that kind of guided him and believed in him and it propelled him to really seek his higher calling and to not be afraid to um to to step into that space. And in other words, not to get caught up in in what he thought we wanted for him to step into, like to be a doctor or a lawyer, an engineer, or what we deem to be successful, which is so interesting because when I grew up with that father, he was the one that told me you need to be a doctor or lawyer in order to be successful. And now when this one was older, he said, You’re so good at acting. It’s such a thrill to watch you just step in there. And I remember glaring at my dad, going, Really, what was that father when I was growing up? But it was interesting how he shifted as a grandfather and really could see what Andrist was really good at. Um what for you was the greatest joy?
No, if I can just follow up on that. So um, yeah, one of the moms that I spoke to, I think she was a high school guidance counselor, and she’s she told me, she said, you know, I’d I’d talk to these parents whose kids are like, you know, juniors in high school, and I’d say, so what are their strengths? What are their passions? And the parents would say, uh, I don’t really know. And she’d say, I’d look at them and say, Really? Don’t you live with them? Don’t you absorb them? And I feel like so many parents, you know, they’re stop spending so much time drawing and or singing or or painting or acting or go study your math. And you know, what we tend to do in school is we tend to have them spend more time on the subjects they’re bad at.
Yeah. Yeah. That doesn’t inspire anybody. It’s like that book. Um, I can’t think of the author’s name, but The Five Strengths. So in other words, I remember being at Pfizer and having a brilliant manager, uh, Phil Waldron, that guided his team into enormous amounts of success, despite the the challenges we were facing in in the industry at the time. And he focused more on our strengths than he did on our weaknesses. So he positioned us perfectly for the roles that we were meant to fulfill, where we would be encouraged to want to do even more. We wanted to work harder for him because he saw us in the light that we wanted to be seen in, which was our strengths, where we excel at.
Right. And I I just think that’s so important. And I think the number one thing for parents is that I think every child is born with a gift. And it’s our job as a parent to help them find it. And if parents don’t see it, it’s because they’re not looking. Yeah. They’re saying they your child shows you what gives them joy. And if you say, Stop doing that, go do this, what are you communicating to that child? I I I was with my uh grandson who’s just turned seven, and um we were at a kin his kindergarten class, and all the kids had written, you know, drawn a picture, and the teacher had said, What do you want to be when you grow up? And it’s a dancer, a farmer, a carpenter, a fireman, you know, someone who goes to space, someone who paints. I mean, these kids are five years old. They could tell you what they loved. Yes. I bet if you asked their parents, half of their parents wouldn’t know that answer.
Yeah, because they’re not pausing for presents, they’re doing. And I’m saying this very specifically to the ones listening, so I I need you guys to listen. I was guilty of doing for a long time, and then I got my pivotal moment and woke up finally. Thank God I did. In the second act, if you will, I’m pausing for presence and really being with my children. I swore I would never do what I did to my firstborn and what I what happened once I became a mom, a second go-round at the age of 40, because I’m now gonna be turning 52 uh in a couple more months. And um, and I’m I’m proud of how I shifted because my kids know that they can count on me to support them in whatever role they want to play. And in fact, I’ve continuously shared with my son and daughter, you know, what you choose to do is up to you and and up to you and God, really. That is a conversation with with God Himself. I’m you’re his first before you’re mine. And I want you to understand that concept because he has gifted you in a way that you are meant to live this life. And when you turn inward for those answers, even as a young child, to teach them how to turn inward to seek that those answers within, not outside of them, they’ll be successful no matter what, they’ll be happy, well-adjusted adults. Because as parents, our role is to, we’re raising happy, well-adjusted adults, not children.
Right.
That’s who we want to raise, right? And we want, if you come from a place that I came from being raised by a high achiever and a perfectionist, I loved him dearly, but he did come from an abusive household. And that subconsciously passed on to us, uh, and even genetically passed on to us. So in in, you know, that’s a another conversation for another day. But the gist of this is it wasn’t your fault what happened to you as parents, but I’m here to tell the parents on the other side it is your responsibility to heal those wounds and not project them onto your kiddos.
Yeah. Um, I I don’t really I didn’t really have any wounds, but the I had my epiphany about my child’s like gift, I think, when he was in high school and he was playing the piano and it was exam week, and this is my younger son, Austin, and I said, Austin, stop playing the piano and go study. And he said, I just I have a new song in my head, so I just have to play it so I can visualize it, so I can write it down when exams are over. And I was just like, Wow. You know what? This this kid’s brain is actually. Nothing like my brain. Yeah. And it was like the first time I realized that people’s brains could be completely different. I always knew he had this gift that he could write music. I I just didn’t realize how different his brain was from mine. And I was like, wow. You know.
I I say, you know, like really to to guide parents here. It’s like to sit in reflection, you know, whatever time of day is is best for you, morning or evening, and just sit and reflect on what you think your kids’ skill sets are. Like really pause. And if you don’t know what it is, then make it a point. Be intentional about spending quality time with your kids and staying quiet enough to listen and observe what really lights them up. The other thing that I found when I did the career day over at my daughter’s school just very recently, I was in the sea of doctors, lawyers, and engineers. I was the only life coach and author there. And I felt like a fish out of water for a while because they were looking at me like, you’re a what? And I’m like, and in their mind, it’s like the woo-woo space, right? But here’s what I was explaining to the doctors, the lawyers, and the engineers my role as a life coach is to help people identify what their divine calling and identity is. Whatever that is, whatever gift is inside of them, it’s I’m I’m helping them unlock that gift so they can give it to the world and really shine their essence to the world.
This is what every parent should do for their child. Yeah. And that’s kind of my main message, is exactly what you’re doing, Sylvia, with people. Your parents should be able to do this with their child, to see what gives them joy, to see where they’re, you know, particularly creative or talented or what it is they love and what what what they what they’re drawn to, and then tell them how proud you are of them for for their work in that and their efforts in that and and and their achievements in that, even if they’re not, you know, getting an A in trigonometry.
You know, uh it’s useful. All the stuff that you gain throughout life is really not useful for where you’re going next. But the joy that you feel, the peace, the love in your life, the the way you used your gifts for humanity, that you can take with you. So the message that both Margot and I are here to state is stop doing and embody like start being, being in joy, being in full surrender to whatever that gift is for your kids, and really just empower them to step into that light fully. You you’re gonna you’re really gonna prepare them to be happier than we were when we were growing up, you know, because we didn’t we didn’t our children, we’re gonna ensure that we break that generational cycle of telling them this is the way to do things because it’s the way I did it. Instead, it’s more of like, let’s break that up and say, what is your light? And how can I help you step into it with confidence? That’s really the direction that we want to take our future generations to because we we will all win. That pot that we were talking about, uh, Margaret and I were talking about uh that people sometimes feel like we’re competing with each other. I had explained to her at the beginning, I don’t compete with you, even though we’re both authors and we both have messages of light to share with the world. I feel like we’re co-collaborating on this interview because that pot will only get bigger. It doesn’t shrink. We when we co-collaborate and stop competing with each other in this world, we actually will find cures faster. When countries work together to find a solution, we we’ll get to the solution faster. Instead of fighting each other, we can view um how the astronauts viewed uh Earth from space. Very recently, there was an interview saying we don’t see lines or divisions anywhere, it’s just this big blue planet in this vast space, amongst so many other things. And that’s where they they see the expansiveness of of our consciousness. That’s where they experience it as astronauts. So, whatever that joy is, and and I actually have my daughter’s joy hanging up on my office as a constant reminder of her light. She draws dragons so amazingly well, to the point where I’m like, I want that up on my wall. And so I’m always I have all of her drawings uh framed. I I got them all framed and put up on the walls near my office as a reminder of of who she is, of her light. And when she sees it on the wall, and I’m getting emotional, she’ll know how proud we are of her, of her gift, whatever it turns out to be, and only God will be able to guide her there, you know. And as as parents, our role is to love them, to love them so much and to support them and to empower them to step into their life fully. So, Marvel, any any last words of encouragement you want to leave our listeners with? And how can we purchase your amazing book?
Yeah, so I just want to um share a story based on something you just said, Sylvia, um, about you you know, parents wanting what’s they think is going to be best for their kids, as opposed to what may be best for their kids. And I think parents, so many parents today think that their kids have to follow the path that worked for them. You have to get good grades in all your classes, you have to go to the very best college you can get into, you have to get good grades in that college, you have to graduate, you have to go to graduate school, you know, and that may work for some kids, and that’s great, you know. If if you’ve always loved math, if you’ve always loved science, if you’re a great student and that’s the path you want, that’s great. But for so many other kids, it’s not their path. And our job as parents is to step back and help them find their path and then support the path that they’ve chosen. My dad was a professor, I grew up in college towns. I actually thought everybody in the world had a PhD. Um I did it never occurred to me I could have a child who didn’t graduate from college. And my older son, um, halfway through his junior year, called me to tell me he was going to take a semester off, which I knew meant forever. And I was horrified. Um but I took a big gulp and I said, okay, let’s do this sort of semester at a time. And a year, a little over a year and a half later, um, a month before he would have graduated from college, he cold called 18 young entrepreneurs and invited them on an all-expense paid ski weekend in Utah. It wasn’t going to be an event, I mean, you know, an ongoing thing. He just wanted to meet young entrepreneurs and and and see how they’d become. And it was people like Sam Altman from OpenAI and Blake Mikowski from Tom Shoes. All of these people were just starting out. Um, they were all under 30, they were all just getting going. And they all said, I I have five friends, I I want to bring them, you have to do this again. And it turned into this major, huge deal for entrepreneurs that, like 40,000 or something, have come to over over time, connected so many people and stuff. And I keep thinking he did that a month before he would have graduated from college. And if he had gone finished college and then, you know, gone to work for a year and then done it, the moment would have passed him by. Somebody else would have connected young entrepreneurs. He was the first one who had ever done it, which is why it turned out to be, you know, so impactful. And it’s a lesson, you know. I mean, I was like inside, I was just dying. I was horrified. I thought he was gonna ruin his life. I thought it was gonna be the end of the world, and it turned out it was phenomenal. So I would just say to parents, man, take a big gulp and and let them try and tell them you’re there for them. And you know there will be ups and downs, and you know there will be some failures, and and that’s how they’re gonna get better, and and and you’re there for them, and you love them and you support them and you believe in them, and you know it’s gonna be okay, and you know they’re gonna get there.
I love that. Thank you so much for those words of encouragement, Margot. Really, um that go that will remind myself with. I had um my late aunt who passed away in the same year my father did, um, Patricia, she was a college professor at the UNAM Universidad Nacional Autónoma Mexico. So she was in Mexico City. Um, she was a world-renowned psychologist. And you would never know it when you saw her. She was real petite, she looked like olive oil from Popeye, and and very unique in her approach. Um, so I came from very highly educated uh individuals. Like my aunt was somebody that I looked to, and she was my mentor and uh who actually mentored me to become an author. She was the one that was my mentor, and she sat me down, and my nickname and in um in my family is Pikis. And so she said, Pikis, you need to find a space in your in your house and just write, whether you feel like it or not, you know, because I had reached out to her and I said, I God has placed it in my heart to write this manuscript, Bati, but I don’t even know where to start. And she had already published so many texts and so many books because her PhD had been done in uh in France, out of all places. She and I were both, we had that in common. I had studied abroad in France in my junior year in college, and she had gotten her PhD in in Paris. And so we both spoke French to each other and Spanish and whatever. And she had sat me down and said, you know, uh, you need to find a space and just write, whether you feel like it or not. And if you can’t, if you can’t find the words, just write. I I can’t find the words until the words come. And I began to write my manuscript in 2020, which is what God had placed in my heart to do. And I’m glad I did, but had I not had that mentor, perhaps I would not be in this space right now with you. Because every act of obedience that we had, like your son had the act of obedience of feeling a pull in the soul to reach out to all these entrepreneurs and have that summit in 2008. You know, he was obedient. He was aware of that pull in his soul, and he stepped into it willingly and with confidence. And I just absolutely loved that gulp, that pause, that major pause and pulling back that you did to allow him to go for it. And if he failed, then what is the first thing that you one of the first things in the interview that one of the top 10 was let them fail, like let them move through life. And because failure is not a failure unless you fail to learn the lesson that it came with. And those lessons are what equip us and give us the resilience to continue our journey into this space, into this identity, into the into the divine calling that we’re all called to to step into. I really want to purchase your book. Where do I find it?
What’s the name of it? Raising an entrepreneur. It’s called Raising an Entrepreneur. Make sure you get the second edition. It looks like this. Um, I have this hard copy, I have um a Kindle, and I also have audio. I I recorded it, and it’s a hundred stories that are all um like two to four pages, and they all start with a picture of the entrepreneur when they were young and with their family, and an entrepreneur um uh them today as as adults. And um there’s more information on my website, which is raising an entrepreneur.com, and I’m on Instagram at our at Margobisnow. Raising raising entrepreneur. Raising an entrepreneur. And entrepreneur now? At no, raising an entrepreneur. It’s dot com. Okay.com. All right. And the name of the book is raising an entrepreneur.
Amazing. Thank you so much, Margo, for joining us on the least out reveal purpose. And for those you know how I usually sign off to remember Matthew 5 14 to be the light, be the light like Marg’s son was the light in 2008. Answer your soul’s calling, do what it is that it’s asking you to do because God knows best. God knows your beautiful life and how it needs to unfold, and how he equipped you with all the gifts you have inside of you. Um, do it on purpose. There to live out your per your purpose on purpose. Have a wonderful and blessed rest of your day. Love you all. Bye now.
Thank you. Bye. So that’s it for today’s episode of Release Doubt, Reveal Purpose. Head on over to iTunes or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week who posts a review on iTunes. We’ll win a chance the grand prize drawing to win a twenty-five thousand dollar private VIP day with Sylvia Worship herself. Be sure to head on over to sylviaworsham.com and pick up a free copy of Sylvia’s gift and join us on the next episode.