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Every parent wants their child to succeed, but some parents, like Esther Wojcicki, are especially adept at inspiring greatness in their child.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dubbed the \u201cGodmother of Silicon Valley,\u201d Wojcicki is the mother of Susan Wojcicki, the late YouTube CEO who left a secure job at Intel to help start Google out of her garage. She\u2019s also the mom of 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki. And she\u2019s also mother toJanet Wojcicki, a leading anthropologist and epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Her philosophy toward raising impactful children comes down to two things: failing fast and revising.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that all learning involves failure. That means you try to do something, and then it doesn\u2019t work out. And so the fact is, you just need to do it again and do it again until you get it right,\u201d she said on a recent episode of Fortune\u2019s Term Sheet podcast.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her TRICK method\u2014which stands for Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness\u2014can help parents raise successful and happy children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cParents are dictating, telling kids what to do all the time. They\u2019re worried they\u2019re not on the right path,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is no right path. What\u2019s happening next century is different from what happened last century. Kids have to be able to think. Creativity is the most important. Critical thinking skills are the most important. And then, of course, kindness.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This thinking doesn\u2019t just apply at home. Wojcicki taught English and journalism at Palo Alto High School, where her streak also carried over outside the family: former NBA superstar Jeremy Lin and actor James Franco rank among some of her successful students. The long-time educator said that the school system often only gives people one shot and can be discouraging. She offered her students a different approach.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou couldn\u2019t get a bad grade in my class,\u201d she explained. \u201cYou could just revise until you got it right, because all these mistakes that people were making were just examples of them just not knowing it. Somehow, they didn\u2019t understand it. But when they revise, then they understand it, and they do it perfectly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Learning from her children\u2019s failures\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wojcicki points to her children\u2019s experiences for inspiration about how to navigate failure, especially when making big mistakes in the public eye.<\/p>\n
Susan, an early Google employee, tried to launch an online video hosting service called Google Video in 2005.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me tell you, it was a colossal failure.\u201d Wojcicki said. \u201cSusan had to go before the board and say, \u2018You spent all this money, and it didn\u2019t work.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Susan came to Wojcicki for advice about how to tell the board about the failure and offered a potential solution by acquiring a small video platform.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018Well, if you found something that you think is going to make a bigger difference and going to fulfill your dream, go for it. Don\u2019t worry about telling them you made a mistake. Just do it,\u201d Wojcicki said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Susan\u2019s solution was acquiring YouTube, which Google bought in 2006 for $1.65 billion. Now, the video platform brings in more than $60 billion a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The same upbringing kicked in when her youngest daughter, Anne, faced a series of public setbacks. After her company 23andMe went public in 2021, the company struggled to turn a profit. In Sept. 2024, Anne tried to take the company private, and all independent members of her board resigned en masse. A month later, the company attempted to restructure, cutting 40% of its workforce. In March 2025, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and Anne resigned as CEO, but pledged to get the company back.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anne\u2019s tenacity was emblematic of Wojcicki\u2019s philosophy of failing fast and then revising, even if others don\u2019t believe in you.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s shocking, because every single lawyer that she had on her team, every single one said she was wasting her money. She\u2019ll never get the company back. Never.\u201d Wojcicki said . \u201cShe just plowed ahead anyway.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Three months after resigning, Anne\u2019s nonprofit TTAM Research Institute purchased 23andMe\u2019s assets for $305 million in July 2025, and the company is reinventing itself as a nonprofit medical research organization rather than a genetic testing kit company.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were all shocked. We were all grateful,\u201d Wojcicki said. \u201cNow she\u2019s using all that incredible DNA to find solutions to diseases and medications that we couldn\u2019t do before. And she\u2019s using it to make the world a better place for every single one of us. I\u2019m so proud of her. What can I say? What a deal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
#Esther #Wojcicki #mom #YouTube #23andMe #CEOs #shares #secret #raising #future #leaders<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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