Minting CEOs
Esther Wojcicki—whose daughters are the CEO of YouTube, co-founder of 23andme, and a professor of pediatrics—just wrote an essay for CNBC about how she raised her girls to be leaders. Her number one rule was “don’t do anything for your kids that they can do for themselves.”
As she put it, “When you trust kids to make their own decisions, they start to feel more engaged, confident and empowered. And once that happens, there’s no limit to what they can achieve.”
That’s not a child-rearing approach we see all the time, but Esther clearly knows what she’s doing. Maybe she’s not the only one. Perhaps there are more parents who think the hands-off approach is the way to go.
One of my colleagues shared that her father’s famous line was, “I’m not going to make your mistakes for you.” Both she and her sister grew up knowing they were responsible for their own success.
Hopefully, we’ll see many more women taking the reins at the companies they work for—or starting their own. I’m proud that at Marcum, many of our national and regional leaders are women, in a field where women are still greatly underrepresented in the top tiers. At our recent inaugural Leadership Summit Program, more than 55% of the class was comprised of team members from underrepresented groups. This initiative, designed to strengthen Marcum’s culture while helping to cultivate our next generation of leaders, is an exercise in empowerment and absolutely critical to the Firm’s future.
Ultimately, diverse leadership brings the diversity of thought that helps us serve our clients and community best. It keeps us from getting caught up in conference room echo chambers where we might miss opportunities for growth and making an impact.
That is especially important in an entrepreneurial organization like ours, where we serve entrepreneurs who are on the cutting edge of their fields. Self-reliance and taking ownership are part of our culture.
Fortunately, there are many outstanding team members at Marcum with the self-drive and determination necessary to play a leadership role. I hope they will keep their eyes on the prize and make the most of opportunities like our leadership program to raise their visibility and share their vision.
Speaking of leaders, today is Veteran’s Day, an occasion to honor the many service people who have selflessly served our country in the nation’s military. We often take for granted freedoms like the democratic elections that took place this week, but they’re the result of many sacrifices by those who have served in the armed forces. If you are among them, I’d like to thank you for your service. Marcum’s offices are closed today in tribute.
Next week is Marcum’s annual Partner Retreat. It’s that time of year when the entire Marcum partner group and leadership team take a few days away from the office, live and in-person, to put our heads together to lay out the strategy for the next 12 months. We have close to 600 people attending this year, a record number. If we are a bit slower than normal to reply to your emails, we thank you in advance for your understanding.
