💡 Parents need to be more open-minded🚶‍♀️ Kids need to be more independent

I was thrilled to speak at the JA University Admission & Interview Seminar last Saturday (Junior Achievement Hong Kong)

👩‍🎓 I got the chance to speak with many students and learnt that they all wanted to find their passion

Some told me candidly that they picked their university subjects because of their parents

👨‍🎓 And they found it hard to sustain doing things that they are uninterested

As parents, we always unintentionally force our dreams onto our kids

❌ But our kids might not enjoy it

I hope we could be more open minded in allowing our kids to explore their passion

📚 As the saying goes 行行出狀元 /There is talent in each industry

While as parents, we need to learn to be more open minded

On the other hand, as children, we need to learn to be more independent

⏰ During the sharing, a student asked

“How can we train our independent / critical thinking skills?”

✏️ When I interned at Deutsche Bank, I made the mistake of asking a lot of questions without critical thinking (Like many young adults)

Until my director told me

1) Nicole, why don’t you accumulate all the questions in one go and ask me instead of asking me randomly

2) Whenever you ask a question, you need to come up with at least 2 answers

🔑 Looking back, I finally understood him once I became a manager.

I actually wasted a lot of his time asking him questions back and forth when he had to focus on executing his FX trades.

📊 He had no obligation to teach me because as an intern, I was not helping him make sales or earn commission

As children, we need to rely on our parents less and start to be more independent and make our own decisions and be responsible for it.

I am working on both at the moment.

✨ For more career & personal growth tips, please visit my site at

I wrote a guide on:

📝 Fixing your CV & LinkedIn in 1 Day:

🔥 Negotiate for salary increase or promotion!

📊 Interview Preparation For Success:

📈 JUPAS University Interview Admission Tips

Recent Posts