Raising the children of the world’s entrepreneurs: from working with a chainsaw at the age of 7 to banning cell phones!

Raising the children of the world’s entrepreneurs: Tech execs are an interesting bunch. They’re hardworking, highly successful leaders who know how to shepherd an idea from concept to launch. They also need to be gifted communicators and motivators.

It’s qualities like these that seem like the kind many parents would want to foster in their children, though tech execs can also be extremely polarizing figures with their fair share of fans and critics.

Much is known about how they manage their companies, but for those with families, far less is known about their approach to the entirely different job of parenting.

So what parenting advice, including on hot-button topics like screen time rules for their kids, do tech execs promote?

We looked through past interviews to surface some of the most interesting pointers that they’ve given when it comes to parenting and setting children up for success in today’s world.

Stay with this part of celebrities from the series of entertainment in Eternal Pen magazine.

Raising the children of the world’s entrepreneurs

Here’s what some of the biggest names in tech have said about their approach to parenting:

Mark Zuckerberg

Raising the children of the world’s entrepreneurs: When asked earlier this year what kids should be studying today, Zuckerberg told Bloomberg “the most important thing is learning how to think critically and learning values when you’re young.”

“This is somewhat of a hiring philosophy that I have too,” he said. “If people have shown that they can go deep and do one thing really well, then they’ve probably gained experience in the art of learning something and taking it to an excellent level, which is generally pretty applicable to other things.”

In a 2019 interview on CBS This Morning, the Meta CEO said he and Chan “don’t give them everything.”

“They have chores, they have responsibilities,” Chan added. “We also take them to work. Mark and I take both of them to the office to see what we do, how we contribute.”

Raising the children of the world’s entrepreneurs: “I don’t generally want my kids to be sitting in front of a TV or a computer for a long period of time,” Zuckerberg told Fox News in 2019. At the time, he said he let his daughters use video calls to talk with relatives across the country but is stricter about other forms of screen time.

Bill Gates

Raising the children of the world’s entrepreneurs: Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates has said he parented his kids following a model developed in the 1970s called the “Love and Logic” approach.

The philosophy focuses on exercising control when it comes to emotions, such as by minimizing emotional reactions like shouting at or reprimanding one’s kids.

Gates, who for many years was the world’s richest man, has also said he tried to keep his kids from being spoiled.

“We want to strike a balance where they have the freedom to do anything, but not a lot of money showered on them so they could go out and do nothing,” he once said.

Raising the children of the world’s entrepreneurs: As far as screen time limits go, Gates forbade his kids from using phones at the dinner table, and didn’t give them phones to begin with until they were 14 years old.

Jeff Bezos

Raising the children of the world’s entrepreneurs: Bezos took an unusual approach to raising his four kids at times. He said in 2017 that he let his kids use “sharp knives” from the age of 4 and power tools at 7 or 8 years old.

The Amazon founder attributed this to his then-wife, MacKenzie Scott, who he said would “much rather have a kid with nine fingers than a resourceless kid.” Bezos added that this was “a fantastic attitude about life.”

Alexis Ohanian

Raising the children of the world’s entrepreneurs: Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian incorporated a fun practice from his upbringing into his approach to parenting.

“My favorite parenting tip that I inherited from him was his Sunday tradition of making breakfast for our family,” he said in 2020. “I love being able to make pancakes with my family when we’re all in the same place on a Sunday, and always do my best to put away outside distractions so we can be together.”

Ohanian told CNBC in 2018 that he and Williams want their daughter “to know what it’s like to have limits on tech.”

Raising the children of the world’s entrepreneurs: “My wife and I both want her to be bored,” he said. “I do look forward to playing video games with her when she’s older, but it’s really important that she gets time to just be with her thoughts and be with her blocks and be with her toys, so we’ll be regulating it pretty heavily.”