Christine and I haven't raised our children. A whole community of selfless Christians has contributed to helping them become faithful, competent adults.
Interpretation
The upbringing of children is a collective effort, relying on community support rather than just parental influence.
In this quote, Clayton Christensen emphasizes the significance of community involvement in raising children. He suggests that parenting is not solely the responsibility of individual parents, but rather a collaborative effort supported by selfless contributions from others, highlighting the importance of shared values and community in shaping well-rounded individuals.
In practice
In a speech at a parenting workshop to emphasize the importance of community support.
You can talk all you want about having a clear purpose and strategy for your life, but ultimately this means nothing if you are not investing the resources you have in a way that is consistent with your strategy. In the end, a strategy is nothing but good intentions unless it's effectively implemented.
...it's easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time.
Disruptive innovations create jobs, efficiency innovations destroy them.
Focus is scary—until you realize that it only means turning your back on markets you could never have anyway. Sharp focus on jobs that customers are trying to get done holds the promise of greatly improving the odds of success in new-product development.
Don't worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people.
Whenever we have thanked these men and women for what they have done for us, without exception they have expressed gratitude for having the chance to help - because they grew as they served.
Many things we need can wait. The child cannot. Now is the time his bones are formed, his mind developed. To him we cannot say tomorrow, his name is today.
What makes Mom the best is that she never put any expectations too high on the kids. She just wanted us to be doing the things that made us happy, as long as we were working hard, but we never had to live up to something.
There was one moment where they were riding their little ponies in Scotland, and Stella said to me: 'Dad! You're Paul McCartney, aren't you?' 'Yes darling, but I'm Daddy really'.
~My instinct is to protect my children from pain. But adversity is often the thing that gives us character and backbone. It's always been a struggle for me to back off and let my children go through difficult experiences.~
As a parent, you have to be good coach and bad coach, and I think in the college-application process, I didn't want to be bad coach. 'This is amazing! I'm so proud of you!' That's the role I wanted with my kids.
The idea of a family sitting round the kitchen table and carefully planning their future family size based on the certainty of years to come is a complete fantasy. Back in the real world, jobs are lost, livelihoods taken away, families break apart, partners leave or pass away.
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