How To Raise Successful People: Simple Lessons for Radical Results Hardcover – May 7, 2019

Amazing book with, a great message, and a stylish cover. I have read it before and it made a huge impact on me raising my kids

If any parent heard that a family (with a very humble beginning or not) was able to raise 3 out of 3 highly accomplished daughters, we'd all be looking for the opportunity to meet those parents and ask them how in the world did you do that. Not even a single loser or under-achiever? If Mrs. Wojcicki would have published a blank book after this, I'd purchase it. But she did not. She thoughtfully put her methods into an easy to remember acronym, and then laid out her methods in simple, easy to follow chapters.After an introduction written by her own daughters, she started from her own challenged upbringing to give the readers an understanding of where she came from and why she raised her children the way she did. Then in each chapter thereafter, she discussed how, in retrospect, research has validated her methods. She even compared her style that she advocates for against some popular recent parenting methods, including the "Tiger Mom" and makes the case for her style. I loved the book. I saw so many parallels to my life, my upbringing and my sincere and daily efforts in raising my own children. It validated some things I'm doing already, but it opened my eyes to many opportunities to foster independence, collaboration, and grown for my children. She was even candid to share her opinion about divorce, and the fact that her very own daughter divorced. She's sensible, reasonable, cautious when necessary and admits her mistakes and shortcoming.For me success is reaching what we define as our goals, and her book shows her tried and tested way of helping nurture her daughters and empower them to reach their goals. She never said they are titles or money, and people's goals may vary, but to be capable, to believe in yourself enough to attain your goals, and then to actually attain them, that's exactly what she helped her children achieve. Truly remarkable.

I recently finished reading How to Raise Successful People by Esther Wojcicki. It’s an engaging guide that centers on the TRICK framework—Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness—as key principles for raising confident, capable kids. The book provides compelling case studies from Wojcicki’s experience applying these methods with her daughters and her journalism students at Palo Alto High School's media arts program.While the framework is practical and insightful, the book’s lack of acknowledgment regarding socioeconomic privilege is disappointing. Palo Alto’s median household income in 2023 was $220,408—a significant factor linked to higher SAT scores and career success. The least expensive studio apartment for rent in Palo Alto is $2,500 / month (Zillow January 2025). In December 2024, the median home sold price in Palo Alto was $3,392,000, up 13.1% from the previous year.Wojcicki highlights students gaining admission to elite institutions like Harvard but omits the advantages these students likely had due to their affluent community and family backgrounds.Additionally, Wojcicki’s daughters—Janet, Susan, and Anne—grew up with considerable privilege. Their father chaired Stanford’s physics department, their mother (Esther) was a former model, successful writer, and entrepreneur in her own right, and they lived amidst Silicon Valley’s tech boom. While TRICK is undoubtedly a valuable parenting framework, it’s hard not to wonder if these successes would translate in less privileged settings like Sacramento, Cleveland, or Little Rock.Overall, this is a solid read, but its insights would feel more grounded with a nod to privilege. My two cents!

So glad to have read this book and highly recommend to parents everywhere. The TRICK method I was immediately able to implement on a daily basis. :) Thanks, Woj!

"How To Raise Successful People" offers a pragmatic approach to parenting, emphasizing the importance of fostering independence and resilience in children. The author integrates personal anecdotes with evidence-based strategies, providing readers with actionable insights. While some concepts might seem intuitive, the book reinforces them with real-world examples, making it a valuable read for parents and educators alike. It's a grounded guide for those aiming to nurture success from a young age.

Woj is clearly a California liberal, which is not intended as a slam but rather as co text to her opinions. She does at times come off in this books as self righteous, but the principles for creating GRIT, parenting and developing thoughtful and empowered children who are able to thrive independently and deal with life’s challenges is irrefutable from my perspective. I’m a hug fan of Angela Duckworth’s work on GRIT, which is referenced multiple times throughout the book and ultimately she does a great job calling out some of the common problems in the modern era of well intended parents who clear the path and spoon feed their kids everything to get into the right colleges, clubs, sports teams, etc. but are actually clipping the wings of independent spirit and empowerment.

Conventional wisdom without apology from an effective source

Some of the advice is good, but using her daughters as the definition of successful people is kind of a faulty premise. One of them is the Youtube CEO, and the algorithm and choices made are that company are questionable. Another of them is a medical professional with very odd beliefs. This is a book for making successful people in a purely secular manner.