Peanut Butter Principles: 47 Leadership Lessons Every Parent Should Teach Their Kids

June 16, 2014

"People who are the most successful in life, and I don't mean monetarily, are those who were raised in households that taught very clear principles (not to be confused with rules). These principles are carried with you through the rest of your life." That was how the show, Parent Choices is for Struggling Teens on LATALKRadio.com came to life with our special guest: Eric Franklin, a Business Coach and now the author of Peanut Butter Principles: 47 Leadership Lessons Every Parent Should Teach Their Kids. Having taken the life lessons he learned from his personal experiences in growing up and in his coaching business, Eric has adapted these lessons, or as he calls them character-based lessons, into his other passion� teaching kids (and parents). "These basic values are somewhat the same for those in business looking to move ahead," shared Eric.

Eric has broken the concepts in his book down into five categories, and from these the 47 principles fall into place. Starting with the first principle: Life is not fair, get over it, Eric feels that a lot of young people today feel a sense of entitlement, that life should be handed to them on a silver platter. But the fact of the matter is, you need to take life as it comes and deal with it. How you persevere in life is what matters the most. Another pearl of wisdom is: If you're not early, you're late, your timeliness shows your regard for the other person and if you are habitually late, you regard your own time over theirs.

Other pearls include:

Never be afraid to take on the tough jobs
Don't worry about what you don't know, worry about what you do know
You don't drown by staying in the water, you drown by staying there
Learn to follow, learn to serve, and learn to lead
A leader will have the answer before the question
A lesson learned will be repeated
And a particular favorite and a sign of our times: It's the stores job to sell you what you need, it's your job not to buy it!

As Eric explained, "nobody has it all together; we need each other."

These 47 life lessons, which originally started out as 35 and just kind of grew, are the basics of what he grew up with in his family and in his community. These basics still hold true today. In fact, Eric is working on developing a curriculum for several schools who are quite interested in the concepts of his book.

To listen to the full interview, go to Peanut Butter Principles on LATalkRadio.
Also available in Podcast

Lon Woodbury is the owner/founder of Woodbury Reports, Inc. and www.strugglingteens.com. He has worked with families and struggling teens since 1984 and is the host of Parent Choices for Struggling Teens and The Woodbury Reports.

Eric Franklin is the owner/CEO of several businesses and the author of "Peanut Butter Principles: 47 Leadership Lessons Every Parent Should Teach Their Kids", a guidebook for parents to help empower, inspire and instill good character

If you know somebody (including yourself) who would make a good guest on our show and might be interested, contact Lon at lonwoodbury@gmail.com or 208-267-5550

Attention:

The following books are available on Amazon.com:

Part 1 - The Introduction to the Parent Empowerment Handbook
Part 2 - Single Sex Schools
Part 3 - Wilderness Therapy and Outdoor Education
Part 4 - Pre-Teens & Young Adults