I was having a conversation with Dr. Kent Gustavson about marketing a service for grandparents to gift a “Grounded” online service to their grandchildren. It seems like an odd gift to give children, especially how most millennials today would respond to such a gift. The idea is that if there is a way to get to tomorrow’s leaders when they are young pre-teens, then it may be possible to encourage them to grow up grounded instead of having to overcome low “Grounded In” traits or eliminate high “Grounded By” traits later in life.
If there were a service that offered mobile access to ongoing tips, videos, and other “anchor management” tools, that would be a much greater positive impact on a young person as opposed to a new shirt or a cool toy.
I started thinking back to what my mom and dad did with my three children. Every Christmas and birthday since they were about eight years old,
they got tools from their grandparents. They would open a present, and it would be a hammer, another time, an adjustable wrench or a socket set. By the time they had graduated high school, each one had a toolbox full of all of the basic tools that you would need to have.
When they got them at the time, it was not especially appreciated. They would have preferred to have a cool toy at the time. My oldest is now 33 years old and I asked him today whether he still had all of those tools. His answer was, “Absolutely!”. He told me he uses them all the time, and they are the backbone of the tools he uses around the house.
The point being that any cool toy he got 20 years ago would be long broken, gone and forgotten. But the tools are long lasting. They are quality items. And they are important items for any young person to have as they start their adult life, regardless of where they live.
What tools are you passing on to your children, your grandchildren?
Whether it’s a hammer or the knowledge of how to properly plan in advance for an unknown disaster, there are long-lasting tools that could be your gift, even if the recipient does not appreciate them at the time …