How to Raise Successful People

In a world where parents hover anxiously over their children's every move and teachers struggle to engage students in increasingly rigid educational systems, Esther Wojcicki stands as a revolutionary figure who dared to trust young people with real responsibility. When she first handed over control of her high school journalism classroom to student editors in the 1980s, colleagues thought she had lost her mind. Yet decades later, her former students include YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki, and UCSF pediatrician Janet Wojcicki—three daughters who exemplify the power of her unconventional approach.

Wojcicki's journey from a struggling child of Russian Jewish immigrants to one of America's most celebrated educators reveals profound insights about human potential and the art of raising confident, capable individuals. Her story illuminates how a teacher who refused to follow traditional authoritarian models transformed thousands of students' lives, and how a mother who prioritized independence over protection raised three daughters who would reshape technology, healthcare, and media. Through her experiences, we discover the transformative power of trust, respect, independence, collaboration, and kindness—principles that can revolutionize both parenting and education in our rapidly changing world.

Esther Wojcicki's early years in a cramped tenement on New York's Lower East Side were marked by poverty, loss, and the rigid hierarchies of Orthodox Jewish tradition. Born to Russian Jewish immigrants who had fled pogroms with nothing but desperate hope, she learned early that survival often depended on thinking for oneself rather than blindly following authority. Her mother Rebecca spoke with an accent that blended Yiddish and Russian, while her father Philip had abandoned his artistic dreams to cut gravestones for a living, coming home each night consumed by frustration and financial anxiety.

The defining moment of her childhood came when her baby brother David, at just sixteen months old, accidentally ingested an entire bottle of aspirin. Following the nurse's advice to simply put him to bed and wait, her mother delayed seeking proper medical care. By the time they reached multiple hospitals—all of which initially turned them away due to lack of funds—it was too late. David died that night, a tragedy that would forever shape Wojcicki's distrust of blind obedience to authority figures. Soon after, when carbon monoxide from a faulty heater began poisoning the family, her mother again followed instructions to stay put while taking her brother outside. But young Esther's instincts screamed danger, and she refused to remain indoors—a decision that saved her life.

These traumatic experiences crystallized a fundamental truth that would guide her entire approach to life and later to parenting and teaching: blind obedience to authority could be deadly, while critical thinking and self-trust were essential for survival. In a household where boys were explicitly valued above girls, where her brother Lee received new clothes while she wore hand-me-downs, Wojcicki learned to rely on her own judgment and capabilities. Rather than breaking her spirit, this neglect inadvertently fostered the independence that would become her greatest strength.

The public library became her sanctuary, a place where she could escape the constraints of her Orthodox upbringing and explore different worlds through books. Reading not only expanded her horizons but also reinforced her belief in the power of learning and self-determination. When she won a full scholarship to UC Berkeley in 1959, boarding that Greyhound bus with her two suitcases represented more than just a journey to college—it was an escape from a world that would have confined her to traditional gender roles and limited expectations.

Her painful childhood taught her that respect for authority must be balanced with respect for one's own instincts and intelligence. This hard-earned wisdom would later revolutionize how she approached both teaching and parenting, leading her to create environments where young people could develop their own judgment rather than simply following orders. The girl who survived through stubborn independence would grow into a woman determined to nurture that same life-saving quality in others.

When Wojcicki first entered the classroom in the late 1960s, she was expected to maintain strict control over students who sat in silent rows, absorbing information through lectures and completing worksheets designed to keep them busy rather than engaged. The educational philosophy of the time demanded that teachers never smile until Christmas and view any student talking as a sign of poor classroom management. Within months, this approach had made her physically ill—stomach problems, constant colds, and the crushing realization that she was part of a system that treated young people as empty vessels rather than thinking human beings.

The turning point came when she made a radical decision that would define her teaching career: she would treat her students as collaborators rather than subordinates. When the principal threatened to fire her unless she maintained perfect silence and control, she conspired with her students to fool the administration while secretly creating a learning environment based on trust and mutual respect. This act of educational rebellion sparked a teaching philosophy that would eventually influence educators worldwide and earn her recognition as California Teacher of the Year.

Her journalism program became a laboratory for student empowerment, where teenagers weren't just learning about the media—they were creating real publications with genuine impact on their community. When she acquired seven Macintosh computers through a state grant in 1987, neither she nor her students knew how to use them. Rather than hiring experts or admitting defeat, they figured it out together, with students often teaching their teacher. This willingness to learn alongside her pupils became a hallmark of her approach, demonstrating that education works best when it's a collaborative journey of discovery.

The success of her methods became undeniable as her students began producing investigative journalism that sparked real change. When student Ben Hewlett exposed financial mismanagement by the school board in 1996, his investigation led to administrative resignations and policy reforms. These weren't exercises in a textbook—they were teenagers wielding the power of the press to hold authority accountable. Year after year, her students proved that young people could handle serious responsibilities when given the trust and support to succeed.

Perhaps most remarkably, Wojcicki discovered that giving students control didn't lead to chaos but to extraordinary dedication. During production weeks for their newspaper, teenagers would voluntarily stay until midnight, collaborating intensively to meet deadlines and achieve excellence. They developed their own peer mentoring systems, with advanced students teaching beginners not because they were required to, but because they understood their shared mission. In thirty-six years of publishing, her students never missed a single deadline—a testament to what becomes possible when young people own their work rather than simply completing assignments.

When Wojcicki held her first daughter Susan in that hospital room in 1968, she made a conscious decision that would shape her entire approach to motherhood: she would raise her children as the independent, empowered individuals she wished she had been allowed to become. Unlike the authoritarian parenting she had experienced, where children were expected to obey without question, she would trust her daughters' intelligence and capabilities from the very beginning. This meant speaking to them in complete sentences from infancy, treating their opinions as valid, and giving them real responsibilities long before most parents would consider their children ready.

Her unconventional methods often puzzled other parents and even drew criticism. When her daughters were ages five and four, she sent them alone to buy bread from the neighborhood store while living in Geneva—a decision that seemed reckless to some but perfectly logical to a mother who believed children should learn practical life skills early. She taught them to handle money, make purchasing decisions, and navigate their community independently. Rather than hovering anxiously over their every activity, she stepped back and allowed them to experience both success and failure, understanding that resilience could only develop through real-world challenges.

The TRICK philosophy—Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness—wasn't a theory Wojcicki developed in academic isolation but a practical framework that emerged from daily life with three very different daughters. She trusted their judgment about their own interests, even when Susan chose hot pink shag carpeting for her bedroom at age six. She respected their individual personalities, never trying to force them into identical molds despite the natural parental temptation to replicate success. She fostered their independence by teaching practical skills and allowing them to make increasingly important decisions about their own lives.

Collaboration meant family decisions were made together rather than dictated from above. When the family faced the physics tutoring crisis during high school, Wojcicki didn't simply impose a solution—she presented options and let her daughters choose the approach that worked best for them. This collaborative spirit extended to discipline as well, where consequences were discussed and understood rather than arbitrarily imposed. Even when they threw an unauthorized party while their parents were away, the focus was on learning from the mistake and rebuilding trust rather than on punishment alone.

Perhaps most importantly, Wojcicki modeled the kindness and service to others that she hoped to instill in her daughters. Her own activism—fighting for library access, building playgrounds, creating community resources—showed them that capable individuals have a responsibility to make the world better for everyone. The girls watched their mother tackle challenges with creativity and determination, learning that obstacles were problems to be solved rather than reasons to give up. This combination of high expectations and unwavering support created three young women who entered adulthood with both the confidence to take risks and the wisdom to consider the impact of their choices on others.

As Wojcicki's daughters rose to prominence in Silicon Valley and her journalism program gained national recognition, educators and policymakers around the world began taking notice of her revolutionary approach. Her methods weren't just producing successful students—they were demonstrating an entirely different way of thinking about human potential and learning. The mother who had trusted her four-year-old to wait for a marshmallow was now consulting with governments and organizations seeking to reform educational systems that had become increasingly rigid and test-focused.

Her influence spread far beyond Palo Alto High School through her work with Google Education, where she helped develop platforms that would bring collaborative learning to classrooms worldwide. The same principles that made her journalism program successful—trusting students with real responsibilities, encouraging peer-to-peer learning, and focusing on practical skills rather than abstract testing—began influencing educational technology and policy on a global scale. Teachers from Finland to Singapore started adapting her methods, discovering that students flourished when treated as partners in learning rather than passive recipients of information.

The transformation wasn't limited to privileged schools in wealthy communities. When Wojcicki began working with the Centro de Capacitación Integral in Monterrey, Mexico, she found that her TRICK philosophy was equally powerful with adults who had been failed by traditional educational systems. Built on a former dump site, this school was helping people escape extreme poverty by treating them with the same respect and trust that had transformed teenagers in Palo Alto. The results were remarkable: thousands of students gained not just job skills but the confidence and dignity that came from being valued as complete human beings.

Her consulting work with international education leaders revealed that the challenges she had identified in American schools were universal. Whether in Argentina, China, or India, young people were struggling with anxiety, depression, and disengagement because they were being treated as objects to be controlled rather than individuals to be empowered. The helicopter parenting that had become epidemic in the United States was spreading globally, creating generations of young people who were academically accomplished but emotionally fragile and lacking in practical life skills.

Through conferences, workshops, and her growing network of former students who had become leaders in their own fields, Wojcicki began articulating what she had learned through decades of teaching and parenting. Her message was both simple and radical: trust young people, respect their intelligence, give them independence within supportive structures, encourage collaboration rather than competition, and model kindness in all interactions. These weren't just educational techniques—they were principles for raising human beings who could thrive in an uncertain world while making it better for others.

At seventy-eight, Wojcicki continues teaching not because she needs to work, but because she has witnessed firsthand the transformative power of believing in young people's potential. Her legacy isn't measured only in the remarkable achievements of her daughters—though Susan's leadership of YouTube, Janet's pioneering work in pediatric health, and Anne's revolution in personal genomics certainly validate her approach. The true measure of her impact lies in the thousands of students who discovered their own voices and capabilities in her classroom, many of whom now lead organizations, create innovations, and raise families using the principles she taught them.

The ripple effects of her philosophy continue expanding as her former students become teachers, parents, and leaders themselves. They carry forward the understanding that trust and respect aren't soft concepts but practical tools for unlocking human potential. In boardrooms and classrooms, hospitals and technology companies, these individuals are creating environments where others can flourish because they experienced that kind of empowerment during their formative years. The journalism program that began with one teacher's rebellion against authoritarian education has become a model replicated in schools around the world.

Perhaps most significantly, Wojcicki's work challenges the fear-based thinking that dominates much of contemporary parenting and education. At a time when adults are increasingly anxious about children's safety, academic performance, and future prospects, her example demonstrates that young people are far more capable and resilient than we typically assume. Her students have tackled complex investigative stories, managed sophisticated publications, and made meaningful contributions to their community not despite their youth but because of the energy and idealism that comes with it.

The mother who once refused to hover anxiously over her daughters' every move has shown other parents that stepping back doesn't mean caring less—it means caring enough to help children develop their own judgment and capabilities. Her classroom, where teenagers run their own media empire with minimal adult intervention, proves that young people will rise to meet high expectations when given the trust and tools to succeed. The anxious perfectionism that characterizes so much of modern childhood is not only unnecessary but counterproductive.

As educational systems worldwide grapple with the need to prepare students for a rapidly changing world, Wojcicki's TRICK philosophy offers a roadmap based on fundamental human values rather than technological fixes or policy mandates. Trust, Respect, Independence, Collaboration, and Kindness aren't new concepts, but her systematic application of these principles has demonstrated their power to transform both individual lives and entire communities. In an age of artificial intelligence and global uncertainty, her work reminds us that the most important technology we possess is still the capacity to nurture human potential through understanding, patience, and unwavering belief in what people can accomplish when treated with dignity and respect.

Esther Wojcicki's remarkable journey from an oppressed child in poverty to an internationally recognized educator reveals a fundamental truth about human nature: people of all ages flourish when treated with trust, respect, and genuine care for their potential. Her life demonstrates that the conventional wisdom about authority, control, and protection often does more harm than good, while approaches based on collaboration and empowerment consistently produce extraordinary results. Through both her revolutionary teaching methods and her approach to raising three highly successful daughters, she has proven that young people are far more capable than most adults assume, and that our role should be to guide and support rather than direct and control.

The principles she embodied—trust in others' capabilities, respect for individual differences, encouragement of independence, commitment to collaboration, and practice of kindness—offer a practical framework for anyone seeking to nurture human potential in families, schools, or organizations. Her legacy suggests that the greatest gift we can give young people is not protection from failure or struggle, but the confidence to face challenges with integrity and the skills to solve problems creatively while considering their impact on others. For parents overwhelmed by modern anxiety about their children's futures, and for educators frustrated by systems that stifle rather than inspire learning, Wojcicki's example provides both hope and a proven path forward toward more humane and effective approaches to human development.