What Tom Brady told his kids after his Super Bowl loss holds an important lesson about how to raise kids
- Tom Brady used his Super Bowl loss a teachable moment for his kids.
- The NFL quarterback said failure was an important life lesson.
- Brady said hard work doesn't always mean success, and that's OK.
After the New England Patriots lost to The Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII, Tom Brady's kids were heartbroken.
"Benny was crying, Vivi was crying, and they were sad for me and sad for the Patriots," Brady said on an episode Tom Vs. Time, which Good Morning America aired in part.
But he looked to the loss as a teaching opportunity.
"But I just said to them, 'Look, this is a great lesson. We don't always win. We try our best and sometimes it doesn't go the way we want,'" he said.
Brady and supermodel wife Gisele Bundchen may have the right approach to parenting, according to psychologists and successful business people.
Teachers, for example, increasingly follow the advice of Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck who said that students need to have a "growth mindset," and use failure as springboard for growth.
And many hard-working entrepreneurs also believe failure begets success. "Shark Tank" investor Barbara Corcoran said she looks to invest in individuals who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds for that very reason.
"My bias toward the poor person coming up is they're usually hungrier. They're more injured. They have more to prove," Corcoran said on an episode of Business Insider's podcast, "Success! How I Did It. "So they've had a few bumpy endings and they're used to failure, and, my God, what's more important in building a business than failing?"
Losing at anything in life hurts. But the way parents deal with the aftermath of a failure can be a valuable teaching lesson for their kids.