One of the many pleasures of interviewing Inspiring Automotive Enthusiasts for Cars Yeah is learning more about people’s history. Pulling on some of the threads in their lives that created the cloth from which they are cut. For many there is a common theme in their past. It centers around a parental figure that they spent time with and it included contact with automobiles.
Childhood experiences are the tapestry of life.
Nicolas Hunziker remembers sitting in a car seat, equipped with a steering wheel, watching the tachometer on his dad’s Afla bounce about the gauge and being inspired by his great-grandfather’s colorful painting of a Bugatti. Rod Emory was learning mechanics from his father and his grandfather. Pete Bristow was tuning cars with his father when he was in the third grade. Henry Reisner began working in his father’s coach building business in Italy when he was 12 years old. I remember riding in an MGTC, watching the light shimmer off an engine turned dashboard. These inspiring stories of childhood memories go on and on and on. The unintended results are life lessons that transpire in to life skills that in turn create successful individuals.
Skills that become trades, businesses, and make dreams come true.
As a parent we want so much to build a future for our children yet it is rarely easy. Instead it is better to build your children for their future. Consistency, in life, in business, and in parenting is a key indicator of success. Consistently being there, as a parent, to teach, to share experiences, to build layer upon layer, creates successful adults. The guests on Cars Yeah are proving this through their stories. Weaving memories that unfold to become colorful lives takes patience and time.
It’s not fast. Nor Easy. Nor guaranteed. But it is worth doing.
What is your story about time you spent with a parent? How did it help form your success?
Photo credit: Thank you Cory Drake for your inspiring image.