Welcome to the Daily Dad podcast where we provide one lesson every day to help you with your most important job being a dad.

These are lessons inspired by ancient philosophy, by practical wisdom, and insights from dads all over the world.

Thank you for listening, and we hope this helps.

Help them become who they are.

Bruce Springsteen has three children, Evan, Jessica, and Sam.

One of them is an Olympic-level equestrian,

which cannot have been a cheap or easy interest to encourage,

nor always a fun one to watch.

His son, Sam, recently, became a New Jersey firefighter,

a scary thought for any parent. Clearly, though,

Bruce and his wife, Patty, have figured out how to help their children become who they are

and to realize their potential. I wanted them to see people that did a lot of other things,

Bruce once said in an interview, be around people who would shape them and that they would

have a lot of options. Perhaps his inclination to encourage them to pursue their dreams comes from

his own experience. In his autobiography, Springsteen takes us back to when he was seven years old

and watched the controversial rock star Elvis Presley's appearance on the Ed

Sullivan show. When Elvis walked off the stage, he said, I sat there transfixed in front of the

television set, my mind on fire. I had the same two arms, two legs and two eyes. I looked hideous,

but I'd figure that part out. So what was I missing? The guitar. The next day I

convinced my mom to take me to Deals Music on South Street in Freehold. There with no money to spend,

we rented a guitar. Our job as parents, as fathers, is not to mold our children into our

successors or into superstars. It's to help them

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