To Be or Not To Be

Whether you want to believe it or not, your life choices are derived from the relationships you have or did not have with your first point of contact to this world – your parents. If you had parents that were not involved, you may repeat the pattern or strive not to be like them by being better. If they were involved, you may emulate some of their good choices, while eliminating the bad or fail because you could not live up to their standards or success.

Even your career path is predestined by the relationship you share (good or bad) with your parents. Don’t think so, let’s review some key points of career paths of our current President Bush and President-elect Obama.

Current President George W. Bush and his father, past President George H. W. Bush have walked almost the same exact career and educational path.
• Both attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts.
• Both served in the military. Papa Bush joined the US Navy. Baby Bush enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard.
• Both attended Yale University.
• Both in the oil business. Papa Bush started an oil company. Baby Bush worked in his family’s oil business.
• Both served as President. Big Bush served as the forty-first President of the United States. Baby Bush the forty-third and current President of the United States.

President-elect Barack Obama Jr. and his father, Barack Obama Sr. have a career and educational path that paralleled one another’s.
• Papa Obama received a scholarship in economics, leaving his home country of Kenya to attend the University of Hawaii. Following high school, Baby Obama moved to Los Angeles, where he studied at Occidental College for two years then transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he completed his degree.
• Upon completing his degree, Papa Obama traveled north to attend Harvard University. On the other hand, after completing his degree, Baby Obama moved to Chicago, where he was hired as director of the Developing Communities Project. Later, Baby Obama would enter Harvard Law School.
• After Harvard, Papa Obama returned to Kenya and was hired by an oil company and then served as an economist in the Ministry of Transportation and later named senior economist in the Kenyan Ministry of Finance. After Harvard, Baby Obama has worked as a community organizer, practiced as a civil rights attorney, served in the Illinois Senate, taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School and will soon led our great nation.

As you can see, there is a strong correlation between parental relationships and career paths. You have President Bush that had his father around and walked in his footsteps, although, current President Bush was not as accomplished as his father was. Then you have President-elect Obama whose father wasn’t around, yet he still followed a similar path as his father, having been an excellent student and careers serving the interest of our society’s economic development.

All relationships become a part of your experience. Most affecting you is the one you share or don’t share with your parents. Regardless, you can allow them to assist in your success or failure. The choice to be or not to be is yours.