Yes.
Let’s go back to the early 90s…
I was born into a wealthy family and we had rollerblades, the latest Nikes shipped in from the USA, holidays, private schooling, a massive house. You get the picture.
I thought I was the bees knees. I was the fastest runner, played piano, my dad was the PTA council leader, I was popular and voted school captain in grade six.
My privilege gave me some kind of magic confidence which oozed out of me and although I was kind and generous, I was also a competitive & dominant friend, and I hate to admit it - a bully.
My bullying was subversive in that I had the power to delegate who was in or out of our friendship group, and at times I would run circles around the boys and if they lashed out I was violent in my response.
In truth I looked down on disadvantaged peers. Quietly disgusted at their poor life, and glad it wasn’t me. I had no concept of money, just an extreme sense of entitlement and that I’d always have the best of everything.
My family fell from grace when my father & his business Macquarie Advisory Group, were involved in an insider trading scandal.
My father lost his fortune (already divided through divorce), then put the equivalent of half a six bedroom home in Ivanhoe - into the pokies. He then remarried and proceeded to drink himself to an assisted death. (That’s another story). So, at age 28, I was given an inheritance of $11,400AUD. I made my own special mistakes in my youth by becoming a single parent of two by the age of 24.
My adult life has been lived on the poverty line. My children are now 11 & 13 - we are either high rolling or completely broke. They understand what ‘not this week’ means. Their friends have nicer houses, overseas holidays, newer iPhones and oodles of pocket money for trips to the mall.
Despite their lack of wealth, my girls have insight, manners, creativity bursting at the seams and a dream to make a life better for themselves through hard work and persistence. They have lived a gypsy life at times, selling wares at the market, going on road trips to camp by the beach, trading with one another (Your Maltese’s for my Minties!)
My girls have humility - of course they have egos, everyone does, but they are not entitled little assholes who have never suffered a day and view life down a silver spoon. I am blessed to have lived a life from riches to rags, my mind is open despite the journey being tough at times.
If my children can turn their rags into riches, then they will have earned that big ego through the process, I will be proud either way.
