How Bezos, Gates, and Zuckerberg Raise Their Children: How Billionaires Prepare Their Kids for Adulthood

Successful people strive to avoid situations where their children grow up with everything provided and are unprepared for adult life.

When it comes to billionaires and CEOs of world-class corporations, people are usually interested in how they reached the heights of success in business and their careers. Few pay attention to how they raise their children to ensure they can achieve success in the future. Business Insider analyzed interviews with several "sharks of business" and extracted some parenting tips for preparing children for success in the modern world.

Sam Altman

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (the one who created ChatGPT) admitted that the artificial intelligence developed by his company has helped him in raising his own child. According to Altman, he specifically asked ChatGPT why his child was not crawling at a certain age.

At the same time, the "father of ChatGPT" confessed that he does not want his child to perceive chatbots as friends in the future.

Mark Zuckerberg

When the founder of Meta was asked in 2024 what children should study today, he replied that the most important thing is to learn critical thinking from a young age and to adopt certain values.

In another interview, Zuckerberg admitted that he does not want his children to sit in front of the television or computer "for long periods of time." According to him, he allows his daughters to use video calls to communicate with relatives across the country, but strictly controls their screen time in other situations.

Bill Gates

Microsoft co-founder once stated that he raised his children according to a model developed in the 1970s called "Love and Logic." This philosophy involves controlling emotions, where parents minimize their negative emotional reactions to their children's bad behavior.

Gates also admitted that he made significant efforts to ensure that the family's wealth did not spoil his children.

"We want to find a balance where they have the freedom to do whatever they want, but they are not showered with large amounts of money so they can do nothing," he once said.

Gates also did not give his children phones until they turned 14, and then prohibited them from using phones at the dinner table.

Jeff Bezos

In 2017, Amazon founder shared that he allowed his children to use "sharp knives" from the age of 4, while power tools were permitted only from 7 or 8 years old.

At the same time, Bezos acknowledged that his wife was more willing to "have a child with nine fingers" than a child without basic life experience. Bezos considered this to be a "fantastic attitude towards life."