Matt Higgins is an author, entrepreneur and "Shark Tank" investor, but the path he took to get there is different from what many might expect. The millionaire says he grew up poor and dropped out of high school, but his mom gave him the courage to take the kinds of risks that led to his success.
The lessons that she taught him also inspired the ideas behind his book, Burn the Boats: Toss Plan B Overboard and Unleash Your Full Potential.
In an article on Today.com, Matt wrote about how in spite of her writing skills, his mom got married instead of pursuing an education. Her father was abusive, so the "loveless marriage" was an escape that later led to divorce. She was a single mom who cleaned homes to earn money to support her family, but one day, she decided to go back to school.
She went to Queens College and got her bachelor's degree before pursuing two master's degrees.
When Matt was a kid, he sold flowers and scraped gum under tables, earning $3.75 an hour. They lived in poverty, and the money he earned "was never going to be enough."
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At age 13, he had an idea: He would do something similar to what his mom did and follow an untraditional path.
"What if I followed in my mother’s footsteps, dropped out of high school at 16, enrolled in college early, and got a much higher paying job? It was a loophole I planned to drive a truck through," he said.
Many people around him were not impressed by the idea.
He claims his science teacher said "see you at McDonalds" after learning about his plan, while his school counselor called it "absolute madness."
But his mom was supportive of him. She believed in him.
"Oh, I think it’s a clever idea," she said. "You can pull off anything."
"She gave me the confidence to believe my crazy plan was right for me, despite relentless lobbying from school officials, run-ins with the truancy police and getting left back two years in a row," Matt said.
He dropped out of high school at 16 and took the GED before enrolling in Queens College. He worked two jobs while pursuing his education, earning his BA and his degree from Fordham Law 11 years later.
By age 26, he was making enough money to help his mom, whose health had declined. He was making $100,000 a year and looked forward to getting his family out of poverty. But on the same day that he was so excited about this achievement, his mom died.
"My greatest professional triumph and my greatest failure collided within two hours of each other; I couldn’t save her. Some things you never get over," he wrote.
After years of therapy, the lessons his mother taught him became even more obvious.
"Parents are led to believe that we are being prudent when we tell our kids they need a backup plan. But what you are subconsciously conveying is you believe their failure is a probability. You’re saying there is a ceiling on your child’s potential," he wrote, adding that his mom didn't push him to "play it safe."
In the article, Matt shares some advice for parents. He believes that when a child has a plan that parents perceive as unrealistic, they should believe in their child.
"You trust that they will figure it out. And you arm them with the tools to rebound from failure and tactics to manage anxiety and risk," he said. "Your goal is to make them resilient — not reluctant."
He wrote about the time he went to his alma matter (and his mom's as well) to give a commencement address.
"As the Dean motioned for me to come forward to the podium, I wondered, 'Would Mom believe that her son with a GED is receiving an honorary PhD?'" he wrote. "Then I smiled. She never doubted it for a second."
