Tom Brady tells his kids to ‘fail’: ‘we’ve got to develop resiliency’

Tom Brady wants his kids to be prepared for real life and that means they will come to face failures.

“I don’t want it to go right for my kids all the time,” Brady, 45, said on Monday’s episode (January 24th, 2023) of the Let’s Go! Podcast, via Page Six. “I told them that this morning. I said, ‘I want you guys to fail because I want to see what you’re made of if you fail and when you fail.'”

He added, “Life isn’t going to be just a smooth ride. So, we’ve got to develop resiliency.”

The NFL star shares son Jack, 15, with ex-partner Bridget Moynahan and Vivian, 10, and Benjamin, 13, with ex-wife Gisele Bündchen.

“In life, you try a lot of things, and you fail. It’s part of life. We try things, we really push ourselves to try … something new, and it doesn’t go the way we want,” he said.

“So, what do you do? Do you care less? Do you care more? Or do you take that experience for what it was and you try to learn from it and grow from it and find the resilience we all want to teach our children?”

When asked Brady if he thinks his kids are afraid to fail, he said, “I think naturally it’s probably hard for everybody in our society to feel like you can fail or you can say the wrong thing,” he said. “There are heavy repercussions to even admitting you fail.”

He added that at the end of the day, life isn’t about winning a game or a Super Bowl: it’s about relationships.

“Life is a people business,” Brady said. “… My life is very rich because of the amazing people I’ve had in my life that have supported me to help me achieve my dreams in so many ways over and over and over again.”

He added, “Now I have these great children to learn from and try to just be a good parent and be present for them and be a good example and role model.”

Brady said that he tells his kids that they just have to do the best they can do.

“I don’t care whether you win or lose. Just do your best and you’ll be proud. We’re all cool with that if you did your best,” he said.

Brady and Bündchen, 42, share joint custody of their two kids after finalizing their divorce in October 2022, after 13 years of marriage.