Parental Guidance

Dont be surprised by the ratings of my blog. I dont intend to publish any material which is rated as PG. My point is something which is an eternal dillema for all fellow parents.
Other day i saw Little champs on zee marathi. These kids are phenomenonal. they sing excellent songs. Be it classical based, folk based, emotional, natya sangeet and what not. How can they perform without fear of established guests and jury, TV audience , popularity ? God knows. God only has created them.
But i would like to focus on thought process of their parents. They had supported the decision to devote sizable months in academic calendar of their children for music show. One would argue that what is compared to this level of publicity and break. One would also argue that they will also manage the academics. But to reach that level of greatness in non academic careers requires dedication and all out approach. There is a sizable risk. I have seen many music career pursuant who wanted to be renowned performers but ended up as also rans and some at best may have reached music training. I dont want to demean job of these foot soldiers but in india we do not have infra to make a decent living. so is sports field. not all reach levels of dhoni or tendulkar. I have seen great cricketing talents ending up taking sales jobs with private bank franchisees. Are the returns so great to justify this risk. But when they succeed they are one out of millions.This is on one side of the issue
On the other hand, i have seen some who were failure in academics, but still are managing international lifestyle thanks to IT revolution. they struggled initailly but after a first break, they were persistent to look that as investment and made career. Infact in my early entrepreuner stage i was in the business of giving such people first break. So is it a safe bet to let children focus on conventional academics. They live happily but just one of the millions.
To aim to be one out of millions or to aim to be just one of the millions. This is eternal parental dillema.
My take: Its very difficult at young age to know what one loves. So its duty of parents to expose the children to various things. its our duty to find something that he or she enjoys most. (this process can start at age of 5 and can go on till age of 8). Evaluate if he/she really has the required iota of skill combined with interest after a certain years of singular exposure say at 10. Then take a call. work out fallback options. and then let it go... get her/him a great dedicated guru (thats what makes difference)
Its not very simple, thats where destiny plays major role. But dont ever teach her /him to give up on anything.