What a bunch of baloney, what a completely irresponsible thing to tell a child

I agree. I have always thought that was stupid. I told my kids they should try, do everything in their power, to achieve what they wanted to do and be. Because they were very talented and smart, I knew they had a good chance of achieving what they wanted, but I never told them they were infinitely talented and infinitely capable. What a terrible thing to tell kids. Of course you want to encourage your kids to try things and to work at them. That grandmother's daughter should have told her kids, "If you want to do something, you will have to work at it for a long time; you will have to learn a thousand skills and practice them over an over, even if it's just balancing the books at mom and pop pharmacy. Here, start with memorizing the addition tables, then next week move on to the multiplication tables..."