Lessons Learned From My Children, Part 1

POSTED IN Business Culture, Family Matters | TAGS : Business Culture, children, family, Lessons Learned
25.08.2009

Part 1, Lessons Learned From My Children
Author: Robert W Wells

Let me start by saying that I Love My Kids! My daughter is 2 1/2 and my son is 5 weeks young. Never in a hundred years did I think I would learn from them. My wife is a real blessing. I seriously don’t know how women can stay up all night feeding a baby and function at all the next day. I woke up three times during the night and slept about 3 hours total.

So, my story begins… this morning, as I walked up the stairs, peering through my slightly open eyes, I heard my daughter calling out from her crib, “dadddddy! Aria’s awake now! Daddddy!”. Obviously, she had a lot more sleep than me last night… ok, I confess, make that every night!

I picked her up out of her crib and she is more chipper than ever. She say’s “daddy, read book to Aria!”. At this point, I think I could possibly read a book (to myself) but not out loud. That’s waaay to much effort! I start reading to her and my eyes start to close. She proceeds to exclaim with authority, “daddy, open your eyes!” I open one eye and she says, “daddy, open BOTH eyes”, and she begins to peel open my other eye with her fingers. Her tenacity and passion is contagious so I start to wake up. My day as husband, father and business owner begins.

In the last 2 1/2 years as a father, I have learned some valuable lessons.

First, Passion and Excitement are Contagious! When my daughter gets excited about something, her passion for what she is doing is addictive & contagious. So contagious in fact, that even people around us who appear to be in sour moods, CHEER UP! Wow, I thought to myself… this is something I would love to bottle up and use in my businesses.

Now, Imagine bringing the Passion and Excitement of a child to the stakeholders and employees in your business. Try infusing Passion and Excitement into your meetings and conversations. Watch the dynamics of your culture change. Imagine the things you could accomplish!

Second, Diligence produces significant results. I have found the more time we spend with our kids, the more we mold and shape them. “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6) Don’t let society mold your kids, YOU mold them. Believe me, there have been plenty of times I had a meeting, a deadline or some other business activity that was urgent, but I made a conscience decision to prioritize my time for my children.

Here’s an example… My daughter loves to read, I mean she really loves to read. This love started very early. We rarely watch TV and are very selective of what our children watch. With that said, using books as our form of entertainment, we started teaching our daughter to read early. Now, at 2 1/2, she wants us to read her books all day long. We can tell that the books and our time with her have had a sizable impact on her intellectually. She can talk in sign language, uses reasoning to solve problems, counts to 20, says the whole alphabet, knows the days of the week and can string together full sentences and sing full songs… at 2 1/2 years young. Amazing! Of course, we didn’t make her into this superstar, God did!!! But, we have to take some credit. So, I am a firm believer that our Diligence & Time with her has produced significant results.

Now, Imagine pouring the same Diligence and Time into your business. Better yet, Imagine your employees pouring the same Diligence into your business. Spend some time putting together goals and objectives for your team. Have the team strive for specific goals. Tie a tangible reward to the accomplishment of these goals and watch your business change. Imagine the things you could accomplish!

To be continued in Part 2, Lessons Learned From My Children…