I teach my kids about business by telling them about my day-to-day activities. With some unintended consequences.
Kids can only learn from their parents what the parents know. Speaking for myself, my kids will never learn from me to sing opera, dance hip hop, or recite Goethe.
But my kids saw their dad building a business from a very young age, and they are learning from this experience every day.
I’ve spent the last years building Yonder, a B2B SaaS company, and my kids have been very close to my daily grind in building the company. Much so during COVID-19, when my youngest son spent countless days playing Legos in the background of my home office. But even more so after the lockdowns, as the children grew up and started to understand more and more about what I was doing.
With all the differences between my three kids, all of them have understood the core principles of how to do business. Here are some examples.
Earlier this year, I had to fly to Southeast Asia on short notice for an on-site RFP presentation with a major prospect. Southeast Asia doesn’t have the same public holidays as Europe, so the presentation was on Monday after Easter. I had to leave on the Saturday before Easter to make it to the presentation on time.
My 10-year-old son asked me if I couldn’t just say no to the proposed date for the presentation so that we could spend Easter together. I explained to him that the contract value of the deal was in the same order of magnitude as the purchase price of the house. He said, “Then maybe it’s not a good idea to say no.”
Exactly.
The weeks passed, and eventually, we were invited to commercial negotiations for that deal. Thankfully, they were held over Microsoft Teams, four rounds of negotiations within four days.
It was the week I was on vacation with my 12-year-old daughter. Every morning, I was jumping on a call with Southeast Asia. I don’t celebrate jumping on calls during vacation, but if there is no other way, then I do it. My co-founder was in the United States for yet another on-site RFP presentation that week, so there really wasn’t another way other than me doing the calls.
After all, due to the time difference between Switzerland and Southeast Asia, I was usually done at 10 am and we could still spend the day together.
A few weeks after the commercial negotiations, the letter of award came through. I came home cheerfully, telling my family that we won that large deal. My daughter immediately said, “So it was worth it to jump on a call every morning during the vacation.”
This girl is ready for life. Work comes first, then come the rewards.
Having an entrepreneurial dad goes beyond just discussing what dad does during the day, and what happens when you win or lose deals. Being an entrepreneur is a way of life, and it’s passed down to the next generation subconsciously.
Recently, I had an eye infection and used eye drops to soothe my eye. My 8-year-old son asked me about the price of a box of eye drops. Around 40 bucks, I answered. He asked how many doses there would be in the box. 20 doses. My son said, without a second of hesitation:
“That’s 2 bucks per dose. That’s a fair price for your eye to get better.”
Touché.
