3 Ways to Model the Grit of Entrepreneurship for Your Kids
Being an entrepreneur can be fulfilling and wildly challenging. My husband and I often joke that we’ve swapped a 40-hour week and the comfort of pension and benefits, for a 80-hour week filled with risks and unknowns. (I mean, who would choose that for themselves?!)
On top of being two entrepreneurs, we are also raising our two young children. We didn’t want parenthood to hold us back from pursuing our dreams. And we didn’t want the pursuit of those dreams to ever come at the expense of our children. Each day, we try to model what it looks like to pursue your biggest, boldest dreams without sacrificing what’s most important to your kids.
If you are an entrepreneur, here are three ways to model the grit, passion, and courage of entrepreneurship for your kids:
1. Demonstrate courage for your children
I am the founder of the Mind Rebel Academy, a coach training school accredited by the International Coaching Federation, and Shawn is the co-founder of Corfix, a startup company that specializes in software management for the construction industry.
Before that, I had been working in a safe, comfortable government job. For the majority of those years, I suppressed a heartfelt dream of becoming an entrepreneur and following my passion: coaching. I feared failure, going against the grain, and leaving the safety of a pension and benefits.
I knew entrepreneurship was meant for me, but I let fear hold me back, especially after having my children. I felt selfish for pursuing entrepreneurship because I felt like I could put my family in financial dire straits.
I entered my children’s rooms at night to watch them sleep in their cribs, tormented inside with tears streaming down my face, as they rested peacefully.
“Maybe my work is to raise brave children, so they can be the ones to follow their passions,” I remember thinking.
One day, after returning from maternity leave after the birth of my second child — I had a “line in the sand” moment while sitting in a conference room with six other brilliant colleagues discussing a project I can’t recall. Suddenly, it hit me. Everyone was passionate about our discussion except me. And my kids were at home with a nanny.
I decided to raise brave humans, I would have to show them what bravery looked like by example.
Within nine months of that line in the sand moment, I built my business to where I could transition to being a full-time professional coach, and I never looked back.
My kids were 1 and 2 when I made this transition. So I doubt they’ll ever remember anything other than Mommy courageously following her dreams. But the truth is, most days courage doesn’t look and feel so glamorous. Most days, making the courageous choice can be so subtle it’s missed. But it’s something we try and celebrate often in our home — in the big and the small moments.
It must be working because the other day, I was feeling anxious about a talk I was hired to do in front of a very large audience and shared my feelings of nervousness with my 7-year-old daughter. She looked me square in the eye, grabbed my cheeks, and with such confidence and conviction said, “Mom, you’ve got this. You’re the bravest woman I know.”
2. Show the value of teamwork and tradeoffs
The first years of building a business were demanding. At that time, Shawn was a construction worker in a fairly dangerous field, but we agreed I was going to follow my passion, as long as it was not at the expense of our kids.
Shawn took on the bulk of the household responsibilities with our children. When Covid hit, I had to choose: continue to build my business, which was still new but had promise, or give it up to stay home with our kids so Shawn could keep his construction job.
We took a leap of faith, and Shawn left his job to homeschool our kids while the schools were closed.
During this pivot he watched me sow the seeds of a dream into a thriving business in the midst of a pandemic.
He began to think, “If she can do it, so can I.” As a frontline construction worker, he has seen all sorts of inefficiencies on jobsites daily, mostly concerning documentation.
“The construction industry is still in the Dinosaur Age,” Shawn would say. During his time with the kids, he began working on software to help job sites manage their safety and compliance documentation. Fast-forward to today, he has more than 20 full-time employees and a product that’s sold nationwide.
When Shawn’s business started to blossom, it was his turn to ramp up, and it was my turn to shift more of my energy into our home and family. We’ve been able to do this because we share a common vision of our future. It’s not his vision against mine; it’s our joint vision that we are building. Our children are at the center — and they take priority.
3. Share your struggles
Modeling what it looks like to follow our entrepreneurial dreams while prioritizing family is important to us. Though our journey may sound glamorous, it hasn’t been. It has been challenging and emotional, and there have been times when we’ve both doubted whether we were capable of achieving our dream.
It’s important that our children see our struggle, not only the benefits. When we are overwhelmed or nervous about our businesses, we will share it with our kids, if they ask. It gives them an opportunity to see our human side and underscores that even Mom and Dad have those negative voices telling them they’re not good enough.
We model what it looks like to confront limiting beliefs in our minds in an empowered way so our children can access the deeper knowledge guiding our every step. (It also helps that I’ve created an entire coaching methodology about this called the Mind Rebel Method that works with children and adults!)
The other day I was putting together a presentation, and I shared with my daughter that I was distracted because I was feeling nervous. She said, “Mom, it’s okay to feel scared. Let’s take deep breaths so that you can get up there and share your voice.”
No matter how successful I am as an entrepreneur, it’s these moments that take my breath away.
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This expert produced this original thought leadership piece free of charge to SheVentures. This expert values educating female entrepreneurs and the SheVentures community. SheVentures is not receiving affiliate compensation from the author/expert. Questions? Contact social@sheventurespodcast.com.
